Left Hanoi at 5.00am for our long drive to Loas made slightly shorter by our crazy driver who got us to the border 2 hours earlier than planned! Not good when this part of the world has not yet discovered tarmac, seat belts were required to stay in the actual seats! First stop was a wee town called Pak Xan where we sampled some local noodle soup for dinner as there were no other choices, turns out it is quite nice!

Next day and on to the capital Vientianne where the first stop was the cake shop and foot massages! In the afternoon we visited a charity which provides prothesis for landmine victims. Apparently we are now running a marathon for this charity which is an interesting plan as currently we struggle to carry our rucksacks for more than a few minutes!

Another mini-bus journey and another road lacking cement got us to Vang Vieng, where gap adventure do not recommend tubing. Tubing is basically floating down the mekong river in the inside tube from a tractor tyre and stopping at various bars for the odd drink with the option of various swings, zip wires and chutes into the river. You'll be glad to hear we both refrained from these so Emma has no broken bones as yet! All sounds easy but unfortunately due to it having rained for a few weeks the river was quite fast and we had a few issues co-ordinating which bars to stop at! This resulted in Lindsay having to be rescued by 2 local boys in life jackets as she floated past the last bar! Other vang vieng activities included buckets and watching friends in bars that show back to back episodes all day!

Next stop in Loas was the very lovely Luang Prabang where we visited the night market, a local bear rescue centre, swam in the Kuang Sii waterfalls in the rain and went elephant trekking! The mahouts made sitting on the elephants necks easier than it looks and ours seemed more intersested in eating than heading in the direction it was meant too!

Our final Loas activity was a 2 day slow boat down the Mekong river where Lindsay saw some more elephants and Emma slept for pretty much 2 days! Stopped off overnight in a wee town where all the electricity is switched off at 10pm, luckily our neighbours decided to entertain us by playing some random drums all night! Next stop was the border crossing back into thailand where we stayed in a wee town called Chaing Khong for the night. Last stop of the tour before getting the sleeper train back to bangkok was Chaing Mai for the afternoon! Spent the afternoon walking about in the rain and getting a foot massage at the local women's prison!!

Back in Bangkok now where we are having our last group dinner tonight before heading to the islands tomorrow for the full moon party on thursday.......