since don det laos has been amazing!

went on a mototorbike tour of the south of laos for five days with andrew, loz and ryan stopping off at waterfalls and villages to sleep. this was great as the roads are empty with the only reason to stop to take a picture or to go round a cow or a goat in the road.

saw some amazing waterfalls and stopped at some great little places, but struggled as nobody spoke english so the only food was noodle soup, which is not the best! the only time i ate something else i itched my eye after breaking up a chilli! this was like having your eye in a microwave but the owners sorted me out with some ice and saved me.

we were in bed at 9 most nights shattered after ryan the new york hitler got us up at 6 every morning to 'hit the road' as he said. on the last night we stayed on the bolevan plateau which had the bumpiest road up onto it, going through the jungle which was a bit challenging as i am not exactly lewis hamilton on a bike.

the plateau was freezing (15C) and we stopped in a place for something to eat as it looked full, a man came running towards us saying to join him and his friends so we sat down.we found it was not a restaurant but a teachers meeting and they would not take a penny off us for a meal and a few shared beerlao, they were ace people and we had a laugh talking to them for a few hours before bed.

when we got back to pakse we got the nightbus up to vientiene where we cycled round all day and saw all the sights,it was a really cool place i couldent believe it was a capital city it was like ormskirk twon centre!

i left the team to go to vang vieng as i had less time, but when i got there i bumped into tom and andy from don det so that was cool. went cycling to all the caves that were pretty amazing but we had no torch with us so we were running in after my camera flash which was a laugh.

met up with andrew and loz again the next day and we all went tubing down the namsong river! first we were taken about 4km upstream and dropped off with massive rubber rings to float down the river getting pulled into bars on the side of the river it was amazing. all the bars had music, aerial runways, massive swings and slides so it was great and the scenery was brilliant with the mountains around the river.

after a few more days in vang vieng headed to luang prebang with tom and andy which was a cool place with a great market selling 'trinkets and bits' as mum would say. went to see another really cool waterfall and then at night ate in the market at a stall for 50p.

next day we got on the slow boat which took 2 full days up the mekong river to the thai border, but this was good as we played cards and looked out the side as we went. there were some places that people were waiting on the beaches for a delivery of food from the boat as they did not have roads joining them. we stopped for the night in a small place with no electricity called pak beng before the second day on the boat. from the thai border we got a bus to chaing mai and yesterday looked around the night market.

speak soon joe