Raft on the Wildside, Part 2

They decided these rapids were too dangerous, so made us walk around it...

...which was probably a good idea. Here are the guides coming down in the big raft...

...and in "my" raft. (Take a close look, and admire the way the seats (big round cushions) pop out under pressure. Charming, isn't it?)

I forgot to mention that this raft didn't drain, so we had to stop and bail water with our helmets after every set of rapids. Whee!

Here's a nice scenic photo of the river, that shows some of the carved river rocks. During the rainy season, the Mekong covers those rocks...running 10-30 feet higher, depending on the area.

Because of this, the rapids change all the time, so we stopped and scouted out every rapids before going over. (Wildside does take safety seriously, unlike many tour operators in Laos.)

Afterwards, we loaded the rafts on top of a motorboat, and took a nice comfortable four-hour ride on top of the boat...

...finally landing at this beautiful scenic lake...

...where we carried the raft up to the waiting tuktuk, and drove back to Vangvieng.

Let's see...fell out twice, capsized once, snake in the jungle, animal traps, giant bruises from hitting the water cooler...yep, definitely a fun trip. :-)