We arrived in Vang Vieng after a breathtaking journey through the Laos countryside. The road was very windy and we were often so high we were above the clouds and mist with amazing views of the lush green forests and the limestone cliffs that were all around us. It was a bit sad to see vast areas of deforestation though, large chunks of brown breaking up the green!

The journey was a bit hairy at times though as our driver insisted on driving as fast as he good and overtaking as much as possible, regardless of the animals, villages, other vehicles, people that were coming the other way!

We had heard that Vang Vieng was not nice, full of restaurants blaring out friends re-runs, however the Vang Vieng we have found is not like that at all. Yes there are those restaurants but you can avoid them if you want and like us, stay in a lovely bungalow on the riverside with amazing views of the limestone cliffs.

The first thing Andrew did when we arrived was set up the hammock we brought in Pai, buy a few bottles of beer lao and swing in the hammock sighing 'this is the life!'and it really is!!!We could stay here for a very long time if we had it!!

We tried a local dish for dinner tonight Larp, which is meat (which is supposed to be served raw but for us farang they cook it!) with loads of veggies and mint and served with rice! It was very good and very minty!!We spent the evening playing cards and drinking on our balcony with Emma and Kitty.

Yesterday we had a go at tubing, the thing everyone comes to Vang Vieng for! This consists of floating down the Nam Song River in an inner tube for the day, whilst stopping off at as many bars along the way as you can! With a beer lao in each bar and several free shots of lao lao (rice whiskey) you soon feel pretty warmed up!The bars all play music and several have zip wires and swings which you can swing and slide down into the river.Further down there were also volleyball nets to use!So much fun!!

We had a good group to float along with and we stopped in about five bars. It was a very funny day, we spent a bit too long on the river though and it was dark by the time we got back, pretty tired, bruised and scratched as the river is quite low in places as it is dry season!

Today is our last day in Vang Vieng so we have had a bit of an explore around the town and spent the afternoon back on our bungalows balcony, chilling out and enjoying the view, before we have a few beers in one of the bar/disco places with our tubing group tonight!There is a 12am curfew everywhere here though so it won't be a late one, which is good as tomorrow we are kayaking to Vientiane!!!

Lots of Love

Sarah and Andrew xxx