So Monday was the day we went TUBING! For those who are in the dark about this wonderful past-time, you basically float down a river in a giant tractor tyre inner tube, stopping off at different bars along the way. Oh yeah, and the bars have zip lines and high boards and slides and stuff you can go on. All told it was an amazing day, one of the most fun I've had so far! Nina and I set off at 12 and got stuck in the first bar, not even getting our feet wet, for about 2 hours. Here we chatted to some guys who had all met there, Ryan, New Yorker who promised me that the Christmas lights would be up in NYC next November when I'm there (I was very relieved by this, you can't have a Home Alone 2 or Elf tour without Christmas trees!), Zac, a Cali native who looked like Roger Federer, but a bit uglier, and 2 guys from Israel, Ofir and Forest (that was the English translation at least). Nina and I left the bar before them to move on, but we did keep crossing paths down the river, was nice to see recognisable faces!

Anyway Nina and I shared some Lao vodka buckets, however whilst I was monkeying about leaping off zip wires and jumping off high boards, Nina proceeded to drink the majority of the buckets. Thus, by 6pm, when the sun was going down and it was getting cold in a wet bikini, and we decided to call it a day, she was struggling with gravity and smacking her legs over all the steps you use to climb out of the water and came home with some real bruises. We got back to the tube rental place at about 20 past 6, about 12 of us crammed in a little tuk tuk. Now the rules of rental say that to get back your deposit you have to return by 6pm, however this didn's stop us all marching off the tuk tuk chanting 'deposit, deposit' and generally scaring the guys into giving us them back, victory tasted sweet!

We had a warm shower, ate some pizza and chilled for a little bit with Charlotte, a girl from our dorm who had arrived that evening, and later on we went on to an Irish bar (which Mark will be thrilled hear was called Gary's) and then onto Q Bar, which is the busiest place in town after tubing. We stayed there for a few hours, Nina leaving early and getting lost on the way back to the hostel....4 door down from the bar. That caused some hilarity in the morning! Charlotte and I stayed until the death (which is only around 1am, positively early compared to K2's mammoth 4am opening time), had the world's most amazing hot chicken sarnie from a roadside vendor and went to bed.

Tuesday was mainly spent sleeping, watching Friends and eating so was really a bit of a non-day and isn't worth a mention.

Wednesday however, we left Vang Vieng in the Minibus up to Luang Prabang. This was a long 6 hours on even crazier roads than the one between Vientiane and Vang Vieng. My life literally flashed before my eyes every time we went round a corner and a massive lorry leered in front of the minibus, who needs rollercoasters! Nemesis is going to seem truly tame after that ride. The roads wind up through all the mountains, right to the top,before plunging down crazy corners back down to the valleys, it's why the journey takes so long even though it's only 70 miles as the crow flies. The landscape out of the windows did help mediate the madness of the ride however, the mountains are covered in lush vegetation, like something from a film. We drove through so many tiny hamlets clinging to the side of the mountains, where the houses ranged from decent-looking French style spots to concrete block and tin roofed huts to woven walled shacks. People were having showers in the open wrapped in shawls, or washing in the rivers, and there were plenty of skinny chickens and cows running around. It seems a hard way of life to me.

We arrived in Luang Prabang in good time, got a tuk tuk to the Old Quarter, which is where most things are located and managed to find an alright guesthouse twin room for a decent price. However we did have to walk around for about 45 minutes with our backpacks on to find it! Although still cheap in relation to home, after the price of Chiang Mai and Vang Vieng it seemed really expensive!

I'll give you a separate quick update on Luang Prabang after I've had some breakfast - not much happens there to be honest...

Becca xx