Time to move on from Luang Prabang - we've had a great few days here, best place in Laos so far…but we're off to Vang Vieng which is a bit of a backpacker 'must-do' destination in SE Asia. Everyone goes there for 'tubing', where you hire an inflatable tyre and float down the river, stopping at riverside bars along the way. We've heard mixed reviews about it but decided that we have to do it! The town is supposed to be very backpacker oriented and nothing at all like the 'real' Laos. Apparently all of the bars show Friends and Family Guy on a constant loop and 'happy' pizzas and 'happy' shakes are readily available - don't think we'll be partaking in that! But first we had a seven-hour 'VIP' bus journey to get through…

The bus was OK but nothing special. The air con was working, which was the most important thing! I think they get their buses second-hand from China and they were probably quite nice buses twenty years ago! The journey to Vang Vieng was very bumpy and windy as we drove through the mountains. The scenery out of the window was beautiful and I spent most of the journey looking at the view and at the villages we passed along the way. The bus stopped at the roadside a few times to pick up locals or for some of the local passengers to buy things from the roadside villages; the strangest of these purchases were some live rats/guinea pigs (we weren't sure which they were!) A little girl held a few of them upside down, offering them to people on the bus. A few people bought some - they must eat them! There was also a young local lad on the bus who got travel sick and was throwing up the entire way, poor thing!

A good thing about travelling in the day is that the meal stop is at a sensible time! We stopped at about 1pm and had our free food. When we travel on night buses we always seem to stop at about 1am and we never feel like eating then!

We eventually arrived in Vang Vieng at around 3pm and got a tuk tuk into town. We looked at a few possible places to stay and eventually settled on Khamphone Guesthouse and an air-con room with TV and bathroom for £10 per night - bargain! We had a wander around the town, which was a bit deserted as everyone was still out tubing. We saw for ourselves all of the bars playing Friends - we're looking forward to watching a few episodes later!

Back at the hotel, we watched TV for a few hours before getting ready to go out for the night. We ate tea at a bar on the river and then had a drink while watching Friends. We wandered around trying to find the crowd but all of the bas were quiet as there was a 'jungle party' on somewhere out of town, which everyone seemed to be going to! We didn't fancy it but we eventually managed to find a bar with signs of life.

We stayed for about an hour then headed back to our hotel. We're hoping to stat our tubing quite early tomorrow to make the most of the day!