Caving in Vang Vien

On my first day in Vang Vien I decided to do a pretty standard tourist route to visit three caves fairly close to town. Many tour companies offered a day trip, but as usual I didn’t want to do it as a tour, so instead I hired a mountain bike and with my map and instructions courtesy of the lonely planet I was ready to go. I rode the 15km out of town easily, stopping along the way to photograph a lady walking her pig, an old fashioned petrol station, and lots of cute kids… Then I got to the turn off for the caves, parked my bike and paid a man to take me over the river in a longtail boat.

I went into the first cave, and then started following the signs to the second cave, when I was joined by a young child who kept pointing me the way. He took me through his families rice fields. I was curious as to what he wanted. Most of the time kids want to practise their English, but he was remarkably taciturn and didn’t want to make conversation. Some kids want their photo taken, but he went out of his way to get out of mine… I figured he probably was hoping for a small tip when we arrived at the cave… I calculated in my head what an average daily wage would be for a farmer would be in laos and used that to determine what I thought an okay amount would be, to thank him for his help.

When we arrived at the cave, though, he didn’t ask for money, but grabbed his friend and some torches and guided me into the cave, stopping occasionally to remind me to watch my head. The cave was deep and long, and I never would have made it to the end if not for the two boys. They were very disappointed I didn’t want to swim in the muddy water that was at the end of the cave and pretty much ordered me to, which made me contrarily decide it was the last thing I was doing. So we left the cave, and I was starting to feel annoyed with the kids dogging my every move, so as we left the cave I said ‘thank you, I’ll go on my own from here. Here’s a small present to say thankyou for your time’ and I held in my hands two 5000kip notes, about equivalent to 50cents American, which is about how much an average farmer would make in a day. Well the cheeky boys said ‘no, $5.’

I’m not exactly sure why, but this made me so furious. Firstly, I hadn’t asked the boys to come in, they did it of their own accord, and knowing what I know about the cost of living in laos, eve though it was not a lot of money, it was still pretty good pocket money for the kids... So I got pretty mad at them, and shook my fist and spoke angry words in English that I’m pretty sure they didn’t understand, but they got that I was angry… They then tried to bargain me down to $2 and then when I wasn’t having any of that, $1. But I couldn’t believe I offered them a tip, a present, for a service that while it was helpful, I hadn’t really asked for it in the first place. I told them that and then told them that if they weren't happy with what I first offered then I wasn’t giving them anything, and stalked off along the path in the rough direction of the third cave I wanted to visit.

I figured that I must have impressed them by my ire, because they left me alone. ‘Well, I sure showed them,’ I thought, as I walked along the path into what was becoming more and more dense rainforest. As I walked I was pretty cocky and contemplated how good I’d been to stand up for myself… but the further I walked the narrower the path got, until it had completely disappeared and I found myself forging my way through shrubs and trees and bushes, still hopefully in the rough direction of the cave… I made my own way through the forest a long way before I realised that I was getting nowhere and I could very easily get lost in there, so I turned around and followed my tracks back to the place where I’d seen the sign directing to the third cave. I went back and checked the sign, which indeed pointed towards the forest, so I retraced my steps and found that instead of taking the path into the forest I should have followed it as it forked up the mountain. So this time I took the mountain path. It had a bamboo ladder over some rocks to begin with, so surely this was the correct path. I continued on the path up the mountain a while, until I noticed that this path as well, was getting smaller and smaller. It was at this point that it started to rain and the mountain became incredibly slippery. I made it a fair way up the hill before deciding to turn back. As I walked back I was plagued with guilt, as I’d come to realise without those two boys I would have been completely lost… as I was.

I had been stubborn in my refusal to give them anything. I still believe that they were cheeky in asking for $5, but they did help me, and I was grateful for that… I felt that my trip through the forest and then the mountain were designed as a bit of karma, and until I rectified the situation by giving the boys at least the 50cents each I originally felt that they deserved before I got huffy and walked off, I would continue to have bad karma. So I backtracked and found the cave office. 'Thankyou very much for your help. I’m sorry I was rude. Here is a present for your help,' I said as I gave them the 5000kip each. They thanked me, and then as I started to walk back to the boat, one of them pointed me the correct path to the third cave, which wasn’t either one of the routes I’d tried to walk. They must have been laughing at me as I walked off on them originally, thinking well, if she's not going to give us any money, we're going to let her walk off into the jungle and the middle of nowhere.

Anyway, I thanked him, and made my way to the third cave. I’m not sure of the lesson in the experience, but there definitely was one. I’ve spoken to many people about it since, and a lot of people defend my initial reaction in not giving them anything at all. But I feel now, with a bit of hindsight, that my stubbornness was a bit silly... It was stupid to worry about principles when it comes down to a dollar or so for me, which is less than the cost of a coffee in a coffee shop back home in Melbourne, but for them it could be all they earn in a day or even longer. Especially because their help was necessary, in the end. And, if anything, it’s the lessons that tourism and capitalism have taught them. But I was still quite saddened by the fact that such money-driven madness had penetrated even what I thought was the last refuge against such industry... Laos... where I had thought that kindness to travellers was free... It was my one and only such experience in the whole country, and hopefully not indicative of the rest of the country as it becomes more and more touristy.