July 31,

I awoke at 0640 and Jeff was awake and said he had been since 0100!!🤯  Ouch!! We got about showering. The drain has issues if we don’t remove the cover to it… we have flooding. There’s always something! Between the flooding and “Toilet Vesuvius” – it’s getting a bit on our nerves, but oh that drenching spray from the shower… it is still weighing on the better side.😂 Anyway we had our Javas and went to breakfast. We both had an omelet, juice and fruit. We skipped the toast this morning. But I still had a few veggie noodles.

When we finished we looked out from the open part of the rooftop to check out the weather. There were still low hanging clouds, but directly overhead there were patches of blue sky. Okie Dokie! We had talked about renting a scooter for the day and toddling about, and it looked to be a good idea. So we changed into long pants, went down to our hotel lobby, and did the rental with them. We were given a TVS Dazz – an Indian manufacturer. It’s a tiny 110cc scooter, and has seen better days! But it started up and away we went.

Our first stop was gas – as always the scooter is on empty! We pulled in and Jeff had them do 50,000 LAK worth which was just over 2 liters. (This equates gas prices to be $4.16/gallon here in Laos. I don’t always put that but some of you ask.) Anyway, Jeff paid and noticed the gas cap hasn’t any rubber seal to it. Huh! We loaded up and started out. The gas gauge did not change and the mileage has not changed… neither is working. Huh! Well, we’ll see how this plays out!! The scooter rental cost us 100,000 LAK or $4.63 for the day use – we have to return it tonight.

We set out to our first place. It was just nice to be out exploring and seeing “new” countryside. The roads have some good places and then some really bad places, causing bottlenecks at times. As we were coming to our first destination we saw a number of people walking. People walking on the road… reminded us of Madagascar, as well as the road situation. The roads are in better shape, somewhat, than Madagascar. We attribute the people walking and road conditions to the poorness of the country… maybe? Anyway, the last stretch of road to our destination was very nice, very new. Somewhere here we had issues with our scooter killing out on us a few times, but it would start back up. Huh? We came to a tape across the road, barring entry. What? We were so close – then we saw people paying?? So we paid 20,000 Kip each (93 cents) to pass, I thought. We pulled into Kaeng Yui Waterfall. A lady took our tickets. So that was our entry fee. We parked and Jeff put plastic over the gas tank opening and replaced the lid… BTW, we had no more issues with the scooter dying. The whole entry area was very immaculate and decorated. We saw a sign: “Official Handover Ceremony,” basically the waterfall access, the road leading here, and the bridge were improved. Today was the opening day! Cool!!

We set out and did the easy, stepped, walking path to the waterfall. It was two very powerful displays of water crashing down! There was a bunch of mist in the air. It was awesome and we got so very wet! We cooled off, though, and did our pictures. It was totally worth the admission of a dollar each! We trekked back out, seeing butterflies, dragonflies and regular flies, which were huge. We loaded up and noticed a few walkers we had seen earlier arrived.

Now we went to our next destination, Poukham Cave at Blue Lagoon #1. There are several “Blue Lagoon” places – they are numbered, not individually named. Anyway, we parked, but did not have to pay. Then we came to the ticket booth – here we paid our entry fee of 20,000 Kip/person, or basically one dollar each. We walked through a “resort-like” area. This was actually the “Blue Lagoon” part, but it was decidedly not blue at all. Maybe due to the rainy season? No one was in the water. Some people were at the shops getting drinks or food. There was a sign speaking of needing a flashlight and/or guide. We rented a headlamp.

We moved on following a trail. We turned a corner and the trail turned into much more rugged terrain upwards. The “steps” were varied, but mostly steep. Some steps were crude ones made of concrete, but most were just rocks or the earth mingled with roots. There were bamboo handrails, usually, or handholds in the boulders to scramble up. It was challenging but doable. We arrived at the cave opening. It was indeed dark! The headlamp we rented was handy. The “path” inside was well-worn, but rugged as well, and it was also wet. The water was pooled in some spots, and was slippery in others, but again doable. We followed the spray painted arrows, meeting a few people coming out. We just took our time. We descended some into a big cavernous opening. There was a Buddha shrine set up there. It was life-sized but was dwarfed inside the cavity we were in! There were two openings that light shown in from – just enough that you got a feel of the scale. We saw a small group coming out of another section, and you could see needing a guide if you went further in. We decided this was good enough for us, more than a dollar’s worth. After we saw all we wanted we reversed and left. We again took our time. What an adventure this turned into.

As we were leaving we almost bought a shake, but decided to just go back. I did take a picture of one of these stalls because they have various “things” to eat… grubs, frogs, insects, and maybe a squirrel(?) No thank you! We arrived back to our scooter, loaded up and moved on.

We attempted another “Blue Lagoon,” but it was in a private area. We think this was the one Jeff saw when he Para motored. It looked beautiful from his bird’s eye view… too bad we couldn’t get to it. We now went back to our place and in our room split a PB, honey and cinnamon sandwich; and some pickled mango. We cooled off and showered. What fun and a workout to boot!

We watched our hot air balloon display and then decided to go to Gary’s Irish Pub for take away. They had Cottage Pie… their version of a Shepherds Pie. We ordered one, realizing we missed this comfort food. We had that yummy goodness with a nice red wine and called it a great day!