We took an overnight bus from Chiang Mai to Udon Thani, got through the Laos border (after a $35 US dollar visa each!), and headed to our destination of Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

We found a hostel and went for lunch on the banks of the mighty Mekong River. Over the next two days we explored Vientiane on foot and for a capital city (only 200,000 people) I have to say that Vientiane is extremely quiet and a bit dull.

We then headed for Vang Vieng courtesy of a four hour local bus. This was the thing I was most looking forward to in probably the whole of Asia!! We arrived in the small town of VV and the backdrop took our breath away, huge limestone cliffs surrounded by green as far as the eye could see. We checked into the hostel then went for a wander and a beer.

The next morning wa the day we were both waiting for = Tubing!! This involves around a dozen bars lining the river and floating from one to another in huge innertubes. Each bar has their own variety of ropeswings, slides, mudpits etc and is basically the most fun you will ever have! We met up with some guys who were on our bus and had a really great day. The pictures are good but the videos are even better, sadly we can't get them to upload at the moment but we'll keep trying.

The next morning I couldn't move, but it had been completely worth it. It rained almost solidly for two days then so we just hung around in bars where they were showing friends and movies on widescreen tv's and chilled out. We went to an english bar and Ali had a roast and I had cottage pie - we were both in heaven!

From Vang Vieng we headed back to Vientiane as it is on our way to our next destination. We missed the follow on bus so stayed here last night but made up for it by going to the "Taj Mahal" for a delicious indian.

I am writing this as we wait for our 15 hour overnight bus to Pakse, it is absolutely pouring down. At this rate we won't even have a tan left!

xxx