I headed out early the other day looking for more wild Laos to explore! I left at 6:00am as the sun was rising to avoid the mid-day heat. The plan was to cross to the other side of the river, cut through some rice fields, find the trail to a couple caves and lagoons, and see if I can find my way back to civilization. Turns out I had a bit more of an adventure than I bargained for!
As I cross the bridge I look to my right to see this beautiful hot air balloon. 
I soon find the sign I was looking for and begin to cut my way through the rice fields. 
I soon enter deep vegetation and quickly notice the slick muddy clay jungle floor. 
As I continued the slope of the trail increased and so did the slick clay mud. 
At this point I decided this was no place for flip-flops so I put my shoes back on after taking them off earlier to cross a stream. 
I continued on while closely assessing the situation with the muddy terrain. The shoes made it better but I was alone and if something happened it would be bad news. As I went further the trail got steeper and more dangerous. 
The trail soon turned into muddy rock climbing, where a fall would mean serious injury in the least. Using the 3 points of contact climbing rule I'm generally confident; but when everything is covered in slick muddy clay it was enough to turn me back. I scraped the mud off my shoes and slowly and carefully made my way back down the trail. 
Before reaching the stream I crossed earlier, I was able to catch a photo of this beautiful snail. 
I put my flip-flops back on and started walking down the stream. According to my map it would take me to some fields that I could traverse to a lagoon and other caves. 
Avoiding potential disaster from the muddy trail things still stayed on the sketchy side. Check back tomorrow and see how the rest of my adventure went including my emergency flip-flop repair! If you like this post please view some of my others and consider following. Thank you! -Dan "World Travel Pro!
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