Hi everyone,

So we are now in Koh Tao, one of the islands off Thailand and its fab!!

We loved Vang Vieng and the tubing, it was some craic!! We ended up striking really lucky as we picked a hostel from the book and went there; it looked a bit mank from the outside so Matt checked the rooms before we booked and said they were rotten so we walked about for a while and stopped at these bungalows and managed to get one right on the river front with big mountain view, it was cracking, you can see from the pics!!

So we decided to go tubing the next day, basically it entails renting a big rubber ring, going a couple of miles up the river and getting in. There are loads of bars along the river side and if you want to stop off for a drink, they throw you out a rope and pull you in!!!

We fell in with another couple out there, a French girl and English guy and ended up going up to it with them and then met loads of ones up there. Tubing down the river was really good craic, but we don't have any pictures as we didn't want to risk wrecking the camera; which turned out to be one of our better ideas considering we lost: one of the rings, a life jacket, our suncream, sunglasses, pair of flip flops, a top and our deposit on the tube and lifejacket lol. We left it a bit late to leave the last bar and found ourselves floating down the river in pitch black!! Then we got seperated because of the current, it was very freaky floating through jungle and river alone in the pitch dark, and some GIANT creature swam past me in the river, I didn't see it but it swam jusy past my tube under the surface and made waves when it past; needless to say me and my flip flops were paddling like nuts to get back to shore!! Matt ended up bout 1km down the river clinging to a fence!! It was an adventure but it was brilliant craic, would have loved to have done it again but Matt got the feet cut off him cos he lost his shoes and had to walk the 1km home in bare feet!!

So we stayed another few days there and actually should have stayed on longer as we were in no rush! I would definately go back to Laos, and despite the drama, would even tube again!! So now we have signed up to start our diving course. I was doing the full course and Matt was going to do a refresher course, as he already has his diving license. But the diving school couldn't find him on system so we tried to get the details from his original diving school in Egypt but they didn't get back quick enough so he had to sign up to full course again, £200!! And 3 hours into course they emailed him details, turns out they put his date of birth in wrong, absolutely raging!!! But sure at least we get to do the course together now!!

So as soon as we finish up here, we will be sure to get the pics up for you all to see!!!

Lots of love

Nicola and Matt