Bat Cave

Well, i did it, i struck out on my own. I've left hannah in vien viang (or summat like that) cos she wanted to get back to bangkok and get a job... you can see the reason i let her go and headed north AWAY from bangkok? job? what's that then? scrrrrrew you guys, i'm going to northern laos.
Anyway, after a luxurious 6 hour journey with 2 whole seats to myself, and a man with a GUN infront of me!! no shit!! a BIG gun! apparently there's been ambushes by gangs on tour buses so they all have armed men on them! ... well the bloke on our bus must have been at least... 12!! he was younger than me!
Anyway, i have arrived and realised how much i relied on hannah: I have none of the rudimentary travellers provisions. I have no watch, no alarm clock (incase the bus leaves early), no lonely planet, and no map of where i am (loam pobang or something - this is a GROSS distortion of the spelling of the place but am looking around the internet cafe and there's no proper spelling so it'll have to do!). So yeah, missing han already, and currently pondering WHAT THE HELL I'M DOING HERE!! But apparently there's the most beautiful waterfall in the world here so, it had better be fricking amazing's all i can say!

Vien Viang, where we've just come from, was well good and is the most beautiful place on earth: there are panoramic mountains surrounding you 180 degrees (or should that be 360? anyway, you know when they go all the way round). Anyway, there's minimal beckham interference and just a LOT of smiley happy people, and the coolest river in the world. We went kayaking the day before yesterday, and the trip included a cave trip. This was not the main focus of the day so i thought it'd be a basic, here's a cave, go inside and take a photo and lets move on -type-jobey. Oh no. It was a cave filled with water which you had to swim into and climb up the beach. They then hand out candles to light your way (bearing in mind this is a water cave i was a bit mystified!) So this shallow beach in the cave leads to nowhere apart from a very low ceilinged cavern, like, 2 foot avove the ground, and i presumed that was it. Until the guide lies on the floor and starts roly polying along and disappears into the cavern shouting 'come on!'. Looks of excitement and terror pass over everyone's faces (in particular those of a larger stature). But we roly poly in and what follows is 40 minutes of rolling under stalagmites, climbing over stalagtites, freezing nervously as bats fly past at great speeds, and warily watching spiders the size of your hand sit quietly above as you walk through the cave lit by the candles.... nice!!
We then kayaked down the river and jumped off of lots of big stuff, and swung from ropes and that, and there was one swing where they pull you back over rocks and let you go and you jump off as you get over water... an american guy tries it and i've never seen, or heard, such a painful looking belly flop in my entire life!! he was red raw all down his ribs and on his cheek when he got out!
When we got to the end of the kayak bit we passed a part of the river that flows really fast, like i got in and swam as hard as i could upstream and still moved backwards... and there's LOADS of little kids in the water, washing their hair, washing the vegetables, and boarding passing kayaks paddled by westerners nearly sinking our kayak! bless 'em, they're so sweet...!
Anywhoo, my time is up and i have to go find food and find something to do for the evening... seriously, i need a lonely planet!! don't know anyone or where i am!! aaarrrggghhh! but we do get a free banana at the guesthouse i'm staying at.