After our tubing trip, we were eager to move on from Vang Vieng so we left early the next morning on another minibus journey, this time for 4 hours, to the Laos capital - Vientiane. This is the country's business capital so is limited in terms of what it can offer tourists. When we arrived, everything was still closed for new year and the locals were on their final, fifth day of partying and water fights. The city had turned into a noisy, wet mess and we really...

Vang Vieng is a small town situated on the Nam Song river, south of Luang Prabang. The 7 hour trip was uncomfortable due to the dangerous driving, winding roads and locals on our bus vomiting from travel sickness. When we arrived in Vang Vieng, we were not impressed. The town is a like the rough part of Benidorm. The reason most people come is to take part in a phenomenom called Tubing. This is where you hire the inner tube of a tractor tyre for the day, get dr...

We left Chiang Khong at 8am to cross the Laos/Thailand boarder on the river. When we got to the otherside we got our visas - a long, disorganized process where we were charged 1 dollar more as it was a Sunday and one member of our group was not allowed in the country as he had a Turkish passport! We then boarded the boat along with 80 others and drifted for 7 hours down the Mekong to a village called Pakbeng. We were more than ready to leave our dingy guesthou...