Sometimes, having fun hurts

Laos has been a blast, and we aren't done yet. The past 10 days have been filled with kayaking, tubing, hiking, and exploring caves. The scenery is pretty epic and there are lots of people our age to hang out with and make friends. We actually met some other people from USA, which is quite rare. I think tubing in Vang Vieng (pronounced Wang Weng, so I'm told, but that just makes me laugh) has to be my favorite thing, because I've never seen any setup quite like it. You rent a tube for like 5 bucks and they drive you and your tube upriver. All along the sides of the river, there are places you can stop to grab a drink or a bite to eat (read between the lines). Each place has a rope swing, zip line, giant slide or a very tall tower to jump off, and every single restaurant tries to out-do the previous places. So, the rope swings get bigger and the platforms get higher as you float down the river. It's a pretty fun place, but let's just say the safety standards may not be what my fellow Americans are used to. I saw numerous people let go of rope swings at the worst possible time, aka when they were returning to the platform and where the water was the most shallow. I also saw so many people have bad landings off a slide or a zip line, but everyone managed to survive. All around town I saw people on crutches, or people who had knees and ankles taped up. I can guarantee it was due to a tubing accident.

Hbf and I didn't walk away unscathed, either. He had a bad landing on a zip line (on purpose, or so he says..), and I landed sideways off a very high rope swing. At the time, it stung, but not enough for me to call it a day. However, the next day, the right side of my thigh was black and blue. Not pretty. You can watch our bad landings on our flickr website, and maybe even Hbf's blog. Don't worry, we're both ok. We both lost our sunglasses though.. And Hbf lost another pair the second time we did it. If you fall into the river once, say goodbye to anything not securely attached to your body.

We're in Luang Prabang now, and the bus ride here was brutal. Not for me, but for the grandma sitting in front who constantly threw up for the full 7 hours. And for the other people who just couldn't handle the very twisty road and puked every time we pulled over. I actually had an ok time, watching Law & Order on the iPod and reading my book.