I havent written a blog for absolutely ages, mainly down to laziness but also because internet was quite expensive in laos and writing blogs can take forever! so I'm actually writing this from Cambodia on a sunny afternoon feeling absolutely knackered after walking around Angkor Wat earlier today so excuse me if the blog is a little on the boring side.

We crossed the border into Laos a couple of weeks ago and promptly booked a two day boat trip to take us to Luang Prabang in north Laos. We turned up early enough to get a 2-seater bench for ben and I to share but as the morning progressed people started taking up a bench to themselves and not letting other passengers sit down next to them- so they then had to sit on the dirty floor for 8 hours. This may seem of little importance, but this was one of the first times since ive been away that ive been angry and i was ashamed to be european because alot of them were either british, german, french etc. Obviously i didnt say anything but i couldnt believe that people wouldnt give up half of their bench for someone else, it was so selfish! so it suddenly dawned on me that im going to meet some characters along the way that i may not be every fond of and will just have to deal with it, sad but true! aside from the passengers the boat trip down the Mekong river was amazing, well the wooden seats were so so uncomfortable and my pink beany bag that i loved and was keeping my bottom reasonably comfortable was stolen by a laos girl... ok so she was only 4 years old and very cute if not a little cheeky but she seemed to love it so much that i didnt see how i'd be able to get it back without alot of tears! but other than that, the views were unbelievable. For two whole days we were surrounded by river, mountains, remote villages and lots of water buffallo, we even spotted 2 elephants along the way!

When we reached Luang Prabang we found it to be a quiet little town that is incredibly pretty, designed around french architecture. It is very laid back and your time is mostly taken up with sitting in cafes or a cute little french wine bar watching the world go by. We took a trip to the waterfall just outside of town that was out of this world, it was metres upon metres high and as you climbed up you would reach several lagoons of clear blue water- divine! we didnt stay long in Luang prabang as we heard so many good things about a town called Vang Vieng, south of Luang prabang. The bus ride was also suprisingly nice as the whole journey is along one winding road around mountains, so you are as high as the clouds looking out for miles around you (my pics will show you some of the views), not like journeys you'll do on the m25 at home! Vang Vieng is a small dusty town with tens of restaurants, cafes, and t.v and movie bars, mainly showing re-runs of friends and simpsons! we stayed 5 days here as it had such a nice vibe about it and we met up with a couple who we'd seen in Luang Prabang so it was great to have some extra company. The first night we realised that a few of the bars slyly sell 'special' shakes- in other words mushroom shakes!(apparently they were legal in Britain until a year or so ago) i didnt try any because they literally look like mashed up mushrooms so i left the group to it but the next day was spent recalling all the antics from the night before, sounded hilarious! in fact ever since leaving we have met other backpackers and all of them have said how we should have tried the mushroom shakes, maybe next time haha! one of the first things we did was the infamous vang vieng tubing! you basically sit in a rubber tyre and float down the river stopping at make-shift bars along the way that have swings and really high jumps over the water! ofcourse i tried a couple and made a complete tit of myself when i belly flopped into the water from one of the jumps! i had brusies all over my legs and my belly felt like i'd down a thousand sit-ups for two days after!not nice, but apart from that the tubing was so much fun and the scenery was amazing as you float down the river surrounded by mountains and blue sky. The next day we went on a trekking and caving tour, which was mainly us climbing into very dark and very unsafe caves that were used as hide outs during the war! have to say i was pretty scared especially when we taken into a water cave by floating on a rubber tyre and my head torch stopped working so i couldnt see where i was going or what was around me! i probably should have mentioned im still a little scared of the dark and that certainly didnt help to cure me of my fear! one of the caves is 3 km long and only a couple of years ago a columbian guy went into it alone and never came out... he was found a month later starved to death, he had obviously got lost, so i was quite glad when we only walked a fraction of the way into that one! Next day i chilled out, read my book and got a massage while ben went rock climbing, after hearing about his day - he said it was the hardest thing he's ever done- im glad i chose not to go with him! for our last day i thought it would be a nice idea to follow lonely planets advice and rent a bike out to visit one of the many caves on the isalnd that are 'easy to get to on your own'. oh how very wrong they were! for a start the roads are so rocky that im suprised we didnt get a puncture after 5 minutes, 20 minutes into the journey, incredibly sweaty and very lost we spot a sign for a different cave and decide to head for that one. The sign points to a small path and so we took to it, eager to get to swim in the 'very nice' lagoon at the bottom of the cave. Another ten minute struggle down the very windy and muddy road i get my wheels stuck in the middle of a deep muddy puddle and had to put my feet straight in the mud to keep balance- ben to the rescue! he had to pull me out but as u can imagine my legs, feet and flip-flops were covered in horrible mud!eww! determined to reach a cave, any cave would have done, we carry on and finally find the cave! the lagoon had clear water but it also looked like it would have a fair few fishes and water snakes so staying sweaty was a far more appealing option! the one thing about Asia that has amazed ben and I is how relaxed they are about you doing things without instruction and regardless of how dangerous a situation is. We were allowed into the cave without a guide and only a head torch to see, we were the only ones around and had we had an accident im sure it would have been a fair few hours before the cave guy came looking for us! so we climbed on in! It was a huge struggle as the cave entrance was quite high up and you have to climb over very unsteady, wet rocks to get in but once inside, we had to almost crawl through the gaps avoiding the ten foot drop to our right and the massive spider to our left. Ten feet in and with not much light and a five foot drop we had to climb down to go any further we chickened out and gave up. disasterous trip for both of us but we managed to keep our sense of humour for most of the trip and vowed never to bike ride to a cave unsupervised again!

We left Vang vieng for the capital of Laos, Vientiane, the next day. Amazingly, most of the roads in the capital are still being built so as you can see in my pictures, alot of the roads are pure mud, by now my flip-flops have taken a battering! To be honest, we were templed out and the only other thing you can do in Vientiane is simply walk around, so we paid a very expensive hotel to let us use their pool! we were the only ones using it and the weather brightened up when we got in so it was a lovely relaxed afternoon pretending we were rich!hehe.

We then got a 16 hour bus journey down to 4000 islands; we werent sure what to expect but once we arrived it was literally 4000 islands of all different sizes, ranging from one foot wide to a few kilometres. We stayed on Don Khong, the main island for a day but other than walking around there wasnt alot to do on the island so promptly hopped onto a boat and headed for Don Det. I was a bit shocked when we arrived because all the accomodation was literally wooden huts with a bed and mosquito net. Toilets and showers were a 20 yard walk away and didnt look remotely clean! so i was little worried how I would cope (yes i am a princess) but luckily we found a decent-ish hut which had a bathroom attached, phew! however, this was the beginning of 4 very uncomfortable nights sleep, being woken up by all sorts of animals litterally outside the door of our hut- cows, dogs, chickens, gekkos, birds, you name it we heard it in those 4 days! the island is very small and still to this day it only has electricity between the hours of 7pm-9pm, so as u can imagine, it is very hot during the night and a must-have item past 10 pm is a torch or you'll have trouble finding ur way home! the first night i was in such a panic because we hadnt got into bed before the electricity went off so i was too scared to use the loo (lots of bugs and gekkos congregate in our toilets) and then i couldnt find the bed! wasnt very pleasant but by the second night i was getting the hang of it. The island and its inhabitants are so relaxed it became a joke among the tourists. They would literally sleep all day; hammocks would be strung up everywhere and guaranteed one person at least would be asleep inside a shop or restaurant when you arrived. When u ordered something they would look quite miffed that you had bothered them rather than grateful for your custom. We all came to the conclusion that they would probably be far more happier if the tourists werent on their island and they were left to themselves to carry on living off the land. By day 4 we were a little bored of the island, we had visited the waterfall - a very, long and hot bike ride was involved (god how i hate bike-rides now), and we had gone tubing between 2 islands but that was about all there was to do. It was probably great for people who had been travelling for months on end and wanted a break but ben and i wanted some adventure, and sitting around reading all day because it is too hot to do much else can be a bit boring! so we booked our bus ticket to Siem Reap in Cambodia for the next day and this is where I am now! won't bore you with anymore of our antics till we leave for Vietnam in a few more days. Hope u're all ok. Be in touch again soon.x