Hello blog-readers...

... and sorry for the big silence. Mike and I have no excuse other than the fact that we've been having fun, drinking, erm, drinking some more - and we've clearly had too much sun (despite what the above picture would suggest. Yes, after 6 weeks in Asia, I really am that white. It's tragic).

Well, sice Mike last updated the blog, we've been kicking around Vang Vieng, and are now in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. First up, Vang Vieng...

Vang Vieng is a funny little town, that was originally used as a stop-off for people making the long journey from Louang Prabang to Vientiane. In the last few years, the town has been hit by a tidal wave of travellers, keen to embark on a very silly experience - tubing. And that's exactly what we came for. We turned up at Vang Vieng after a very hot and sweaty bus journey through the mountains, and up and down some seriously narrow mountain roads - needless to say, Mike's travel sickness wasn't helped by the fact that parts of the road have been dug up, so the coach was bumping along some dodgy dirt tracks, with a whopping great drop down a cliff-face on either side. The scenery was stunning, despite the yucky fact that the Laos don't seem to be good travellers either, and were puking up every time the bus stopped for a refuel. Anyhoo, vomit aside, we coped with the journey alot better than our companions, and practically skipped off the bus. Once we'd arrived in town, we hopped on a tuk-tuk to our guest house, to be greeted by a couple of friends we'd made in Luang Prabang. Coincidentally they were staying in our guest house (a lurid yellow affair, with wafer-thin walls and rock-hard beds), so it was lovely to see some friendly faces. They'd been tubing that day and were pretty sloshed, so while Sal and Rob slept off their impending hangovers, Mike and I headed into town for some food. And what an experience that was. Food in this town is rubbish - really, truly rubbish. There are zillions of bars all offering the same things - pizza, burgers and Beer Lao - complemented by back-to-back episodes of Friends. With nowt else to do, we settled down and joined the hoardes of slightly glazed Friends addicts. Eight epsiodes later, we finally peeled ourselves away from the screen.

The next morning we were keen to get going on the tubes, but it wasn't to be - what started out as a bit of drizzle, quickly became a torrential downpour that lasted for hours. Thankfully Sal and Rob had recovered from their tubing experience, so we spent the day watching chick-flicks together (it's never a good idea to let Mike join in these events. Sal and I got a running commentary on the films we were watching.) Eventually he gave up and went to join Rob, and by the time Sal and I found them they'd already sunk a few Beer Lao - ooops. Several hours later the rain dried up, and a beautiful sunset promised a good day of tubing ahead of us. We should have taken that as a sign to go to bed early, but tragically we were giddy with the prospect of more time with our new friends, and the four of us headed to the local Aussie bar. Another friend from the slow boat has joined us by this point, and the evening degenerated into drunken silliness. At midnight I vaguely came to my senses, and slurred 'I shink I should shtop drinking before I get slooooshed.' Oh if only i'd had that thought 3 hours earlier, I could have saved myself the trauma of the hangover that hit me the next morning... double oops.

Anyhoo, the next morning was beautiful, so after a rousing pancake and some strong Lao coffee for Mike (it's like battery acid, and seems to make him go a bit giddy - yes folks, even giddier than usual) we headed into town with a gaggle of our friends to hire our tubes. After signing our life away in a horrible contract ('I agree that I have chosen not to wear a life-jacket' - we weren't even offered one; 'I understand that I might drown and it will be entirely my fault' - you get the picture), we were handed our giant tubes and dropped off at the river. The idea is that you jump in your ring - wet bum is a must-have - and float down the river til a man with a big stick hooks you in and plops a beer in front of you. It's a silly concept, but until you try it, you haven't lived - seriously! We all stopped off at the bar for a quick beer, then hopped back in our rings and headed downstream. At this point i'd like to point out that I was still sober - which makes it all the more inexcusable that I forgot my camera was in my pocket. Big fat drats. Luckily my memory stick survived the ordeal, (hence the team photo above) but my faithful old camera didn't. Perhaps that's a good thing, because the picture we've posted above are incriminating enough, without you all seeing how the day degenerated into drunken debauchery. Ooops. It was great fun, but both Mike and I are relieved that we lived to tell the tale, and have vowed to make sure we don't do something so silly again. In our defense the water was really shallow...

Anyhoo, the next morning was another corker, so Sal, Rob, Mike and I bravely battled our hamgovers as we commandeered a tuk-tuk and went to visit the local caves. Once again Lao Health & Safety was non-existent, as despite the huge drops in a pitch black cave, nothing was lit or roped off. It was an incredible experience, as the four of us walked several hundred metres into the dark, doing our best to avoid the head-crunching stalactites and big drops underfoot - we were all glad of our head-torches, so thanks to those of you who bought them for us before we left!

The next two days were taken up with making plans to move on from Vang Vieng, which brings us to where we are now - Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. Once again, Rob met us off the bus, so we joined he and Sal, plus a few of our tubing buddies for dinner last night. After the yucky food in Vang Vieng, it's a joy to be here and to eat something tasty that doesn't involve deep-fat frying. Unfortunately, aside from the food bonuses, there's not a lot to do in Vientiane, so this morning, Mike and I hot-footed it to the Vietnamese embassy to have our visas amended. A slightly scary man helped us out (he had a habit of barking orders), so we're now the proud owners of visas and flights to Vietnam tomorrow afternoon - though we're 300 dollars poorer for it. Never mind though - we're excited about moving onto the next stage of our world tour, and we have a birthday party to go to tonight - having new travelling buddies is fab!

Aside from that, there's not a lot else to report - my hair is still a yucky afro, and Mike is still delicious to the local mossies - poor sod.

We'll check in with more news again soon, but right now we're off to buy me a new baseball cap - Mike is concerned that the Vietnamese locals may be a bit irked by my American military-style cap. Humph...

Much love to all of you, and keep us posted with your news!

Suzie and Mike xxx