Well, we have had a little exposure to the celebrations for New Year, but nothing quite prepared us for the intensity that was to follow on the first day of Pii Mai. Thankfully, people allow you to wake up without too much of a jolt and there were no water fights or soakings during the early morning. However, it seems that all the locals put up a stall, with anything and everything to sell. All the main roads into and out of LP were cordened off by the very ...

We have had a few days of getting soaked whilst on dry land, so decided that we would head up Mekong river and branch off into the Nam Ou river to the small village of Nong Khiaw, where hopefully the New Year clelbrations were taking a little longer to get off the ground. We had something of a shock when we saw the boat that was to take us and 6 other people on the day-long journey. No more than 3 feet wide and sitting 2 by 2 this was a tight boat ride, with...

The decision to head north was a bit of the spur of the moment decision as the weather had been poor and really prevented us from doing the things we wanted to do in VV. As a result we were not very organised in getting ourselves together for the bus trips to Luang Prabang and ended waiting at the bus terminal to see what was on offer. When we say bus terminal, we mean the hut on the side of the road! Thankfully a local family, who were on route to LP in the...

Vang Vieng is a village only a few hours drive (on the most pot-holed road imaginable) from the capital and is a hot spot for backpackers where they can try a few of the local activities; tubing down the Mekong, caving and trekking; just a few of the excitements on offer. However, by the time we were on the road there was a turn in the weather and the rain set in for the next 3 days - that horrible, cold and grey rain that is constant though not torrential a...

The journey across the border was probably the most difficult we have had yet - not because they didn't want gringos in the country but the bueacracy and forms we had to fill out were immense. We must have had to queue at least 4 times; once to get the form needed and then back into the same queue to have it processed. Eventually we made it across to be bombarded by the usual - tuktuk sir, taxi sir - the funny thing is they would ask Chris and if he said no the...