Christmas in Vang Vieng

Woke up to find that P had brought along a special Christmas treat  – a chocolate reindeer friend!  He had managed to survive the journey in her backpack, still intact.  




After breakfast we set off on a hike to Phu Kham cave.  The scenery was really impressive but the sun got hotter ... and hotter... and I was glad to arrive at the Blue Lagoon. Everyone was having a great time swinging on ropes and jumping into the refreshing water.  

As you know, donkeys are pretty nimble on their feet so climbing up the mountainside wasn’t a problem for me.  But spelunking (that’s just a fancy word for exploring caves) is not my forte.  We donkeys like to be able to see the sunlight and aren’t so keen on crawling around in confined spaces.  But I was really glad that I did go in.  The rock formations inside were impressive and best of all I got to see the reclining Buddha.  

 

Back down at the pool it was time to chill out and have a picnic.  




 





We then hitched a ride back to the guesthouse with a local farmer on this tractor. (Yeah, okay, so tractors can be useful when a donkey has had an exhausting day in the hot sun).

Nose to the north

Heading northwards now, the bus was full and the conductor had to clamber over passengers sitting on sacks and bags in the aisle.  

At first we passed through flat countryside with rice paddy fields but soon we started to climb into the mountains, passing little huts on stilts as we zigzagged higher and higher.  

Finally we descended to reach the town of Vieng Vang with its surrounding karst formations.

Although I’m having a really grand time on this trip I’m a little disappointed that I still haven’t met a single donkey on our travels.  Perhaps one reason is the presence of the ubiquitous Laos tractors.  The locals manage to modify them in ingenious ways to perform many of the tasks that we donkeys would tackle in other countries. But, hey, they're not as good looking and clever as we are!