Hello Everyone,

We are now in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and leave for Bangkok tonight on the exciting night bus. We are really looking forward to the drive! Laos has been very nice and relaxing with the odd exciting day trip thrown in.

We arrived in Laos by boat across the Mekong river and then took the slow boat to the town of Luang Pobang. This involved sitting on a hard seated boat for two days with a night stop at a town called Pakbeng. We stayed in the most horrible guesthouse yet for the night but it didn't matter as the lights go out in the town at 9.30pm so we couldn't see what was crawlling around us anyway. In Luang Pobang we found a nice guesthouse and spent four days relaxing and wondering around the town, eating the Laos specialities and getting to know the local lager, Beer Laos, a very nice drop.

Our next destination was Vang Vien, a stunning 5 hour bus ride away through mountains and bamboo hut villages. Vang Vien is a very popular travellers town with lots of trips to take and places to eat and drink. The most popular day trip is to hire a big rubber ring and be driven out of town. You then get in the tube and float down the river stopping off at bars to grab a beer and try out their rope swing before moving on. We had a great day and loved it. In the evenings we would watch the sun set over the river and huge mountains all around and then either watch a film or sit in one of the bars that showed episodes of Friends all day long.

So now we are leaving Laos after a really nice 10 days or so. There is not a lot to do here the capital. Its a nice town but not very exciting so we have only had one full day to look around. So back to Thailand and south to the islands and beaches. We are hoping to get on a three day snorkelling trip to Ko Simillian, which is one of the top dive sites in the world, so looking forward to a bit of sun and sea.

Cheers for now,

Michael and Nicola