So what's new?! I think i left you on the Thai/Laos border... ...prior to exiting Thailand i had an emergency visit to the doctor for my increasingly swollen/itchy/pussing foot (how much did you want to know that!) I was then on Cream#3 and Tablets#2. After border control etc we boarded a really lovely long boat for our 2 day journey down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. It was a great time to relax, read, listen to music (put my foot up!) and watch the world (or moutains) go slowly and silently by. Laos is a STUNNING country...each new view took my breath away. The riversides are littered with Hilltribe villages and we stopped at one en-route. I totally fell in love with the children; especially when they tried to say my name! We also stopped overnight in a village called Pakbeng which was really cute and after dragging myself up the hill to see the temple and more fantastic views, i went for dinner on my own and met a guy from Storth Lane in Ranmoor (500m away from where i grew up) - the world is getting smaller! 8 more hours on the river got us to Luang Prabang; stopping alongh the way at the Thamg Ting Caves with 1000s more bhuddas inside! Zzzz... I LOVED Luang Prabang. The market was amazing; and i mean AMAZING. (I spent loads!) We visited a waterfall (swam underneath), fed a tiger and some cuchie little bears, had a massage, wandered round some more temples...found a bakery and sat there reading my book for hours! The only thing i missed was the trekking, as my toes were by now the size of Nepal and i couldn't even wear my flip-flops let alone my trekking shoes! How could i forget...i also went to ANOTHER doctor...who gave me Cream#4 & Tablets#3 and told me to go to hospital in the capital! I didn't like Vientiane at all...i slept in, read my book and wandered around a bit...and of course went to the hospital where i almost got my toes cut open but escaped with Cream#5 instead!! Rather embarrassingly i had hobbled into a HUGE RedCrossDepot hoping there was a clinic...i got so laughed at by the locals loading the vans - they were so mean! :o( Our last stop in Laos was a Homestay in a rural village that didn't seem to have a name but it did seem to have an army of children. On of the games was 'Hop-Catch' so i could join in that one! We had a somewhat dodgy 'river-cruise' in boats made from fuel tanks from the abandoned American B-52 Bombers!! We also survived a terrifying storm as we spent the night in shacks on the riverside...despite out earplugs the thunder was looooong and deafening and the place was literally shaking! That coupled with the big bugs and the army of noisy children and babies meant that that wasn't my greatest nights sleep! :o) The next day a rather exhausted bunch of individuals scrambled their way over into Vietnam but that is a-whole-nother story...x