The adventure bit

If you asked my family to rank all the activities we have done together over the last 23 years, there is no doubt that the time we went white-water rafting would come out top, with a 10/10 from each of us. So when I saw black-water (i.e. in a cave) rafting advertised here (and not only that, the cave was full of glow-worms) I knew that had to be my treat of the holiday.

When I discovered that it was not a shared raft but an individual inner tube I was not deterred. So this morning, wedged in my inner tube, I twice flung myself backwards off a ledge into water below, first outdoors then over a (small) waterfall in a cave. In fact the water in the cave was much tamer than I expected. The real treat was not the activity but seeing the glow worms on the cave roof above. They look like night stars, which is how they attract their prey - other insects, which think they are flying towards the sky and get caught in the long sticky tendrils that the glow worms have 'dribbled' from the roof.

Obviously I did not take my camera with me, so instead here is the last of the setting sun from the youth hostel veranda.

Yes, I do know I am very, very privileged. I am still using the water bottle that my last taxi driver in Myanmar gave me. Branded 'Lucky'.