Mountain biking and white water kayaking adventure

There are a few standard things that backpackers do while they visit Luang Prabang and one of them is the waterfalls. On our third night in Luang Prabang we were heading to dinner and got sidetracked by a waterfall tour so we figured why not, we might as well see what the rage is all about, right? When we got to dinner all of the tables were full at the restaurant but there was a couple sitting in the corner at a table for four and they asked us to join them. We ended up talking, eating, laughing, and drinking with them all night! They had signed up for a two-day mountain bike and white water kayak excursion that was leaving first thing the next morning… So in order to go we would have to bail on the waterfall trip – we decided it was worth it and checked out of our guest house the next morning to meet Calum and Abi for breakfast and head out for the next adventure!

This trek was a bit more of a challenge than our last one! The first day we cycled 45 kilometers out into the jungle along a river that led us to the village that we would be spending the night at. The mountain bike ride was by far the most challenging bike ride of our lives! We would have to stop in the shady spots along the way so we could grab a drink of water and take a breather – some of these hills were the steepest hills I have ever seen! At one point along the way we pulled over and tried to help some native hill tribe villagers attempt to repair a flat scooter tire – but we failed… When we finally made it to the village it was one of those feelings that was similar to finishing the slow boat ride - relief, pleasure and achievement.

That evening, after a long swim/shower in the river we all gathered around on the floor mats with the host family and enjoyed some quality home-cooked Thai food. We have a very interesting/hilarious story at this point but I am not sure I can do justice without telling it in person but I will give it a try. So we were all sitting around in a circle with about 3-4 buffet style dishes in the middle and then we each had our own bowl of vegetable soup and when they started passing the sticky rice around to Abi grabbed the bucket and scooped a handful out… before taking the time to see what the host family was doing with the rice we each threw our handful into our bowl of vegetable soup… well apparently that wasn’t right – the mom started giggling and slowly it turned into an all out laugh among the whole family because in Asia you are supposed to hold your sticky rice in your hand while you eat dinner! Haha… So while our rice is floating in our soup they are taking the time to make little balls with theirs and then use their fingers to grab pieces of fish or chicken out of the buffet dishes in the center of the circle. We were EXTREMELY embarrassed at this point and tried to explain to them that we just didn’t know what we were supposed to do.

The next morning we got into some kayaks down on the river and paddled our way through a series of good size rapids! It was a blast - Lindsay and I fell out at one point and Calum and Abi fell out just a little further down river but it wasn’t the fiercest river I had ever seen and we were wearing helmets so everybody survived without a bruise!

We were extremely busy and wet with sweat or water the entire trip so we never had a camera available and therefore don’t really have any many photos to share – sorry!