Today we checked out of our guesthouse and moved into another one which was more within our budget. The reason it was more within our budget was because it smelt like an old folks home! As soon as you walked into the room the smell of stale cigarettes and foistyness hit you, never mind it would do for one night. We had breakfast with Pardeep before we left for Vietnam and we spent the afternoon walking round the city, and the evening by river for tea. We went ...

Tom's birthday!!!!!!! After spending a day recovering from the days Tubing we now planned to visit the Laos capital for a couple of nights. Again avoiding using the tourist transport like everyone else we thought it a good idea to catch the 5 hour public bus. Tom had spoken to a couple of local guys a few days earlier who'd unconvincingly advised the bus would be at 9.30 am, so the stop was only a ten minute walk from the guest house and after breakfast arrive...

We met-up with Amy andMel as promised a few days earlier for the trip in the Tubes down the river. Time soon passing by it was pushing 2pm by the time we got to the first bar at the top of the river. The sun was out, no sign of rain for a change, beers and tree swings into the river, well fun! We had a couple of beers at the first bar then floated down the river about 100 yards to the next bar, as its wet season the river was rapid. As you approach the bars t...

As predicted we awoke to find our ankles savaged by the colony of ants. As we didn't fancy losing a full toe over the next few nights we decided tomorrow we'll move to another guesthouse. We spent a good few hours looking at different places to stay and settled on the on the cheapest (no this wasn't Toms decision), so tomorrow we move. Somehow the grotesque video bars showing Friends all day long have a strange attraction to them, 24 hours in and we lured in t...

We caught the bus to Vang Vieng this morning, the six hour journey took us over the surrounding through rough winding roads. The bus although basic was fine, but the roads were so difficult that at one stage a lady sat at the front of the bus was throwing sick bags out of the windows every five minutes. There were some amazing views down through the valleys and with clouds on top of the mountains but it was too difficult to take photos. About half way there th...