23rd March had a coach ride to Hanlong Bay, to board our overnight boat and it was lovely we had a very nice cabin with shower room/toilet. It's a beautiful place with 2,000 islands but busy with 1,000s of very noisy Chinese tourists (they drink to much) after dropping anchor we took a smaller boat around some of the islands and a beach with 450 steps to the top of the rock with stunning views but no sun to see settling (shame). Next morning, walked through a hug...

21st March, our flight to Vietnam was delayed by 2 hours (boo) Hanoi is unbelievably mad, the amount of mopeds, motor bikes and bikes as well as cars and pedestrians is mind boggling but great fun and we've really enjoyed it. 22nd visited Ho Chi Minhs Mausoleum (he died 1969) to view his body and he looked pretty good for being dead for 48 years, they re-embalm him every year. In the afternoon we enjoyed a water puppet show with lovely live music and a bit of sho...

Saturday 18th March had a 7 hour bumpy (very) coach ride to a small village Ban Na Douang where we had our home stay for the night in a local village, some of us played football with lads from the village which we had to play barefoot (well it was Saturday) we enjoyed traditional Laotian food and we were able buy a beer to drink with the lovely meal. After the children did traditional dancing then encouraging us to get up and join them I was knackered, but slept ...

16th March, we enjoyed a guided tour of Kuang Si waterfalls and had chance to swim in one of the beautiful pools, although it felt cold at first you soon got used to it, but you had to put up with the small fish nibbling the dead skin on your feet (often giving you a nasty nip) Also visiting a Asian Black Bear Rescue Centre where poaching of these creatures is common to sell to the Chinese!!!! Some were maimed from the method used to catch them (snare around the...

Monday 13th March we made our way to Chiang Khong and stopped off at Wat Rong Khun to visit the White Temple. This Buddhist Temple started construction 1998 by a wealthy Thai artist (Ajarn Chalermchai) it looks like a fairly tale castle with amazing paintings by him inside google him to see his work. 14th we crossed the border into Laos and traveled down the mighty Mekong River by boat to spend a night at a small town Muang Pakbeng where the local market sold dri...