My first impressions of Hanoi were...well that it was freezing! It was immediately clear we would need to invest in some warm jumpers! Our backpackers wardrobe did not exactly fit the bill for this cold. All other travellers seemed to be in the same boat as they were wandering around trying to improvise with what they had. That first day I pretty much had to layer everything I had on. What I would have done for a nice pair of boots!....or anything that actually c...

We arrived in Vientiane to rain. It was grey and miserable and pretty cold too. We only spent one night/2days in Vientiane and that was enough! The first day we arrived we took a walk around to see what there was. Not that much apparently. The fact it did not stop raining did not help matters. We saw the Presidentrial Palace, Wat Sisaket and the cities large arch which supposedly ressembles the Arc de Triomphe. Due to Vientiane's troubled past the arch was never ...

After a 5hour twisty minibus journey over the mountains we arrived in Vang Vieng. As Lauren had already been a couple of years ago she knew what to expect. Not that it really took much getting used to! There was one main street with a number of bars and restaurants. Even better, many of these bars and restaurants showed reruns of the comedy Friends! They had lots of comfy chairs and cushions so you could lounge around for hours watching Friends. What more could w...

We arrived in Loang Prabang tired and with sore bums from the slow boat journey. Still with our new friends we decided to find somewhere for us all to stay. That was not be the case as we soon discovered finding one room was going to be tough enough, let along enough rooms for 7! We split up and not too long after everyone had a bed for the night. we head off out for some dinner and a look around Louang Prabang. First impressions of Louang Prabang were very good....

We took the minibus up to Chiang Kong on the border between Thailand and Laos for one night. There was not much to do there as it was basically one long street. It was pretty cold and quiet so after some dinner and a film we head off for bed. We did meet some other Scottish travellers which were the first ones in months so that was pretty strange. The next morning we were up early to go to cross the border into Laos. Once across the border we boarded a slow boa...