After a gruelling 16 hour bus journey from hell, we finally found heaven on the Si Phan Don! And the name doesnt lie, there are actually 4000 islands, although granted, some are only big enough for 1 tree! It is just so chilled here, a perfect little island hideaway, which is just what we needed after the carnage of the North! We're currently staying on Don Det which is the main backpacker island, its so beautiful here, you stay in bamboo huts on stilts either ...

Vang Vieng has left me broken, battered & bruised. I survived Tubing, Happy Pizza & a 45k mountain bike ride (not my decision FYI) and we have had the most amount of fun ever here! Tubing is the best invention ever - what could be better than a pub crawl down the river in a rubber ring, stopping off at riverside bars with Zip Lines & Swings to jump off into the water?!! Obviously not the safest of sports, especially with every bar dishing out free s...

So we finally made it to Laos, 3 days, 2 boats & who knows how many bottles of BeerLao later. What was meant to be a 2 day scenic boat trip down the Mekong, descended into a Booze Cruise that the Med would be proud of! It all started with an 8 hour minibus ride to the border, where we met fellow passengers (& bad influences) from Ireland, Scotland & America who were all staying in the same guesthouse that night. We decided that after such a long jou...