Leaving Vietnam and entering into Laos, first stop was Savannahket. A reasonably small town with a closely net population but full of young kids. Mainly young noisy children but also many adolescence and on one particular night we stepped outside the bar we were drinking in, halted our game of snooker and investigated the fuss that was racekting outside and there about 200yards down the road was a group of thugs causing ruckus. Apparently this is a regular occurence. Strange. I thought only the gav's of England were capable of pointless fighting.

We left Savannahket the next day to head Northwest to Wien Chan the capital. It was a pleasant capital, and probably the quietest capital city on Earth. the crazy thing is, is that Laos is one of if not the poorest country in South East Asia with the average daily wage not rising far above 8000kip a day (17.5000kip=1GBP) yet so many people are driving around in brand new Ford pickup trucks. I did investigate one night, when we befriended this ex pro golfer, who was now a partner of the bar we were drinking in but unfortunately he had been drinking a little too much beer. After we headed down to the river to get some pad Thai, which was fried noodles. If you ever goto Viennetianne go down to the riverside and buy the noodles. Fabulous! anyway we ended up chatting to this young lad called Phoume, who was a very respectable guy, who held himself with high expectations. At 20years old, he was literally fluent in English, and was studying Medicine in a 7year degree in Bangkok. I todl him that i liked his table cloths and that i may want to purchase one, and so we agreed to meet the next day as he offered to take me to the siamese market where i could get one of my own. So the next day we floated down to the riverside, yammed some noodles and waited around for his friend who he had arranged to meet us also, as we needed another scooter as he was not keen on us 3 on one scoot. This guy had is sussed, he first had plans to take us to Wat Phru Pat which is the enormous golden column in the north of the City. After we took a visit an Arc de Triumph lookalike and payed a cheap entrance fee to climb to the top for panoramic views, but to be honest i dont think it was high enough. We scooted over to the market finally and there i managed to find myself a nice silk wannabe cloth, which is not actually a table cloth but something similar like a blanket. For all the kindness they showed us we would not let them refuse us to buy them a beer, so they took us to a cheap student bar which was great fun. we polished off more than enough beers, and ate some of the spiciest food i have tried yet, it was intensely hot! we larked about and carried on there and then rode over for a couple of games of Bowling. These guys were obviously keen on it because they were would give up asking to play and let it be known that this was their favourite pasttime. They werent all that bad either, on both the games we played they snatched 1st and 2nd place. Now it was our turn for sporting leisure and so they tried their hand at pool. Both Phoume and Antoine said that they had never wielded a pool cue in their lives and that it was the first time they had ever played. It showed. So we set about teaching them how to play, which was great fun and i am confident in the future they will be playing alot more. When it got to the stage where they could just about hold the cue properly and poot a ball on the pocket, we left it at that and jumped back on the scoots. This time my turn to drive hah and it was great fun, i love riding motorbikes and driving someone else on their scoot is even more pleaseing as a symbol of trust. We were not ready to goto bed, so they agreed to take us to the only place open at that hour apart from the bowling. We drove to a place not more than 2minutes down river from Phoumes noodle bar, to a Hotel. The only place that actually rose above 3storeys and one that dominated the cities skyline. Wed viewed it so many times but never thought of it as anything special. Still up we went, in this plush lift packed full of Laos youngsters up to the top floor. We paid 30,000Kip to get in and that came with a free drink which was an absolute result! the rest is history... and but fond memories in my mind.

We left the day after, at 6am to catch a bus north to VangVieng. Wow finally, before leaving tubing in VangVieng was one of the only things that were a definate on my trip and now i am on my way there. What a buzzing little town, unfortunatley the one road that was actually populated and the few minor roads angling off it were chocka with Phalangs, by day lazing around wathcing friends episode after friends episode but by night brimming with life and party. The reason being is that if your not tubing, there is basically nothing else to do there. VangVieng is a town only accesible solely from the tubing industry. We spent the first day minging, and then the second headed out after the greatest full english breakfast id eaten so far on my travel, great bacon, tasty sausage and real bean means Heinz! Tubing is top fun, and i definatley recommend it to anyone, blonde of grey.... I shall continue this at a later date, right now i have to collect my bags from left luggage at the bus station as were moving from bangkok to suhkotai tonight, the ancient capital of thailand.

much love to all, next installment soonx