Date: 26th May 2011

Place: 4000 Islands

Weather: really hot again, the sun has finally returned!

We got woken up pretty suddenly and instantly had people asking us where we were going next, even whilst I was still lying in bed! Carm told them that if they wanted to get off the bus alive they had better not mention anything about tickets again to her. We then got on a minibus which we thought was taking us to a ferry to get to the islands.

We were wrong. It took ages to get to where we were going and I swear the bus driver had no idea where he was going. He kept stopping to have a wee and wash his face as well. Everybody on the crappy minibus was no happy! When we finally got to the water it turned out the boat journey was literally 5 minutes, probably less.

The challenge was then finding a decent place to stay. We went to the first spot and it was a bit grubby without even a private bathroom. After walking around in the heat with our backpacks we all got a bit ratty. We decided to leave our bags in a restaurant with a few people whilst the others went to look for places. I sat with Elaine and Siobhan and got a coffee shake which I thought would maybe wake me up and line my stomach a bit.

The girls got back before the drink arrived though so I sat there whilst everyone else went back to put there bags in the room. They were going to come back for food there so I said Id just wait. Turned out the coffee made me feel really sick though so I had to go and find them. I had a vague idea of where the guesthouse was and kind of what it was called so I tried to find them. It took me a little while and I had to ask Lao people who couldn't really understand me. I was ready to lie down on the side of the road when Siobhan called my name as I walked past them.

I crashed on the bed and slept for a few hours whilst they went out for food. It was so nice and I felt a lot better when I got up, although my stomach still hurt. Carm came in and asked if I wanted to go for a walk with them so I washed quickly and went out. 4000 Islands wasn't really what I was expecting. There was a lot more civilisation on it and it wasn't as pretty as I was expecting. We all thought the same so decided we would get the bus out the next morning.

The walk wasn't a long one because there wasn't much to see. We went back to the guesthouse and chilled out for a while, I had a shower and did some of my blog. We then head out for a fairly early dinner but first went to book our bus tickets. Dinner was in a really nice place, it was just a shame about the people serving us because they had no enthusiasm at all. I finally had an appetite back and my stomach wasn't hurting so I was really excited to get a full meal in me. I ordered a chicken burger with chips and it was sooo tasty. I was so hungry I even finished off Siobhan's spring rolls.

When we had finished dinner we were sat around chatting and a group of lads came and asked to sit next to us. The one talking to us was 20 and was on his 2nd gap year before uni. It was also his 2nd time in SE Asia which I thought was mad, if I was going travelling twice in two years I definitely wouldn't do the same places again. He invited us to go to the beach with them all but I just wasn't really feeling it that night. Instead we went to use the free internet we had got with our bus ticket and then I bought some coke to use up my last bit of kip and went to bed.