Date: 25th May 2011

Place: Vang Vieng

Weather: Raining

We were leaving Vang Vieng today to go to 4000 Islands. The bus was at 1pm so we decided to head to the pool for the morning. I think we were a bit optimistic with the weather though because we were lying on the sunbeds in our bikinis watching a load of storm clouds come together. It did start to rain but we just went in the pool and did some lengths; we were wet anyway so it didn't matter J

When we got back Siobhan was up so we went and grabbed some lunch. We got jacket potatoes which didn't turn out to be normal jacket potatoes and lucky Carm got a fly mixed in with her Tuna on it! Yummy!! We had about half an hour until the bus came to get us then so we went to find the guys we couldn't find last night to give them our name for facebook. We only had a vague idea of where they were staying and didn't even know which room they were in. Still we were amazing and managed to find it from knowing the guesthouse was something like Vang V and the person at the desk telling us they were in a room that sounded like 7 but it turned out they were in C1. skilled!

We got on a minibus first which was taking us to the bus station. I don't think the wait was too long when we got to the station but it seems like such a long time ago that I cant remember. We did have two seats each at first but then a load of Lao people got on and took up the seats. It was only a four hour bus journey though which wasn't too bad No film this time though. When we got dropped off we were at the bus station and it turned out we had to wait there for a few hours.

I finally had no appetite whilst travelling which was so weird! Turned out I was ill still. There were three Irish girls sitting near us who were getting on the same bus so we started talking to them. We finally completed the set of the UK! Siobhan is Scottish, Carm is Welsh, Im English obviously and now we had our Irish! They all knew each other from home and were travelling together; finishing in Oz where they would work for a year in Darwin.

We went out at 7pm when the bus was supposed to be leaving. The bus that was closest to the number on our ticket looked lush and I got all excited thinking that's the one we were getting on. Turned out it wasn't and they pointed out that ours was still being prepared. I think we waited another hour before we got on the bus but thankfully it turned out to be just as nice as the other one. We had finally found an actual VIP bus!

It had beds for seats, even though they were pretty much the size of a single but two people had to share, and it had a pretty decent toilet too! A western one. I was so glad that I wasn't travelling alone on this sort of bus though because sharing one of those beds with a complete stranger would be a bit strange. When we set off they bought us round dinner which was a little bit of rice and chillis, and water. I ate the rice even though I wasn't hungry and instantly felt sick so had to lie down. Thankfully they turned the lights out then so I just put my ipod in and went to sleep.

It was a bit of a rough night because the bus was really rocky and I didn't have much room to move. I had a stomach ache all night as well which didn't help when trying to sleep. I think I got a fare amount though, more than on a normal bus.