Today is my last day in Vang Vieng and I am very excited to be going somewhere else now. The last few days have been crazy but now I want to sit on a beach and relax.

The last few nights here I have seen more thunderstorms than in the rest of my life combined. I didn't know this till a few days ago but apprently it is rainy season here now which means it is hot for the majority of the day and then it will rain for a few hours in the evening. And by rain I mean RAIN. It really comes down. The other night we were in a bar watching the opening game of the world cup and Morgan and I took a trip to the loo. At the time there was a particularly violent thunderstorm going on and whilst were were in the bathroom there was a powercut. This is obviously problematic in normal circumstances, but even more so when the bathroom is a hole in the floor, in a shed at the end of an alleyway. The darkness was impenetrable and Morgan led the way up the alley way and back into the saftey of the bar where candles were being dished out. The thunderstorm had knocked out the entire town's power and it was literally right overhead, I have never heard thunder so loud. The forks of lighting were coming down on the otherside of town, the views were incredible. Then the power came back on and we could finally get back to watching South Africa vs Mexico.

The following day we had a bright idea of trying to swim from the top of the Nam Song where you begin tubing to the centre of Vang Vieng, a place called Bucket Bar. Most people stop after the stretch of bars on the river and get a tuk tuk back to Vang Vieng but we had heard a rumour that you could swim all the way back and not get a tuk tuk. So after a day of floating down the river and drinking in the bars we set off on our adventure, Morgan, Ty and Cal (the Canadians) and I. We floated off down the river and quickly it got dark. The river current was really strong and the depth varied rapidly between being very deep and then being a foot deep meaning you scraped your feet and knees along the rocks unexpectedly. After and hour of getting battered on these rocks we decided it was time to call it a night. We climbed out of the river and tried to find the road. We were in a little village outside Van Vieng and as we stumbled around looking for the road we got some very strange looks from the locals. However we got onto the road in the end and got a tuk tuk home. All in all it was a painful waste of time.

Tomorrow we are flying to Chaing Mai, or getting the train to Bangkok, or the boat to Chaing Rai. At the moment we aren't really sure but I will let you know soon.