Not much sleep to be had in this cabin. We’ve both been rolling around all night, but luckily it was not our room that had rats.
Katja and I shared a room, the French another, the guides in the last and Chris and Topher slept outdoor. The French had a rat attack during the night and the rat has eaten through two of their bags. We talked about it last night and repacked the little food we have with us in plastic and shutting out the smell. I think there were cookies and M&M’s in the French bags. Happy meal for a rat.

Katja get up to see the sunrise, but it’s overcast and not very nice.(Katja comment: This is not true, it was a very nice sunrise, you just wanted to sleep). I stay in “Bed” trying to relax a little longer. She leave the door open and at one point the sun gets out from behind the clouds and shine in my eyes. Probably time to get up then.
We stir more or less on the same time all together, and suddenly we’re called for breakfast. Omelette and baguette, and some crab and rice for the adventurous.

We saddle up and walk down to the first zip line. It’s just down from the cabin and we start our tour down the mountain.
As we get lowered down each line and not run by full speed it takes some time to get everyone down. After the first zip line we move towards the next. We’ll do five in total, several rappels and some walking before we’re down. At the second zip line we have a little incident. I don’t really get what happens, but the rope used to lower us down is spliced because of their length and it’s a transition in that regard that goes wrong. One guy falls and another get bad burns on his fingers while trying yo take control of the rope again. Nothing that scared us, but we brought out our medkit, as did the French, and we clean, plastered and patched ’em up as good as it gets.
From that one we did a rappel with no feet touching anything. You just sit in the air and let yourself to the ground. It was scary going over the edge, but once airborne it was quite cool.

We spent a lot of time waiting today. Eight people traversing these lines while the pully had to be drawn back up every time.
When we had done all these lines we walk for another five or ten minutes before we get lunch. Lunch is served on leaves right there on the trail. No fanciness what so ever. Grilled pork, sausages, rice, tomato sauce and some over cooked vegetables are on the menu. We dig in and it’s surprisingly good.

From there it’s another hour trek back to the river. We’re once again wading over and it hurts so bad. I’m not the only one whimpering doing this. The more we weigh the more it hurts stepping on the rocks. Finally Tap, one of the guides do me a favor and comes back out in the river and support me across. Support, yeah right! He sets a tempo that have me swearing and wincing. I don’t know wether to knock him on his ass or say thank you when we reach the shore. I keep my feet in the cold water for a while to ease up the pain before getting my shoes back on and moving up to the truck.

On the drive back we exchange blog addresses and full names so we can can stay in touch. We already told the French they’re more than welcome to stay at our place if they want to visit Oslo. We also talked about swapping places for holidays, as they have apartments in Paris.
On the way back to the guesthouse Katja remember she has only this shorts with her. So she needs to go shopping. What she doesn’t do to facilitate shopping is beyond me. We get a room from the old lady when we return to our guesthouse. Our stuff it’s still there and we can take a shower as soon as Katja has a new shorts.
She get it, oh and wouldn’t you know she got a dress also. Strange how all things fall into place.
We go back and take a shower before we go out for dinner. Katja has plotted in a organic restaurant from Lonely Planet’s listings, but it’s out of business. We eat at the restaurant that’s there in its place and Katja’s order spicy food. And when you ask for spicy in Laos you get spicy. This gotta be karma. Earlier today I told the tour group about Katja’s kebab eating when we started dating. That story includes handshakes from the kebab guys who did not think she would be able to eat what she ordered. She did. And she did it again tonight. While crying, blowing her nose and complaining that her ears burn. I just ate my steak and smiled.

We get to bed early (wow, surprised, right?) and pass out again. Sore feet, tired legs and lack of sleep from last night. Goodnight Irene!

 Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.

~Jim Davis