Euuurrghh...early start this morning. Got up at 4.55am and out the door for 5.15am!! Time to move to the tubing town - Vang Vieng! First off though, we had to drop our backpacks off at the Stray bus 2 blocks down from our guesthouse.

Then we went up to the main street to watch "the giving of arms" (I think it's called) - giving food gifts to the monks. It was pretty busy with tourists, and the local people sell different foods to tourists to give to the monks. It got started at about 6am, shortly after sunrise. Everybody is lined up on the pavement with their food gifts and the monks walk past with a container each to collect the food from each person. There's loads of them! Must have been around 200, it took them half an hour to get past. They give out rice, banana, other fruits, crisps etc to collect for their meals. There's also some children who stand there, kind of begging, with a cardboard box or plastic bag, and some of the monks give food to them. One little kid was hardly getting anything, but the other boy and girl next to him were getting quite a bit...thought Therese was going to bring him with us!! She felt sorry for him but he ended up with loads anyway.
It's interesting to see it all and was worth getting up to see...still knackered though!

Then we walked right down Main Street to get our mini-bus...flashy new mini-bus too! Took a bit if a while to get going while they sorted out paperwork, but we were on our way at 7.30am.
It didn't take long before we were into the mountains. The roads were steep and winding, and there was literally no straight road. We were going up, down and around mountains. Therese said her ears popped twice. I was trying to write blogs on the way and felt really sick!! I never feel sick traveling!
The scenery was seriously unbelievable!! It easily knocks the socks off any of the bus journeys we've had in Cambodia and Vietnam. Absolutely incredible scenery, and we had two stop offs at probably the best stop offs in the world!!! The views were really amazing!
(I'm running out of words to use - amazing, beautiful, incredible...I need new words, will have to get a thesaurus!)
Was a decent bus journey with Stray and even had a quiz on the way.

We finally got into Vang Vieng at about 1.30pm. We weren't sure where our hostel was and had to ask a few people before I finally got directions. It took us about 15 minutes to get to our hostel and it was really hot. There was another girl called Amy that we met on the bus and she came along with us to check out our accommodation because she had nothing booked.
We checked in and went to our room...it's absolutely awful. Tried to convince ourselves it wasn't though, but what do you expect for £4 per room per night!?

Went back out to grab some late lunch. First impressions of Vang Vieng...really grim looking and we was very unimpressed. It was like a ghost town. Loads of restaurants and bars but nobody around. We realised that most people must be out tubing. All the bar/restaurants have these lounging table areas and have TVs constantly playing Friends or Family Guy. So we did what everyone else does, chilled out, watched Friends and had a bite to eat - so cheap here. The only people in these places looked like wrecks - really hungover looking people. So yeah, it seemed like a bit of a let down, but think that's because Luang Prabang is so nice and there is a massive difference between them.

Anyway, we went back to our room and I had a power nap before getting ready to go out on the town. We put the mosquito net up for the first time as well, it's a good kit as well...doubles as a fishing net as well if we get stranded in a jungle...

Time to meet Johanna and Therese!!
We met them at 7.30pm at Q Bar, which was absolutely dead - it was brilliant to meet up with them again!! We went straight for something to eat and it was really good talking about what we've all been up to.
We ate at Oh La La - free whiskey shot, free cocktail bucket with two meals and the food was dirt cheap and pretty good. We could have even got a free t-shirt if we'd have bought another bucket. No idea how they actually make money!

After filling up, we went back to Q Bar - it was heaving now! Good atmosphere in there, and most of the staff are backpackers who are just drunk day and night. A guy goes around recording video all day and the play it in Q Bar - really funny to watch! They're always giving out free whiskey shots as well. It's the local stuff - Lao Lao whiskey.

We spent about an hour in there and then nipped back to Johanna and Therese's guesthouse to check out their digs. They paid pretty much the same as us and there's is much better! And closer to the action. Johanna also needed to go back because she gets an allergic reaction to alcohol sometimes and it makes her face go really red but patchy and on her chest and back. I tried to Google how to treat the problem but couldn't find anything...usually find everything on Google! A bit of makeup sorted it out.

We then made our way Bucket Bar. It's like a pub crawl here. Everybody seems to start in one place and then moves on to the next. We had to walk over this rickety bamboo bridge across the river, and then there's a load of outdoor "clubs" with dance-floors and huts with hammocks and the place is bouncing.
Got a few buckets in there and partied away. Met quite a few people through Johanna and Therese and had a really good laugh with all them.

Therese went to the bar to get a drink and the bar man had put something in the top of her straw...magic mushrooms...don't worry, we certainly ain't taking any of that stuff, alcohol is enough for us.

After that we moved on to Limbo Bar. That place was even crazier! They had a limbo bar that was on fire and everyone was having a go. There were even backpackers taking a mouth full of petrol and blowing it out making massive flames. Then this guy came out with balls of fire on chains and he was swinging them around etc, but then this backpacker girl was allowed to have a go. She was swinging them around and didn't have a clue what she was doing...some dangerous stuff going on!

The atmosphere is fantastic, everyone is really friendly and the bars are brilliant.

After drinking and dancing plenty, we left the bars and was chatting on the streets, and then at about 3.30am all the lights on the street went out!! Think they always do that.

We had a really good night with Johanna and Therese. It was brilliant to meet up with them again! But that's it, early tomorrow they go south to Vientiane and we stay here. So we had to say bye once again...we'll really miss them!!! But we'll see them again - perhaps on our travels, but more likely afterwards, maybe in Sweden or London.

Tonight changed our opinions of this place. It's a crazy party town so that's how you have to look at it! It's full of people who came for a night or two but ended up staying a week or two! It's so cheap for everything and it's really party central!

(really had to rush this one because I'm so behind on the blogs...too much out drinking I think... We're just doing and seeing sooooo much that I would be here forever writing blogs. Its hard to really describe sometimes without it getting really long winded too!)