The next morning me and Gem got up early and found a hotel with sunbeds there. We saw 2 lads who sounded like they were from up North and after about 4 hrs they came over and said the classic travellers line "do you know where the good bars are around here?"...

Kat and the other 2 girls from England who we met on the bus arrived in Vang Vieng as well but Kat had limited mobile network so we couldnt keep in contact.

All the bars in Laos close down at 11:30-pm but there are a few down by the river that stay open...so we headed down there about midnight for free whiskey buckets and ran into the 2 lads from the hotel. indeed they are Northerners..from Preston. They are travelling with a tour group called Gap Adventures which is designed for young people so there were a few of them including a girl called Louise who was lovely. Bumped into Kat and Finn as well so we all agreed to go tubing together the next day!

Woke up with not too bad a hangover and got ready for tubing...for people who have not been, you get a huge rubber ring and go down to the mekong river...all along the sides are bars which have slides and zip wires etc on them and you basically float down stopping at the bars on the way. It is very cool!

We met Craig and Gary at their hotel and all got a tuk tuk down (louise was too hungover). In the first bar we saw Kat etc and also made friends with a american guy called Jay. There was a huge rope swing on the first one which we all went on. It was pretty high but really good!

It was just such a good day. Craig and Gary are probably the 2 nicest lads we have met away. Not sure if we will be able to meet up with them again but hope so, and it was good to see Kat, Finn and Jazz again.

One of the last bars has a huge slide which is made of bathroom tiles, and shoots up at the end so you are thrown high into the air very fast. I must have landed funny because i really winded myself and got completely disorientated in the water. Gem and gary were stood by the side calling me because i was swimming the wrong way right into the path of the guy who came down the slide after me. Luckily he missed me by about a foot and Gary came over and rescued me! Close call

Stopped tubing about 6 and went home to get changed and have some food, ran into the guy who "almost killed me" and bless him he had bought me a braclet to apologise (although i think it was more my fault than his!). Stayed out till about 3am and was well and truly ready for bed!

The next day me and Gemma couldnt move until 3pm due to hangovers. we finally prised ourselves out of bed and went to the "friends strip" which is basically a row of cafes that are all showing friends re reruns. It was the perfect handgover cure, although Gem was sick and didnt feel right again for a few days!

We booked our bus for the next day to Luang Prabang, and I exchanged the books i have read (Im up to about 30 now!), and we went to bed.

The journey to Luang Prabang was fine but was quite long (7hrs), and it was a rubbish bus again with no aircon! When we arrived it was a bit of a nightmare to find a hotel. We were quite luckily but Kat Finn and Jazz ended up spending ages looking for somewhere!