Hey petals, After a fantastic few days exploring Luang Prabang we booked a mini van to take us five hours south to Vang Vieng. The journey was horrible at times...speeding around a winding mountain road feeling very sick indeed! The scenery was beautiful though, rolling hills and mountains with small villiages dotted by the roadside. It was interesting to catch a glimpse of rural Lao life as we drove by...women cooking, children waving and shouting 'Sabai dee!' and wrinkled old ladies smoking pipes and gossiping on the doorstep! The road had all but washed away in places and was always very narrow. The traffic was surprisingly heavy...we often shared the road with: chickens, gangs of waving children, pot bellied pigs, cows and the odd mangy looking dog! Vang Vieng is a real backpacker town. The main attractions are the beautiful limestone cliffs which line the river and a number of caves to explore. The most popular way to see the sights is to hire a tube (from a tractor tire) and float downriver, stopping off at the bars for beer Lao. For $3 a Tuk Tuk will take you up river, from there you can lazily float along with beer in hand...when your beer is empty just listen out for the bar staff shouting 'Beer Lao, Beer Lao!' They very kindly pull you in with a huge bamboo pole and turn you loose to sunbathe, drink, or have a go on the really high zip line slides (if you are sober enough!) For a short while the river splits into two, and the island between is a really popular place to eat and drink at night. The bars have decks over the river with cushions for lounging, or a campfire if you prefer you psy trance to be mozzy free :) Cheap cocktails are on offer, with a free shot of Lao Lao if you are brave enough...its a home brew spirit usually poured from a bottle with a scorpion or snake preserved in it! Needless to say we had a shot...or three :) We met up with a really canny Kiwi who introduced us to her friends. She came tubing with us...had a quality beer filled time! We spent the next day Kyaking down the river, I hated it as it felt really unstable. This was sooo irrational as the rapids are only level one and the water was only a foot deep!! Had a good drink that night to soothe my nerves, really enjoyed getting a bit merry and playing b*stard (a card game...guess who ended up loosing most of the time?!) We have spent five days here so far, minus one day we spent taking a girl to Vientiane in an ambulance (knew I would come in handy somewhere!) Next stop back to Vientiane.... Big Love petals K&M