What to do in Vang Vieng in a day? Well, there are many options. Though we didn’t want to spend too much money and I still wanted to be able to skype call my family in the afternoon. Two activities attracted our fancy: Kayaking and zip-lining. Doing both would need the whole day so we needed a decision which one it was going to be.

We’d been kayaking in Krabi already so zip-lining won. Unfortunately, a pure zip-lining trip was unavailable so we booked the half-day zip-lining and tubing-in-a-cave tour. Booking through our hostel had some advantages. First, we were picked up at 9am from our doorstep. Second, it turned out that our tour had exactly two participants, Flo and me. This fact resulted in a kind of VIP treatment that was quite nice for a change.

Being picked up in a mini-bus, we drove two streets over to change into an SUV which then, in turn, drove us the 15km out to where all the outdoor activities are happening. The ride was slightly wet, as the car had been cleaned while the windows were open, and quite bumpy. So, at least I was happy when we arrived at the destination. The place was packed with tourists and kayaks and all sorts of other things. Most groups varied between 10 to 15 people, all of them wearing life jackets. We were told to follow on of these groups through rice fields and a local village until we arrived at the starting point for zip-lining and cave-tubing.

Here, our tiny group size really paid off. Flo and I were equipped in record time, put into harnesses, helmets and a single glove and off we went into the jungle. Climbing rocks and ladders, I was glad that we decided to wear sturdy boots. A fall would have been not so good. Then, we were on the first platform and I realized that my vertigo wasn’t much of a problem at all. On the platform itself, you cannot look straight down and while you are on the line, you simply look around and ahead, not so much down.

One guide would zip ahead, then it was my turn before Flo’s and our second guide’s. Thus, we zipped through without having to wait on any platform as it seemed we were the only ones for now. It was actually much fun. 🙂

Finishing about ten lines, we were back on ground level. Instead of having a breather, we were ushered to change into swim gear, skipped the queue and were put onto cave-tubing. Each of us got a truck’s inner tube to lie on, a head lamp to see in the dark and again, we were told to follow the last group. No, we didn’t get life jackets even if EVERYONE around us was wearing one. The water was freezing cold as the day was overcast and the cave was really, really dark.

There were ropes leading in so we used these to pull ourselves along through the darkness. It took a while to catch up to the last group that headed in. In the end, I even fell in as I stretched to grab the rope which eluded me. Luckily, I can swim so not being able to stand wasn’t an issue. Cold water though is. 🙂 Water and darkness are two of the reasons why there are no pictures of the cave-tubing at all. I left my camera in the dry safety of the backpack in a locker in the village.

While heading head-first into the cave, someone yelled Flo’s name which made both of us turn around in surprise. Peter and Josy, the two German traveler’s we met in Georgetown/Malaysia (http://fuckitwereleaving.wordpress.com) were waving at us. So once we were safely back out of the cave, we waited for them. Only a brief conversation was possible before they had to go kayaking and we were carried away on ojeks (at least that’s what Indonesians call local scooters with a local driver as a means of transport). We gave them our hostel’s name and asked if they would like to drop by after kayaking as we would be “home” in the afternoon.

Then, I hopped on “my” ojek which turned out to be the racing type and was off. The driver obviously felt comfortable either with my skills as a pillion or his skills as a driver as he took the local way out. Up a ridge we went, through rice fields over wooden plank bridges and in the end, I had to wait for about 5min for Flo to catch up. He appeared walking over a bridge that my driver just had ridden over. As soon as we were reunited, we were ushered back into the SUV and driven back to Pan’s place in time for lunch.

This much activity in the morning called for a relaxed afternoon. Desktop dungeon was a lovely way to pass time until Josy and Peter knocked on the door for our dinner date.