The Blue Lagoon and Phu Kham Cave

One of the days in Vang Vieng, the German, the Kiwi and I decided to search for The Blue Lagoon. We hired motorbikes and went on our way (this was my second time riding a motorcycle and this time, I almost fell off a bridge into a river. I'll get to that later.) The bike shop gave us a hand drawn map that was not drawn to scale. Our first destination was not the Blue Lagoon, but after attempting to go to another cave and bumping into random tolls on dirt roads that didn't seem legit, we decided to seek out The Blue Lagoon.

Tim and I on the bridge, I don't know why we both look so pasty

The ride was amazing. We rode through farmlands, fields of rice patties, mountains, rivers, Lao kids chasing after us, we even saw hot air balloons hovering above us. We were on a dirt road for the whole ride, but despite bumpiness, the views made it worthwhile. When we were lost and checking out the map, a Lao man with really good English starting talking to us. He told us that there were two Blue Lagoons, and one of them was a tourist trap and that it's not that blue. So fellow backpackers, you will reach a fork in the road and there will be a sign to turn right to go to the "Blue Lagoon" but apparently that one is the tourist trap where some people looking for money set up the sign leading tourists to some other water area where they can sell overpriced beer. At least that's what I was told. So do not turn right, go straight when you see that sign in the fork in the road. After about 7km we reached The Blue Lagoon! Make sure you bring some cash because you'll have to pay to enter the area, as well as pay to enter the Phy Kham Cave which is a little beyond the Blue Lagoon.

Those wire cords probably saved my life

The Blue Lagoon is SO BLUE! The water in the stream comes from the mountains, and the water is so clear you could see all the way down to the deep bottom, and all the little fish that swim around your legs. There is a large tree with a rope that you can swing off of, or if you're more daring, you can jump off the tree itself.

Phu Kham Cave is a bit of a trek, so be prepared. To get to the cave itself we had to climb about 100m up the side of a mountain. It's a little steep in some areas and there was a makeshift bamboo ladder that was pretty sketchy. We entered the cave and all the sunlight shining into the cave shone on the reclining Buddha that rests in the center, it was stunning. Luckily, one of us brought a flashlight because besides the sunlight, which was going down, there was no other light in the cave. We explored around the cave a bit, but with one flashlight it was a little hard for all three of us to see. You can hire a tour guide or flashlights outside the cave for a fee, which may be beneficial. Apparently, you can go deep inside the cave into different chambers, but it's easy to get lost so it's be important to have a local guide is you want to go deeper inside.

After sweating so much from climbing to and from the cave, the Blue Lagoon was a nice place to relax and jump into the cool water. It was a nice change of scenery from the drunken debauchery that happens in Vang Vieng.

On the way home, we were crossing over the bridge pictured above, the bike had a flat tire that we must not have noticed, and as we were crossing over to make room for another motorbike, the flat tire didn't make it up the wooden plank (Laos bridges are pretty sketch), and the motorcycle capsized. I fell to the right and almost off the bridge, my arm luckily caught on to a metal wire to save me from toppling off and into the river, and the bike fell on top of Travis's leg. We both were fine, just some cuts and bruises, but with those cuts and bruises I escaped with a new fear of motorcycles, and really gross cut that was infected for the next four days and would change colors from green to orange to yellow and back again. It was a pretty sweet battle wound.