Chiang Mai and Laos

The rest of our time in Chiang Mai was filled with climbing at Crazy Horse Buttress and a few rest day activities. When we weren't climbing we toured the mall, played mini-golf at a pretty interesting course, and played with elephants.  We made new friends and met up with old ones that are on the Asia climbing circuit.  In the beginning of February we took the craziest series of bus rides on this trip yet.  We took a minibus from Chiang Mai to the border of Laos, crossed the Mekong and took a "VIP" bus overnight on twisty, mountain "roads" that were so bumpy and curved that it was hard to stay in our seats without being tossed about.  We arrived in Luang Prabang, tired and battered and decided to just go all the way to Vang Vieng, which was our final planned destination.  So after over 30 hours on busses we made it and found a room for the first night, which we changed the next day to a bungalow across the river that was much quieter and closer to the climbing.  Vang Vieng is a backpacker, hippie little town that is on permanent Spring Break.  The main attraction is tubing down the Nam Song river.  You rent a tire tube and they drive you a few kilometers up the river and you walk about another km or so and there are dozens of bars with rope swings and slides and free shots of laolao and buckets and spray paint tattoos and mushroom shakes, it's complete debauchery.  People get really wasted and usually injured and make terrible life decisions, but they love it and most do it everyday or at least take a tuktuk up to the bars.  In the evening they are limping around town drunk/high and usually bleeding.  It is quite entertaining to watch.  We did partake in the tubing with a crew of friends that we have been hanging with, but thats not why we are here.  The rock climbing is pretty good and enough to keep us busy, but the scenery is outstanding.  It is so beautiful here, with mountains, rivers and rice fields and the pace of life is very relaxed.  There are tons of huge caves to explore, we went in one that you lay in a tube and wear a crappy headlamp and pull yourself through on the water with ropes, it was crazy.  Anyways we have great pictures, but the internet is super slow here and we'll have to post them in Thailand.  We are leaving soon and heading back to Ton Sai for a last hurrah on the beach before we start making our way back to the states.