Wow this is gonna be a long blog as so much happened here....and i have hand cramp already not cool!!!

Well we got on bus to vang vieng and there was this guy eating an ice cream behind us and honestly the sound was ridiculous....ok im aware im starting to sound like my sister but did he have to much so loud it was like it was made of ice cubes. There was also a smelly bo old man in front of us with hairy shoulders... like really hairy shoulders ..ok i dont think you're getting how hairy his shoulders are...imagine santas beard...ok now take that beard and put it on an old skinny mans shoulders....yuk yess there u go!!!

When we got to Vang Vieng we had a nap...of course we did!then went for dinner, this place is literally streets of bars and restaurants and in nearly every place friends or family guy is played!! its like heaven. We sat there till it was closed eating a steak dinner (which taste nothing like steak) a bottle of red wine laos style (which tasted nothing like wine) but hey it was very cheap so who were we to complain.Got a banana pancake on way home, wed seen these street sellers who make pancaked on their woks on side of road and always been intrigued..it wasnt that great tho to be honest. I managed to attack some ants as char and me now call it I steven seagal'd the ants after our now much more extended knowledge into steven seagal and his films. (theyre on all the time we have now become fans) The hostel was not nice tho the lady showed me where the towels were and after seeing them we decided to use our own. The bed was literally a wooden table with a mattress cover over it and the tv (shockingly there was a tv) had no english channels on it except a fashion channel. There was also alot of bugs...but hey we were hardcore travellers werent we??? char finished reading her book and i was still reading mine so she put on the tv....she soon got bored of that and turned it off, over my book i could just see her lying there watching me read, i looked up at her and she said "what u reading" we now always say its a booka bout michael jacksona nd his monkey dont ask me how it came about but it did. We also now like to say what you eating? what you doing etc etc In the end i looked at her and said will you just read! she found that funny and i was soon laughing i sounded like her mother.

While we were in Laos we watched alot alot alot of friends and family guy...like i said we were in our element just needed american dad, 24, prison break etc etc and be even better. We decided to stay in Laos longer and go to aus the week later as it was so much cheaper here and we stilll had 4 months ahead of us. We headed to post office to send out postcards and the stamps were massive and we had to put two on each... mine are folded over the top and chars are dotted around the postcard so sorry about that whoever receives them if u even do! We changed hotels 3 nights in finally and found a cheaper hotel which was nicer so moved there. We went for dinner at this irish bar that always seemed busy and had steak and ale pie with mash....amazing...i was eating the pie and the steak inside was so red, now i dont like my steak like most people i have to have it well done, so when i saw this i got bit worried, i said to char steak looks a bit raw char, she just burst out laughing and pointed out it was carrot on my fork not steak...phew now i was the stupid one!! As we were finishing our drinks i noticed something on chars shoulder it was a cockroach!!....now chars very scared of bugs like i am sharks... (abit different but still a very rational fear) i didnt know whether to tell her or slyly knock the cockroach off her shoulder.. i assumed the latter would mean less screaming so i leaned across to knock it off but eyes like a hawk gibson noticed and flung herself offher chair screaming we managed to knock it off her shoulder but before i realised char was over the other side of restaurant haha shes a quick mover when she wants to be. We soon left there and headed for the internet.

The internet in Laos was shocking hence the lack of photos. There were two kids asleep on the floor under a mozzy net in the corner it was like we were in someones house...then we noticed the wardrobe and realised we probably were in someones house!! It was my bday the following day so was speaking to mum on skype, she was abit emotionsl...very unlike mum i know. And char was speaking to kayla skye and mich so i got to say hey to them, miss them like i miss my own family which is nice as i know char feels same way bout mine! Well It was officially my 23rd bday and we headed back to the hotel stopping off at the shop and char bought me milk water and maltesers for my bday (wer crazy kids) but we had a day of tubing ahead of us the following day. I got home and read ems letter which made me laugh she never was one for drawings. (Il explain quickly) Em had written us letters before we left, one for the day we left to read on plane, one for my bday and one for chars bday and then one for day we leave to come home. very organised even if she was a bad friend by getting my bday date wrong...bad emma! We always refer to char myself and em as the tripod as it used to always be just us3 she tried to draw one....il leave it there :P thanks tho emz.

I woke up and got in the shower, Char went down to get us some coffee and then got in the shower herself (by this point i was out of the shower before any comments are made) When she got out of the shower she gave me a card from mum that she had been carrying around since we left and a postcard/bday card from herself...It made me a little tearful if im honest but i held it together...today was a good day even if i was old! We went out to the cashpoint as we had little money for the day ahead, Unfortunatly it was out of order, these guys came up behind us and i told them it was out of order so we all started walking down the road...then this guy (who we named carl as he looks like a guy we know) turns round and says are you sure its broken? i was like yeah i wasnt lying for jokes go back and look if you dont believe me...we decided we werent big fans of carl..his mate was hot tho!

owwwwww hand cramp....anyway we walk pas this tuk tuk driver who asks us as they all do "tuk tuk?"we turned round and said not now but later...as wer walking up the road another guy shouts "tuk tuk?"before we can speak the other tuk tuk man replies "not now but later"that made us giggle quite abit. We finally got ourselves sorted and boughta waterproof camera and tubing bag (waterproof bag) and got in a tuk tuk with about 7 other guys. When we got to tubing place they gave us a band everyone else had one each but they tied me and char together... we waited for them to cut it but they all laughed....we were walking around like pleaseee in end some guy tore it in half...so we were no longer siamese twins. We got there and they gave us a shot of this whisky thing, first drink of the day whisky...off to a good start, we walked across this rickety bridge and were greeted at first pub with another shot of whisky this one was strooongg! headed to bar where we got two large beers...better start off slowly being as it was only 12/1ish. After sitting there watching everyone jump off the sides and on to this rope thing we finished our beer and i headed to bar to get another two, i was then greeted with another whisky shot...nice! Char gave in and had to use the hole toilet as she really couldnt hold on all day esp the amount we were drinking... so that was her broken in! ok that sounded wrong! it was nothing sexual.

Throughout the day whenever char looked at me she'd just go ïts your bday today" was amusing as it happened alot. We made our way down the bars, walking not swimming as it wasnt particularly sunny at that point. Sat on the edge of the next bar with riverside muthaf***** being played and thought this is first time this song has made sense to me.

Felt weird not seeing my family and friends on my bday but it was a very special bday and one il never forget. After more buckets of mojitos and lots of chatter to people we decided maybe we needed to eat, we bought a burger which we were also sharing with the dog tehre a guy kept talking to us telling us not to feed the dog as it had fleas...my tipsy and not very intellectual response was "u have fleas!"char had stubbed her toe walking up the steps and half her nail was hanging off which was a beautiful sight as u can imagine. Anyway we headed to next bar and it was dead no one around, there was a crazy dancing lady behind bar who gave us a shot of malibu and we bought a bottle of water i was abit of mess by then. we were watching people jump off the wooden bit and char said im gna do it so i said lets do it together we gave our stuff to this guy...a great idea as we didnt know him and as i was about to run off the side i looked up and char was walking steps to the swingy thing, I was like char what r u doing and she was adamant she wanted to do it. Lucky it was the smaller one of the ones wed seen as she was adamant she wanted to do it. So she tried to do it with this guy but the man said no only one at a time altho we had seen two people doin it before. She grabbed hold of the bars and literally within seconds was in the water i got a picture but who knows how it will come out. Was very amusing to watch she sort of lost her grip and fell straight into the water.. i would definitely have done the same i dunno how people hold on for so long my hands would not be able to carry my weight for long. SHe came up in pain as her boobs hurt but wanting to do it again haha luckily she didnt crazy lady. We headed back as it started to get dark, but met these guys on the way, one asked us where we were from when we said england he said of course everyones from england he was from sweden and in our opinion everyones from there....anyway i argued with him and he said bet the next guy we asked is from england so i turned round and said to this guy where are u from, before he could answer i started mouthing not england not england. He said denmark i looked at the swedish guy and said see!!! Then turned to the guy from denmark and he was like im actually from england i was very impressed how quickly he thought of denmark if that had been me i would have come out with something like eng..umm..ville yeah engville! original jen!

Also met this liverpool fan so we sat and chatted for yonkys to him and then realised it was very dark so we all headed back to vang vieng and the hostel. We got in this tuk tuk van type thing there was about 10 of us in there and the others who werent me char or the lpool fan guy were all singing in their language which was laos or thai or whatever. So i started up you'll never walk alone and then we had all stopped char turned to them and sang happy birthday to you pointing at me! they loved that and all started singing they then asked me to choose a song for them to sing so when i couldnt think of one they kept on. I looked at char for advice and all she came out with was...spice up your life? was very funny drive home and i tried to sing along to their songs even tho i didnt know the words or the language char was giggling as i became the sortve backing singer copying the last word of every line. When we got out they all gave me hugs and kept shouting happy bday char looked very smug that she had embarrassed me :) but was definitely a bday i wouldnt forget. We got a shower once we got in and i was raring to get back out, however as soon as we hit the first bar and got a bucket of vodka red bull i had to run bck to the apartment to be sick...nice i know oh well its my bday i can throw up if i want to. Went back to bar to join char and carried on drinking, Got to the next bar and the vodka bucket i ordered tasted more like whisky than chars bucket which actually was whisky... i was not impressed and started to feel sick again. As we sat there bopping (u can tell im old i just used the word bopping) along to the music... we watched the video of the day we had and had a giggle, we soon headed home as the bars close at 12 in laos (one down fall) char was a little bit worse for wear by now and i was sobering up due to the water. We got home and i went straight for loo i still wasnt well. I got out and char was reading theres no way she could even see let alone read in her state, was quite funny the following morning when she admitted reading the first few pages of the book rather than where she was up to. The next day we spent hanging in bed, i went out and got us a coffee, sandwich and drink and brought it back to room for us both. We gathered up enough energy to go out that night and headed to the internet. I got to skype my dad and tracy and also saw mum and coops as well lis and suz so was happy as i had seen them around my bday time. I found out emma and nat had bought me adele tickets for when im back so was very happy with that and my family are giving me money when im in NY to buy myself sum nice stuff before i come home. My sister had given me my present before i left and it was two tickets to empire state building woop woop and suz had got me a macys gift voucher awesome!! so really i have two bdays one now and one in america :) Thanks to everyone for their fb bday messages aswell.

On way home we stopped off at this stall i had cravings for a burger dont ask me how i ended up with a bacon baguette...she also got chars order wrong aswel...dunno quite how we always end up receiving something completely different to what we ordered here! The following day at about 11am we went to book our tickets to luang prubang.... we were told we would be picked up at 11.45 brilliant so went back grabbed our bags and were soon picked up and on our way to our next port of call in Laos...

Laos u beautiful place stop tempting us with your amazingness!..yes thats a word..bye bye vang vieng hello luang prubang (but thats to be explained next time as my hands about to fall off ) !!!!!!!!!!!!!