So I left you in Luang Prabang and from there our next destination was Vang Vieng - a town most famous for tubing, playing episodes of friends and family guy all day long and producing the most amazing baguettes you have ever tasted. This is basically how our next few days were spent.

Our 'VIP' bus (I would like to see what a normal bus is like) from Luang Prabang, involved sitting on a very uncomfortable seat, along bumpy roads, with s***ty air con that clearly wasn't turned on, driving along cliff edges pretending that our life wasn't about to end, horns beeping to warn other drivers around corners, avoiding dogs/people/cars/anything that moves for eight whole hours. Not the best 8 hours of my life, but on the plus side the scenary a long the way was spectacular and was well worth trying to keep our eyes open.

Most normal people would head to bed after this experience, however, we all decided to welcome Vang Vieng with a few beverages. You will see we have been going out more since being in a group of ten - half down to wanting to, half down to peer pressure of course and how shocking my willpower is. Every bar pretty much gave us free drinks all night, so I am not entirely sure how money is made but we definately weren't complaining. The worst part of the night was falling down a hole in the bridge across the river, little bruising from this, and the best part of the night was of course the chicken, bacon and REAL cheese baguette. I-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e. I say real in capitals because the amount of times I have ordered some food involving cheese, a dairylea triangle either appears or some plastic burger cheese, which is of course always met with huge dissapointment and you would have thought I would learn from my mistakes and avoid ordering cheese base prouducts but it's a good job I persevered as this was well worth the wait. Dad and Alison do stock up on cheese please as this is lacking in my life at present. Talking about cheese - Louise and Steph I have found Cheetos in practically every country I have visited now just to enlighten you of this.

Anyways enough about cheese. So Tubing Day 1 and after all the horrible stories we have heard from backpackers, newspaper articles and facts in the Lonely planet, which we obviously ignored, we were raring to go. And to add to this experience it was raining which only meant the river was flowing even faster than usual. We had planned to be on the river early but getting ten people up and out in the morning proves very challenging, the only downside to travelling in a big group. So basically how tubing works is that you float down the river in tubes, having ropes thrown at you and pulling you in to bars. There are a number of bars down the river and people had said not to stay too long at the first bars as you get carried away and don't make it down the river before dark but obviously we ignored this advice and found ourselves floating down the river in our rings in the pitch black - a pretty scary experience. We assumed we had travelled quite far untill we stumbled across a sign which read '90 minutes untill finish' so in the space of about five hours we had travelled the short distance of 30 mins - good effort guys. So that little bit of sense that we still had left in us told us to get out of the river as soon as it was possible and to get a tuk tuk to drive us to the end. So the four things we said we wouldn't do we successfuly achived all of them - tubing in the dark, getting drunk, jumping from rope swings, and failing to return our tubes on time resulting in no deposits back. Note to self - leave bars earlier and return in daylight. Maybe day two of tubing would be different?

The next day provided me with my first experience on a scooter - Sorry Dad. This was neccassary in order to visit the blue lagoon and the caves, which were amazing. I put my trust in Helge, you could say I got on a bike with a stranger, but after travelling with someone for about three weeks you get to know them pretty quick and I felt more than safe on the back of his bike don't worry. On the way there we saw stunning countryside and little villages and were welcomed with a refreshing jump in to the freezing lagoon, followed by a trek up the cave edge to the entrance, and exploring deep within.

Tubing Day 2 - were we to learn by our mistakes? Of course not. Repeat of day one it was. However, we did get less tubes, one between two this time as thieves come out when they are drunk and knick people's tubes so at least we didn't waste as much money this time and we did get half our deposits back so this was a step! This time I blame the beer/whisky pong! Table Tennis involving drinks for people like you Dad who wouldn't know what that was!!

So here's some exciting news for you all...after four months of travelling I have finally seen a snake yet failed to capture the moment with my camera due to us being drunk and it turning in to more of a panic realising we were on the ground floor and this snake could easily slip under the gap between the door frame and the floor!

So anyway, after that useless piece of information (sorry Jonny these blogs aren't getting any shorter), after only planning to stay in Vang Vieng for a few days, six days later we finally left and headed for Vientiene. We saw Laos' capital in one afternoon, lugging our bags around the markets as it doesn't have much else to offer, before boarding our one hour flight to Hanoi. We chose this option as it meant avoiding a 28 hour bus journey. We (well more Faye) was a little apprehensive to fly with Vietnam Airlines, but after complimentary drinks and a slight panick from Faye thinking that we were going down only to realise that infact the flight was that short and we were landing, the smoothest landing to date I may add, the journey easily beat our Jetstar experience.

Arriving Hanoi all feeling pretty drained, we were met with a sea of motorbikes covering the roads. It would seem that this is the only form of transport they use out here and makes crossing roads in Bangkok a doddle. We checked in to our ten bed dorm and were eagerely ready for sleep.

After a day of careful deliberation we all booked on to a three day, two night Halong Bay cruise, named 'The Rock Long, Rock Hard Tour of Halong Bay'. This hideous slogan in itself or the name of our boat 'The Jolly Rodger Fleet' should have made our decision for us but it obviously wasn't enough. What had we let ourselves in for!? A few days involving a strict itinary, organised fun and the feeling of being 18 again were thrown upon us. However, despite all this we all had an amazing three days spent - lying in the sun, jumping off the boat, avoding jelly fish, participating in high speed tubing (rubber rings attached to the back of a speed boat for those of you that are unaware), participating and actually quite enjoying the drinking games, making new accquaintences, waking up farrr to early, kayaking around the beautiful mountains, visiting floating villages, admiring the incredible scenary everywhere you looked, eating amazing food and visiting caves. One night was spent in luxuary on the boat with double en suite rooms and the second night was spent in Bamboo huts on the hostel's privately owned island, Castaway Island. A small, beautiful little retreat. An awesome few days yet I definately don't think I could hack it on Shipwrecked!

We were sad to return from this boat trip as the ten of us were separating due to different timings people had to complete Vietnam, so we said our goodbyes, we may or may not see them down the coast, who knows!

Me and Faye had an extra day in Hanoi so we went on the hostel's guided walking tour (free of course), and then visited the prision which was a grim experience, before jumping on our 14 hour sleeper bus to Hue. It is from Hue that I am writing this blog. We arrived this morning and chilled out for a while. We are pleased to be back in a double room rather than a dorm, not entirely sure how we coped with dorms for the first few months of travelling.

Today was then spent eating the most horrific meal yet - I'm sorry but I have to tell you about this as it is definately blog worthy. I started the meal with cheese and bacon potato skins, always a winner, we have started eating western foods again you see, and then ended the meal with gnocci, which Faye chose to copy me with. Instantly regretting this choice of course - as what we had in front of us was a huge lump of uncooked dough with a block of cheese and a whole onion with a few bits of bacon. After eating it all because we're travelling and what you pay for you eat you see, we walked around the town, along the river, towards the old citadel. We were then harassed by a vietnamese guy asking us if we wanted a ride on his bike with seats on the front (these things have a name but I can't for the life of me remember). This was the quickest decision me and Faye have made yet and soon found ourselves having a private tour of Hue comfortably sat on a bike with a man struggling to cope with our weight behind us.

Still feeling a little sick from lunch now, I will certainly be avoiding dinner tonight and opting for a skype session with Tom and an early night, I thought this was the perfect opportunity to update you all. We head to Hoi An tomorrow and I will update you again soon, home in 24 days, can not believe our little adventure is coming to an end!

Hope all is well, xxxxxx