We decided to take the slow boat to Laos from Thailand. we had to travel 5 hours in a mini bus up to Chiang Khong then spend the night in a guest house which was more like a prison cell and our door didn't lock properly so Liz had to shove her bed up against it. in the morning we were taken to the Laos border which is the most unorganised thing ever witnessed they basically pick a passport out of the pile ad call a name at random. we were then taken to catch the slow boat, it is an old boat with uncomfortable wooden benches that you have to be sat on for 8 hours. Luckly we met some really nice people on the boat and just spent the journey with them. we then got to our overnight stop off in Laos, the power goes off at 10pm and after that you need a torch or candles luckily we had our mobile phones.

the next morning we headed back for another eight hours on the boat before arriving in Luang Prabang. in the evening we went out for dinner with the people forom our boat their were 16 of us in total and the bill came to over 1 million Kip. we then went onto a bar but because of a curfew everything shut at 11.30pm so randomly we all ended up going bowling as it was the only thing open till late. it was a really good night and weird to think we had come all the way to Laos and ended up bowling.

the next morning we went to a waterfall which was absolutely amazing and a bit of a trek but we made it to the top and swam in the most amazing water.

the next morning we took a mini bus with some of the others down to Vang Vieng the journey was good fun as it was only us on the bus. when we arrived we found a guest house which we weren't keen on as it was a shared bathroom and the room wasn't great but it was cheap and everyone else was staying their as well. in the evening we went to explore the town and ended up at the smile bar doing buckets of sansom whisky and coke.

we happened to be in Loas for the new year which basically means people come up to you and chuck water over you. the next day we decided to go tubbing down the river and we were on our tuk tuk on the way to the start point when our driver decides to stop in the middle of town for about 10 minutes. we were absolutely soaked where people kept chucking water on us. it was so fun.

we eventually got to the start point and made our way down the river stopping at different bars along the way. we stopped at one where they had clay so we all started writing on each other. in the evening it was back to the smile bar.

the following day we went tubbing again and lauren and liz had a go at one of the swings where you jump into the river. it was such an adrelaine rush and we're glad we gave it a go.

the next day we took it easy and slept in then planned our flight to vietnam.

the following morning we got a mini bus to Vientaine airport and flew to vietnam