I took a cramped minibus for 4 hours to the Laos border with Issie last Wednesday. The Canadian guy, Denver, from our Pai trek was also on the bus. The journey was pretty uneventful, I was sitting with an English guy and girl, Russ and Rosie, who were getting the slow boat too.

We arrived at the "town" we were staying at the night before the border crossing and Issie left to cross the border so she could leave for her Gibbon trip the next day. Denver, Russ, Rosie and I plus Mel, a French Canadian with a Peruvian background and THE most amazing tan ever, were actually the only people staying in our guesthouse. I had my own room for probably the first time since I stayed with Paddy and Kathleen back in Penrith. The guesthouse itself was nice but the staff were less than nice. We ordered our dinner but they had no chicken, everything on the menu had chicken in it but we were allowed pork instead, there wasn't even one item of pork on the menu so no idea why they even had it! We had to pay extra to use the guesthouse pool but it was definitely worth paying 1.20 for. Then as it was rainy and we wanted an early night we decided to go for a massage but the "town" actually consisted of one street of half closed shops, we found a massage palour but they said they were closed, despite the lights being on and the woman sitting at the reception desk. She pointed us in the direction of another place but the lady there told us she didn't have any staff as it was raining so couldn't do 5 massages - obviously Thai people don't work when it rains, maybe because they're scared they might shrink in the rain....

So with nothing else to do in a dead town we bought some beers and sat outside chatting. The next morning we crossed the border by boat and after a few hours of waiting around (nothing happens on time here and there's no urgency about anything) we got on the slow boat. That day we wasted the hours away reading, sleeping, playing cards and other games, counting dead dogs floating by us in the river and taking photos of the scenery along the Meh Khong river (camera is still playing up so photos won't be up until I get home, sorry :( ).

We stopped overnight in a town called Pak Beng, it was bigger than Chiang Khong but still had nothing much to do. Denver, Mel and I split a room, which we found out we'd paid double the price for as we'd booked with a company before getting there, but oh well it was still only 4GBP each a night. The people who owned this place were crazy, one dared Denver to eat a big beetle which he did!! I couldn't watch or look at the video later but apparantly it wasn't dead when he ate it and it made his lip bleed with its pinchers, yuck! Afterwards the waiter wouldn't stop laughing as he said normally they kill and cook the beetles before they eat them, but "well it is Denver" became our phrase of Laos over the next week. The waiter gave us our first try of Laos Laos, a strong rice whiskey home brewed. He gave all the men shots of it and me being me and liking equality asked him why us girls couldn't have any, to which he replied "girls no handle Laos Laos" anyone who knows me knows not to say sexist things like that to me as I take it as a challenge. So I had some Laos Laos and, despite the fact I felt like my throat was on fire and my eyes watered, I showed him I could handle it. Not surprisingly none of the other girls wanted any! Then we went out to the only bar in the town, which was literally one room with a laptop connected to some speakers and overpriced alcohol. Like everywhere in Laos, the place closed at 11pm and we headed back to our guesthouse, only to find that as it was past 11pm the gates had been shut. We were contemplating climbing them when someone realised they were only closed not locked. Without saying a word Denver just pushed as hard as he could (he's a big guy who plays American football back home) and the gate completely fell off!!! It was actually a gate you slide open not push open and had come off the rails and was lying on the floor. When we all stopped laughing we picked it back up, tried to put it right and ran up to our rooms before we got in trouble.

The boat ride the next day was pretty much the same; a few hours sleep, games, chatting, reading. We arrived in Luang Probang about 4pm and wandered round looking for somewhere to stay. Tom, an English guy we'd met on the slow boat, was staying with us so there were now 6 of us. Eventually we found somewhere decent for 45,000kip a room (which is about 3.50GBP). We went out for dinner and wandered around the night market, where we bought some Laos Laos, and then headed to a really cool bar called Utopia. It was a chilled out garden bar where you left your shoes at the gate as you came in, lay on the bamboo floor overlooking the Mekong river or sat at the toad stool style table and chairs and smoked shisha. It closed at 11pm though but we'd been told there was one place in Luang Probang that stayed open past 11pm....the bowling alley! So that's where we headed at closing time, Denver disappeared but the rest of us had a fun game, Rosie was pretty competitive (which I'm use to with Becca as a sister!) and wasn't happy when she only came second. I hadn't been feeling great since the bar (I'm blaming the Laos Laos but it could have been anything) so wasn't going to go bowling but was glad I did. It's pretty random to be playing bowling at midnight in bare feet in Laos.

I had a bad nights sleep and woke up feeling awful. There is a cockrel that lives near the guesthouse and crows every 10 mins from about 3am to 10am, I literally would have strangled it with my barehands if I could have found it! There was still no sign of Denver but later on we found out he was at the Laos police station!! He hadn't stayed there overnight, he'd come back later than us and they'd come to get him before we all woke up to take him to the station and make him sign a statement to say he would not be a nuisance to the people of Luang Probang or Laos anymore and that he was very sorry. They also implied they wanted money but having none on him they let him go anyway - but that's another story.

So I tried to have some breakfast but really couldn't, I felt so achey and weak and didn't even have the energy to walk. The others wanted to have a look around the city but I went back to bed and slept on and off until 4pm. I woke up feeling a lot better but still not 100%, my back was killing me because of the rockhard bed so I went for a massage and a wander around the city. That evening Mel, Tom, Denver and I went for dinner and a few drinks at Utopia again but no bowling this time as we wanted to be up early to head to the waterfalls.

The waterfalls are so beautiful, after an hour took took drive we walked through the bear rescue sacntuary (the things people had done to these bears made me want to cry for them!) and got to the waterfalls. As I said before, after seeing Victoria Falls and Miiaa Miiaa, the waterfall on the Pai trek wasn't that impressive but these were better that Miiaa Miiaa. There was the main waterfall and then loads of smaller ones, each joining to a pool of water deep enough to jump from trees into and rope swing into (I have minimal upper body strength so my rope swing was as graceful as my surfing!). We played in the water for hours and it was so much fun.

Issie arrived that evening and stayed in the room with Mel and me. Russ and Rosie got the night bus to Vang Veing where we were going to meet them in a few days. We had an all-you-can-eat street food meal for under 2GBP, then we headed to Utopia again. I could have done without going again but as it was Issie's first and last night we did. Us girls had an early one but the boys found some girls and went bowling with them. I had a restless night as I'd slept so much the day before but when I eventually did sleep I dreamt of killing the cockrel and I didn't feel bad about it at all!!

The next day we went back to play in the waterfall, a friend from home had recommended that I climb up to the top so following his instructions I began to trek up the side of a muddy mountain in flip flops, a bikini and a sarong. The walk was worth it as it ended at the top of the waterfall, literally looking down over it and seeing all the pools below. It was absloute paradise up there until it started to torrential rain and suddenly the water that had been at my ankle was up to my knees and I was standing at the top of a really high, suddenly, powerful waterfall. I thought I'd wait it out as the view was incredible but the rain just wouldn't stop so I took some photos and headed back down (mistake one as my camera screen is now water damaged and all the pictures look whitewashed). Climbing up the muddy hill was hard enough but getting down was really dangerous, luckily I wasn't the only idiot up there and a french man helped me down but not without me slipping over twice, bruising my coccyx bone, dirtying my new sarong and falling on my ankle. I spent most of the tie cursing my friend under my breath for sending me on such a stupid trip but really I knew that despite the rain the view was worth it and he wouldn't have done that on purpose. I was the only one of the group to go up there so they had a good laugh at me as I came down limping and covered in mud!!

That night we took a minibus for 6 hours to Vang Veing, the roads were ridiculous, barely finished and winding like I've never seen before. The driver drove so fast, overtook on blind corners and beeped at everyone to get out of his way. It wasn't a nice journey and you couldn't even sleep as you were thrown around every two seconds. My travelsick pills definitely came in handy. When we got to Vang Vieng we found the cheapest place to stay and slept.

Mel's friend Matt from Australia was staying in Vang Veing but, due to the rain, the bridge to his guesthouse had collapsed into the river so he was looking for a place to stay too. We sent the men off to look for somewhere and eventually moved into a cute guesthouse with a seperate area that had 3 rooms and 2 bathrooms. Us girls had the room with the ensuite (a toilet and wet room as always) and the boys flipped for who got their own room. Then we headed off to Vang Veing's main attraction - tubing!!

Tubing is basically sitting in a rubber tube and floating down the river from bar to bar, at each bar you get a free shot of whiskey and a string bracelet, then you drink and dance until you're ready to head to the next bar. When you are you sit in your tube and float down the river until someone at the next bar throws you a rope and pulls you in. That's how we've been spending our days, getting up at 9ish, having breakfast, lazing in a resturant where they are usually showing Family Guy or Friends the whole day, then getting our swim stuff on and head to the river about 2pm to start drinking. Tubing stops at 6.30pm so then we float all the way back to our guesthouse, shower and change for dinner, eat something and head to the bars to dance, then repeat the next day! It's been a lot of fun and as you start drinking at 2pm by 11pm you're exhausted and ready for bed!

So that's Laos, a place where in one town you can't buy drink after 11pm but in another you can get drunk in a bikini in the middle of the day then rope swing into a river! A place where everyone (the tourists) wears bikinis and trunks but if you get naked the locals take photos and give them to the police. A place where dead dogs float in the river that people get drunk and jump into. It's mad but it's Asia!!

Lots of love xxxxxxxxx