We are in Laos, and I still love this country, it is so different and refreshing from the other Asian countries. People are not yelling at you, trying to scam money off you, they are just relaxed and friendly.

Although I can see that it is changing, and the capital Vientiane, has gotten a lot more expensive since last time I was here. Prices are also often in US dollars, and that's never a good sign. I'm glad to do Laos properly before it becomes all touristy and expensive.

We spent the first day in the capital, being very tired and all, from sleeping in the airport the night before. That was not a comfortable experience! It is soo cold in that airport, they love air conditioning a little bit too much!

Second day, we took the bus 4 hours north to Vang Vieng, it's a small town, based on tourism. It's where I celebrated my 24th birthday with Line. It's a place with lots of different activities, best known for its tubing phenomenon. Where you sit in a tube (from inside a tractor wheel I think, basically like a big floating ring), and float down the Nam Song river. On the way, there are bars where you can stop and have a drink, or a bucket of alcohol. They also show episodes of "Friends" in almost every restaurant there, you can basically lie on a sofa thing, while eating a watching "Friends". I think it's wonderful! It's just not the same to wait for dinner now, with no "Friends" to watch in the meantime.

On Monday we decided to go kayaking for the day. I wanted to do the whole day, but just the last week, dry season has started, and the river has much less water than just a couple of weeks ago. So there was no chance of kayaking the whole day. We booked a caving/ kayaking trip instead. Caving is basically going into a cave and floating through it. We had our tubes, and floated inside a cave, the water in there was freezing! We went all the way to the very end of the cave, the furthest in you could get, that took about 30 minutes, before we had to go back out the same way. I did this last time as well, at the exact same place, so I was more excited about the kayaking. And it was so much fun! The scenery was beautiful, so green and mountainous, and just sitting there in a kayak, floating by, was wonderful. It felt good to get some exercise as well, I still feel it in my arms! That was a really good day.

Yesterday, we decided to go tubing. We wanted to have the whole day, because last time I started at 2 pm, and didn't even get to the end of the river, because it got dark. So we started around noon, and had one drink at the first bar. Then we jumped into our rings and floated a little bit, before we went to another bar. We stayed here very long, mainly coz we could be the dj's and choose which songs to be played. And suddenly I'd had two buckets of mojitoes, not so smart.. More and more people started coming, so we saw that as a cue to leave, we just went straight across the river to the next bar, which was the first place Line and I stopped at, last time. To make a long story short, we didn't really get any further than that. Before we knew it, it was dark, and we had to be driven home in a car instead of going down the river on tubes. I am not exactly sure as to how time went so incredibly fast, but I am blaming the mojitoes! We just sat around, talking to the people we went kayaking with the day before, a guy from New Zealand, and an Irish couple. Hung out with some local 17 year old boys. Time just passed! And I don't remember much of the way home. We had a drunken dinner, and went to bed at around 9.30 pm, hehehehe..Yeah, maybe next time I will go all the way…

Back to Vientiane on Wednesday, 5 hours on a very warm and sticky bus. Yesterday we did the touristy thing, and rented bikes for the day, to cycle around to see all the sights. Vientiane is a small capital city, you can even walk around it to see all the sights, which are not so many. We went to a temple, which is the only temple not destroyed by the Thais here. Then we went to the Lao l'arc de triomphe (Triumfbuen, som i Paris). After that to another temple, and after lunch to a history museum to learn about the history of the country.

This afternoon, we are moving on south, to Pakse, and from there, we will go even further south, to some islands which are supposed to be very beautiful, and there are dolphins there. We were supposed to go to Savannakhet today, which is in the middle of where we are now and Pakse. But realized there is nothing to do except for a dinosaur museum, which is sadly closed at the weekend. And by taking the overnight bus tonight, we'll save money.

Southern Laos is very remote, and I have not been there before, so I am quite excited, and hope it will be good. We are not sure whether we'll cross the Thai border and go to Bangkok from there, or cross the Cambodian border to go to Siem Reap. We'll see!