Drove 6 hours to reach Vientiane and had lunch at Joma cafe (South East Asian Starbucks!) and then embarked upon a bike (seriously dodgy bikes) tour around the city taking in the Arc (see pic), Pha That Luang and the local market. The next morning we left for Vang Vieng around mid morning and arrived at 2pm and decided to go tubing straight away. Started at the first bar and then hoped onto our inner tubes onto the river and floated down to select our first bar. Here we had a go at the most tame looking rope swing we could find but it was still crazy, such an adrenaline rush. I managed to flop into the water onto my chest and winded myself. Helen was a bit of a pro, super graceful! We tried lao lao the 50-80% alcohol content local whiskey and then had a go on the slide which was equally terrifying but a good laugh. After riding through a few rapids on the river we eventually reached the end and got off and took a tuk tuk back. We had dinner at a place where you could buy a bag of opium to go with dinner! We went off to the Q bar where we sampled deep fried flying frog, then off to the bucket bar and had a brief dance in the rain, got a fab baguette for a midnight snack and trotted home in the monsoon rains.
Next morning we woke up late and felt like we had been hit by a bus. Went out down the road for the best brunch ever of bacon and fried egg baguette. Did a spot of shopping and had a midday snooze. With Katie and Keziah we decided to go on a mini adventure on some inappropriate bikes out into the counrtyside. Keziah got poked in the eye with a twig and helen trod on some barbed wire so we decided to head home! On the way back Helen flaked out from heat exhaustion so I had to stick her in a tuk tuk with her bike which was rather funny. That evening we tried out our ponchos for the first time and befriended a tiny kitten at dinner.