28th may
early start for bus journey from hell ...... i spent some serious time with my head over a carrier bag! :( ... the roads were windy and bumpy the whole way!! 15 hrs over the border to laos where we spent a night in pak xan.. immediately noticed the seriously high amount of bugs and things here compared to vietnam!! eek!! i had a spider in my bed that night, which i obviously was not impressd with! also a totally different feel to the place to vietnam!

29th may
bus journey straight after breakfast to vietiane (capital city), though you would not believe it as it only has 200,000 people (like a small village in vietnam!)... we had lunch straight away and then all went off to do our own things! caz dan and anna rented bicycles but me and jackie opted out and walked instead... even though laos is obviously sleepy and relaxed compared to vietnam the roads werent quite safe enough for our liking! we visited couple of temples and then head straight for the local market where i got a few good bargains! really got the taste for bartering now!!
that ngiht we wnt for food on the river, our first meal ouot in laos, i had curry and it was very tasty!!! it was quite cool sitting on the river, and the relaxed vibe here was emphasised by the restaurant next door playing a bob marley album lol.

30th may
unfortunately we only had one night in the capital, we head that morning for vang vieng! where everyone knows is the home of tubing! the whole bus journey was pelting it down with rain so we were all a bit dubious about how likely it was we could do it! as we sat at the hotel (by the river) for lunch, the clouds and mist started to clear and we decided to go for it! there were 10 of us out of the group who went! the tuk tuk took us up the hill to the start point!... as we approached the start (bar no1) we could already hear the music blasting! and we were greeted by guys who wanted to write our names on us (fair enough) and give us free shots of whisky (which i declined!! urgh!), we had a drink here and took in the atmosphere, its was like a strange version of a hol on a greek island, lots of people wanting to get drunk...but with way better scenery!! after our first drink we decided to head for the river in our tubes... we were a bit nervous as rainy season has started early and the river is apparently wider,deeper, faster then in dry season... but once we were all in it was great! the water was a bit cold but soon got over that, we missed the next bar as some of us didnt make the ropes that the locals throw out to pull you in..so we all managed to stop at the next one. summary... alcohol, mud bath and tug of war, more mud!, dancing, meeting new people and generally chilling and having a laugh...we decided to pay the penalty for getting the tubes back after 6pm lol and went on to the last bar before we head down the river! though as duck started to come we realised we better get a move on and all very quickly head for the river... by the time we got to near the other end it was almost pitch blck, and we were all getting a bit nervous!!!.. then we saw lights ahead and stopped off at the side and walked up the embankment... only a couple of hundred metres from the start point. we were all safe and sound, and everyone gpt out, though a couple had missed it and got pulled in by locals a bit further down lol. all in all an eventful day!!! it was great though, and the views from the river of the mountains etc at dusk time was spectacular!!! wish we had another day there so we could have experienced it in a less rushed fashion!