July 29,

I did not get up until 0800, but I could not get to sleep last night until around midnight. We made our Javas and went to breakfast with them. We both had an omelet with tomato and green bell pepper, and a piece of toast. I had a small bit of veggie noodles, and we shared a fruit plate. Also we both had a Tang-type juice. We did not see any paramotorists or hot air balloons – they seem to only go up at sunrise and sunset. It was not raining but it was very overcast at the horizon over the ring of mountains encircling us. Directly overhead there were bits of blue patches of the sky showing through the clouds. When we finished we went for a walkabout. But our first stop was the bank. I explained about my card being “eaten” by the ATM. I showed my Drivers Licence and Passport. The lady teller took pictures of both and she  spoke with someone. We were told to take a seat after a guy looked through a stack of cards, and did not pull out mine. So we sat as this guy and a security guard got into a truck and left. In about 15 minutes… he returned and handed me my card. Yahoo!!! It was a welcomed sight and a huge weight off of Jeff’s shoulders. We thanked them all and left, relieved and elated! 

We walked by a Wat, but we were not dressed to go in. I just took a picture of the Buddha statue. We did a night walkabout around 2100 last night. I took a picture of it last night – it looked very different each time of day. We next made it to the Riverview Hotel and noted the Nam Song River to be down just a bit… at least the walkway to the hotel was totally visible and passable. The river still seems very full and swift flowing. The only reference we have though is from the banks of the river bed and landmarks such as this crazy hotel. We went to another big Buddha statue at a Wat we can see from our hotel, taking quick pics only. Lastly, we went to the two Mini Big C stores. But both stores had outdated bread so we just went back to our place… as it had started spitting on us. We booked and paid for a van for us for Friday- for when we leave Vang Vieng at our hotel desk. Then we hung out in our room until we were ready for lunch. 

Around “oneish,” we went out. The sunshine was brilliant!! There was lots of blue sky as well! It was lovely! We went to a Beef Pho place, called Hansikdang Korean Restaurant. Jeff ordered the Pho, but I went with a chicken fried rice with an egg. My stomach has been a little topsy turvy since Sunday… so just taking it easy. Both dishes were okay, large portions, and cheap. Jeff had a BeerLao and I had a Somersby. The bill was 225,000 LAK, which was $10.43. This morning we had been talking about if there was anything else we wanted to do here in the ‘Adventure Capital of Laos.’ I mentioned to Jeff if he wanted to do a paramotor, he could – I was not interested. During lunch he decided that he would do it! So after lunch we stopped at a couple of tour places. He booked one for himself for tonight! We went back to our place, cooled off and relaxed. Around four we went to the post office… our package was shipped to Vientiane! Really!?! We’ll be there Friday. Probably will not see them again!😢😞 We went back to our place for Jeff’s pickup at 1630, hanging out in the lobby. A guy showed up in a few minutes, ”Paramotor?” Jeff got up and loaded into the covered bed of a rideshare truck and was whisked away… following is of Jeff writing of his adventure.

I was the only one he picked up on the way to the launch site.  We turned into a very busy and pot-holed parking area and drove right through it around a big open sided building that was the local wet market. We drove on through big areas of water until we went past the market to a little hangar building. Inside was a paramotor and a spot to park our van as well as some small chairs to wait in.  Three guys were already waiting here.  Two minutes later a paramotor came in for a landing. Very nicely done! A minute later another one came into land. Even did a better job of landing and did an excellent job of dumping his chute onto a tarp on the ground. The three guys were waiting for the two women on the landing paramotors. So it’s already my turn. They had me get on a scale and wrote down my weight, then I filled out the liability waiver with my name, nationality, age and signature.

Then we walked out on the wet and muddy field to ‘my’ paramotor. They had given me a small jacket to put on and a helmet with built in noise dampening ear muffs. They strapped me in on the seat in front of the pilot. A strap over each shoulder with a chest strap, a lap belt, and one over each thigh – also had a clip to attach to my phone case. And…  off we went. We headed across the field getting some muddy water splashed on my legs. We took off pretty quickly and slowly curved east and north back wide of the town. He never really flew over the built up area except when we crossed over the north side to fly to the river. When we turned south over the river I could see it was raining where we had taken off. I had a great closeup view of the mountains west of town and a nice view of another valley. I heard him throttle down the engine and turn to the west. I assume he was trying to wait for the rain to leave the landing area. When we turned to head back along the river I saw one of the ‘blue lagoons’ famous in this area. Also spotted a rainbow in the rain leaving the landing area. So beautiful! We started to turn to head back to land and I got hit by a few raindrops, but not enough to even complain about. 

Very nice smooth landing (better than some commercial flights I’ve been on)… didn’t even get splashed from the wet/muddy field. It was a 15 minute flight. They unstrapped me and led me back to the van. Hopped into the van, he took off, got to the street and turned around and went back to the hanger. Somebody had left or forgot something.  He dropped it off at the balloon launching area near our hotel and then dropped me off. The whole excursion only took 45 minutes from pickup to drop-off… very efficient operation.

When Jeff came back to me he was beaming!😁😃 Priceless! I could tell, without words, he’d enjoyed it!! We went and got ice, then back to our room. We had a celebration with a huge cinnamon roll and rum. Then watched a movie. Awesome day!!!