Day 228- It was a constructive morning as I managed to wash a lot of clothes in the sink before heading to breakfast, some how this managed to flood the whole bathroom - typical. We decided to leave it and popped along the road for some egg and bacon sarnies - amazing and dead cheap, we could see straight away by the cheap prices and competition this was a backpacker place. Back at the hotel our bathroom was still flooded so after a bit of complaining we moved rooms. We walked along to the tubing centre and paid for our tubes, we were then dropped off 4km upstream and were left to float down river. Tubing in Vang Vieng has had a lot of bad press over the years for 2 reasons 1) European tourists catching on, getting very drunk while tubing, being rowdy and even drowning. 2) Laos local's taking advantage and opening many bars along the river encouraging tourists with free shots and in some cases selling jugs of drug laced alcohol. Fortunately we are happy to say this has all stopped which for us makes the tubing experience a lot better. As it was dry season the river wasn't flowing too fast and we moved along slow even coming to a stop at times, but this didn't bother us a bit of paddling and we were on our way again. The scenery was outstanding, so peaceful and so beautiful. There are 5 bars left on the river. The first we decided to stop at, we were given a free shot and a free bracelet which we were surprised at, due to the new laws the bar wasn't allowed to play music but it was nice and chilled out, we had one drink and carried on, we only stopped once more and Lloyd got a beer. It took us 5 hours in total to float down the river, a lot longer than we expected. We got back just in time as after 6pm they fine you for having the tube too long. I think a lot of people will have been stung as they say it only takes 3 hours - and it doesn't, we made it in 5 and didn't make many stops. Overall we loved our day tubing, it was so relaxing. We had a walk around the shops and gave in to 'Vang Vieng tubing' vests - total tourists. We walked past a bar playing re-runs of friends and we couldn't resist. The food ended up being amazing and reasonably priced. We picked up a banana, chocolate and coconut pancake to share (we're on the banana pancake trail after all) and headed back to the hotel.

Day 229- We picked up a baguette from one of the many women on the street and then waited for our bus. A mini-bus came to collect us and take us to the bus station. Next was our bus to Vientiane, the journey wasn't bad and we arrived in to a very hot Vientiane about 1pm. Luckily they dropped us right in the centre so we had a look about for a guesthouse. Everywhere seemed so expensive we couldn't believe it. We ended up paying the most we have paid in Laos for a box of a room with a tiny window, no air-con and a shared bathroom. We went straight back out and found a street cafe for some lunch. The first thing we had to do was hand in our passports for our Vietnam visa. We had a walk around a few agents and the prices quoted were extortionate- alot more than we expected. The embassy was way out of town and the taxi fair wasn't worth it. We eventually settled for one, handed over our $74 each and our passports. We then went in search for a laptop charger. We tried a photography shop and he had one similar but told us to walk about 20 minutes down the road and we managed to find one - perfect. We went for a walk along the river bank and stopped for a fruit shake to escape the heat. After some research back at the guesthouse we went to the market for some food but found that there wasn't much available, it was mainly tourist stuff and clothing. We stumbled upon a tapestry stall selling what both our mother's want so we took a few snaps and carried on in search of food. Back at the guesthouse Lloyd's Mam got back in touch and said yes to one so we walked back along before it closed to pick it up.