It was another damp and overcast morning in Vang Vieng when we woke. There had obviously been thunderstorms overnight as there were deep puddles where the road and pavements dipped.

The morning started off with an amazing noodle soup from a place that I stumbled upon yesterday. The food was cheap, amazingly fragrant and tasty full of al dente noodles and succulent chicken breast... Delicious. We then decided to be very lazy morning having a beer or two whilst watching Family Guy in one of the many bars that plays it on a consecutive loop... Well Laura was enjoying a nice cup of Mulberry tea while I enjoyed a beer. It was not even noon and the lively bar man was already offering the infamously named 'toxic water' to us. This is quite a notorious home brew in Laos and definitely puts hair on your chest. We manned up and took a shot for the team and it made our insides burn for a good five minutes afterwards!

We went for a walk shortly afterwards where we heard that the famous 'jungle party' was happening tonight and since we had neglected the opportunity to go the last time we were in Vang Vieng we thought maybe tonight would be the night. We have heard stories that it is in someone's back yard and is basically a concrete area with a few trees around the perimeter. This would not put us off though and we looked forward to letting our hair down. The afternoon was then spent lounging whilst pushing through our Game of Thrones novels and catching up with the news at home.

By the evening time we were both hungry and headed out to our new favourite restaurant that we had visited at breakfast. We enjoyed mixed vegetables dishes with pork and chicken served with rice. They were very generous portions and absolutely delicious ...this would set us up for the evening ahead.

We then headed for the well known backpacker bar called 'Fat Monkeys' who offered free beer in a small thirty minute period. The only catch was you had to 'shotgun' drink it! For the uninitiated, this involves a hole being pierced in the bottom of the can and you drink through this hole when you open the ring pull. The beer basically flies out of the bottom of the can!! Laura found this difficult to do and had not even opened the ring pull, a very poor effort. We enjoyed a free beer though so weren't complaining... We then decided to buy two vodka drinks which qualified us for the free 'fat monkeys' T-shirt. Laura opted for the pink one with blue lettering and it would further add to her pyjama collection no doubt. After enjoying our drinks over a game of pool we headed to another bar to obtain our free whisky 'bucket'. Yes we were aiming for as many free drinks as possible on our rounds!

The bucket took a long while in coming but did eventually arrive, we enjoyed it while watching numerous slide shows on their tags that showed how Vang Vieng in its hey day... It looked pretty fun and we couldn't understand the logic of showing people what they were now missing. We finished our buckets and then departed soon afterwards. On our way down bar street we passed a bar where we spotted the Irish chap we had bumped into in Nong Khiaw. He looked pretty drunk whilst gulping from his large bottle of BeerLao. We stayed for a chat and as usual he spent the whole time telling us what to do and how to do it. Before showing off all the bracelets he obtained tubing by buying millions of beers and shots. Laura and I do always get annoyed at these sort of people.

After a while we felt it was time to visit our little friend with the 'toxic water' where we enjoyed a good yarn with strong whisky buckets and even more 'toxic water'...... yes, it is a recipe for disaster.

By this point we were both keen to get to the 'jungle party' but spotted some familiar faces in the bar we found the Irish chap in earlier. It was the owners of the Utopia bar in Luang Prabang plus, the English guy who was continuously hanging around with them. I was now feeling the effects of the booze by now and Laura informed me the Irish guy was unconscious at the bar. He had also in a very undignified manner, been sick all over the bar top. That would be a premature end to his evening I guess! We sat with the Luang Prabang group and caught up before another guy with them showed us a spider bite he acquired from somewhere I do not know. It looked pretty horrific with pus and scabs and Laura in nurse mode told him to seek medical advice. That was some spider that caused that I tell you!

It was not long before the free tuk-tuks arrived and escorted us to the jungle party about three km out of down. On arrival it was better than expected, although there was an obvious concrete area with a few trees and crude looking bar in one corner.... There was also an inside club and lots of pretty places to hang put. The intoxicated were dancing away and we joined in for a while chatting and dancing before releasing it was getting late and we were hungry and tired. We left the party and as we are pretty stubborn we decided to walk back as it was practically straight down the road our guesthouse was on. On route a local guy passed us and offered to give us a lift back on the back of his bike. We then headed down a lot sooner giving him some money for his trouble... We then purchased some tuna baguettes before heading the short distance home, at this point the heavens opened and we got drenched.... In conclusion, it was a soaking wet end to the evening. We arrived back and put our dry clothes on and relaxed back in bed eating our midnight snack... At this point I started feeling a bit sick and thus spent the next hour hugging the toilet bowl... A mature and dignified end to the evening I think not.