We have finally made it to a beach. It's odd, I hadn't really thought about how strange it would be to go on holiday (if we're calling this a 10 month trip a holiday) and not arrive at a beach until a month into the trip. And it's the tiniest beach ever so I'm clutching at straws here anyway. Our time in Don Det, one of the 4000 islands that dot the Mekong in Southern Laos, has been very chilled out. Which was what the doctor ordered after the craziness of Vang ...

After the ridiculous fun of Vang Vieng it was necessary to swing by what has to be one of the most rubbish capital cities in the world, Vietianne. Taking cue from my Rough Guide us girls found a cheap hostel on the main backpacker road of the city and checked it out, whilst the boys went their separate way. It was on the ropey side and to be honest, was a bit creepy, but seeing as it was for one night only, we thought we'd suck it up. Lauren however had been real...

IN THE TUBING. Vang Vieng is a natural playground for adults, consisting of giant rubber rings in which you float down the river between lush green mountains whilst people throw ropes out to you to pull you into their bars, where a (lethal) whisky bucket costs approximately 75p and there are enough rope swings and slides into the river to keep you entertained for hours on end. It's ridiculous and it's kind of unbelievable that there is a place on earth like it t...

It was entirely possible that the driver we had on our journey to the Thai border from Chiang Mai had never taken a driving test. Trying to cure your car sickness by looking through the windscreen as though you are driving is an apparent disadvantage when you realise that the actual driver is taking sharp bends at a good 80 mph on the wrong side of the road. We arrived at our destination with about 4 hours to sleep before getting up the next morning to begin our ...