From Luang Prabang we headed to the small village of Nong Khiaw on a very crowded bus, it's such a beautiful place as hopefully you can see from the pic. We spent 3 days having wicked Swallows and Amazons adventures ....over to Evan.

When we arrived we managed to find a decent little guest house for the princely sum of 2 pounds a night and set off walking to the local place of interest a cliff cave where people had hidden duiring various wars mostly it seemed from US Bombs that fell with dreadful regularity. We were joined on this adventure by three local guides aged about 8 called Kip , On and Beer. Might not be how they spell their names and it sounds a bit like what i do of an evening but they were very friendly chaps and insisted on giving the ladies flowers and assistance when climbing stairs and racing the gentlemen on foot. we were expecing to be tapped for cash as our happy troup sauntered back to the village but they didn't want any money what they really wanted was a football which we bought them for a pound and honestly the joyous looks on their little faces would have been worth maybe one pound twenty. everyone was happy so we had a nice tea and went to bed....

..back to me... and the next day we wondered what could top such a wicked afternoon the day before - RIVER FISHING of course and not just any old river fishing but river fishing the Laos way. This involves laying a net in the stream then bashing the water really hard with a great big stick. How much fun does that sound? Lots of fun let me tell you. We waded about 1 km up the river and probably caught about 30 little fishes aided by Yip ( aged about o15) and Bo ( aged about 7) Yip being the master net layer and water basher and Bo who was the happiest little person you ever met, who collected the fish in a little basket and sang to himself all afternoon. We then got to eat the fishe and it was so in my top 5 meals of the trip so far. Reallly lovely little fish fried and washed down with some warming ( read burning) Lao Lao ( rice whisky, my new drink of choice)

On the third day we thought we'd had enough adventures and famous five gadding about but oh no! If we thought that the bus up was crowded - HA! the bus back was on eof the converted vans that on a good day you could go for 30 mins before you arse is numb and all your bags fall off the roof. So there was about 20 too many people crammed into this thing, rob hanging off the back, andrea and I sharing a 1 foot by 4 foot hole with an eldering Laos man and Evan somehow in luxury in the front hmmmm. All going well til 4 hours laters only 15 km from Luang Prabang and the brakes go. Never fear though, there is no AA in Laos, but they do have twigs and stones so in spite of some cunningi haggling with a local van owner re getting us back to town, we managed to make it with the stone and twig in place. Phew.

We're now in vientiane which is the capital of Laos and very hot and sweaty after the cool mists of Nong Khiaw. The only thing for it is to drink beer so last night we had a big night out. This in a country with a curfew is no mean feat. We took tips from the locals and went to Future nightclub - lots of thai pop and more staff than customers, then a tuk tuk ride to another bar and more lao lao for me, then to a proper club where were were scandalized to pay 30,000 kip each entrance (1.50 pournds) and only went in as this included a free drink. 30,000 kip in Laos is a LOT of money. So the club is on the roof terrace of a new swank hotel and we danced with some expat s and laos people. there seemed to be lots of expat guys and lots of Lao girls and guys but Andrea and I with our blonde hair stuck out like a sore thumb. Sadly at 2am we had to come home :( but tonight we fly to Vietnam so we have approx 4 hours to get over our hangovers.