Hello all and first of all let me appologise for Lauren's poor spelling in the last blog, in her defense we were in a rush as our alotted time on the internet was running out and it was like a scene from James Bond film - "ten seconds and counting.."

Anyway, well we have had an interesting adventure over the last few days, travelling from Chiang Mai in Thailand to Louang Phrabang in Laos. This was achieved via a long bus trip to the Mekong River and the Thai / Laos border, followed by what can only be described as a beautiful yet long, sometimes scary two day trip on a slow boat down the Mekong to our current destination: the very nice French Colonial town of Louang Phrabang.

Saying goodbye to Chiang Mai, we borded a mini van with many other adventurers not knowing the true extent of the 5 hour trip to the border! Once at the border town of Nam Khong we stayed in a nic pink motel before boarding the slow boat down the mekong. Our first boat was spacious and the journey went very smoothly and quickly, we met a nice Kiwi girl who helped pass the time. We arrived at Pak Beng for the night and where we stayed at a cheap guest house (3 quid for the room) where it was lights out at 11, literally! The generator was turned off and it was time to break out the head torches! In the morning it was throwing it down and we had to get to the boat for 9, got there 10 minutes early to find a new boat which was smaller and filled with even more poeple! Lucky to get seats (if you call a wooden plank a seat), once the seats were full we thought that would be it but then another 30 people were squeezed on making the rest of the trip even more enjoyable! Journey laste 8 and a half hours where we stopped off to pick up more locals including the yearly supply of rice and clothing!!!! How we didn't sink I fdon't know, luckily we are both quite good swimmers!

Finally arrived at Louang Phrabang which is the nicest place we have been to so far and checked ourselves into a $35 a night hotel which was amazing. Doesn't sound expensive but when you compare it to the place we have moved to at $11 a night with aircon you can see how cheap everything is! Spent the night relaxing with happy hour cocktails and some nice Italian food, will be tightening the purse strings for a bit though and back to local food!

Off to see some Laos dancing tonight and more cocktails of course! Fly to Vietnam on Sunday, will be in contact again after that!

P.S. Thanks Marcus for showing Mere how to access this, Mere hope you are reading this!

P.P.S. Traditional Laos stew is called Oram!

P.P.P.S. Happy Birthday for Sunday Merryn, there is something in the post!

P.P.P.P.S. We love all the messages, keep posting and reading...Mum are you reading this, leave me a message (from Rich).