We hadn't booked a hostel so had to choose one in the sweltering heat. I'm pretty sure the only reason we chose the one we did was because it was showing reruns of friends in its restaurant. But the room was nice and not too pricey and there was aircon. We've discovered aircon is an important feature. So we dumped our bags and decided to make the most of the afternoon (it was only 2.30 at this point) by hiring mountain bikes to see some caves. We chose two bikes and set off through town to a bridge that you had to pay to cross. That didn't bother us but the road beyond the bridge was vile. It was more of a track than a road so we took it steady, bumping up and down constantly. I discovered that when on these kinds of roads one grips their handle bars very tightly which becomes rather uncomfortable quite quickly, especially when your hands are sweating profusely. We also discovered on the way back that this track was uphill which would explain the breathlessness and insane sweating that occurred.
We'd probably got about a kilometre down the road and up a small hill before Matt was off and walking with his bike. I thought he was just struggling up the hill (and secretly felt proud as I'd made it up without stopping) but his bike wasn't working. It was like the chain wasn't attached to the back wheel properly. We tried moving the chain (which meant we both had black hands) several times and even stopped some passing tourists to see if they could help. My arms were dripping with sweat at this point and I'd managed to get oil and dust all over me (pretty sure I've ruined my t-shirt). We thought it unwise to go on but there was a cave a kilometre from us so we planned to push our bikes to it. Most of it was downhill so we sailed along on bikes and discovered that occasionally Matt's would work. This meant we got there in no time and parked up before following two little tour guides to a cave. I think they were two brothers of about 9 and 13 who took us and two other guys from Laos up and up and up. We were basically climbing a rock face which had various ladders made of sticks of wood positioned to help us. We were both past it by this point and constantly ranted about the whole afternoon for the entire climb. None of the others spoke much English so it was fine. It was almost comical. Finally, after what felt like an age, we reached the mouth of this small cave. Having been to Tham Kong Lo we weren't that impressed but all we could do was laugh at how sweaty and disgusting we were. The sign for the cave had said 'swimming cave' but there was no water. We should have realised as it was so high up that there would be no water. I was dreaming of a cold shower. However, the older tour guide showed us round the cave before signing swimming and pointing down. There was another cave for swimming. I felt like leaping with joy.
Back down at the bottom (climbing down proved a little tricky) we walked another hundred metres through some wild grassy area to the best cave ever. You left your shoes at the entrance and climbed down another ladder onto a bamboo platform. It was so dark that our head torches were needed but the two kids positioned theirs on some rocks and then just jumped. It was like paradise. This amazingly fresh pool of water lay there, ready to be jumped into. At first I worried for the boys as some of the rocks were sharp but they obviously knew what they were doing. I chose to lay on a rock and submerge myself in water whereas Matt joined in with the boys and kept jumping in. I should probably add that I didn't bother taking my clothes off. It was a wise choice as I was kept cool for the journey back to town. When we were out the guides asked for payment. We knew this would happen so asked how much. They kindly said we should decide. I know all the books say you shouldn't give children money but they'd done honest work and been so helpful so we gave them 20,000 kip to share (about £1.60). I think it might have been a lot as they were super happy for the whole walk back to our bikes but it was nothing to us really. I hope they attend school though.
We slowly cycled back (walking up hills as that seemed to be when Matt's bike broke the most) but made it to the bike shop for around half 6. We desperately needed to shower, even after the swimming cave, and so didn't start looking for food until nearly 8. I felt so clean though, I just kept smelling my arms and smiling to myself. I'm turning super weird. We found food quite quickly, settling for more barbecue food; it seems to be quite popular in Laos. We chose pork and chicken to share and got some sticky rice each. I'm not a huge fan of the sticky rice. It's a bit too chewy. But we were given a plate of some sort of leaves (no idea what kind of leaves they were) and cabbage leaves with cucumber and cold noodles to wrap together with the meat. We then dipped it all in a spicy hoisin style sauce. It was very nice but the chicken was a little dry, the pork was pretty much crackling and fat rather than meat and the sauce got a bit too much after a while. I might have a curry tomorrow night instead.
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