We were up and excited about our planned day of tubing nice and early. We got our tubes and we're dead chuffed with the weather, so hit the river. The whole day was spent tubing down the river and stopping off at the bars along the way. The river current was pretty strong, so the bars would throw out ropes or rings for us to grab hold of so they could pull us in. Several times we didnt all make it, so young kids would jump in and drag us to the side, how they managed this we still don't know! By the end of tubing we were all quite drunk, but decided showers were very much needed before we went for food. Food and showers seemed to sober most of us up but Dave and Chris continued the drinking, much to the amusement of the rest of us. By the time we went back to our guest house Dave and Chris were finding walking and talking rather difficult.
The following morning I went for breakfast with Dan and Florence whilst Dave and Chris slept in. Realising it was going to be a pretty chilled day Florence and I booked ourselves in for an hour long Laos massage which was incredible, I was cracked into place all over! We then met up with Dan and Dave in a bar and sat watching Friends and Family guy for the rest of the afternoon. Chris still couldn't bring himself to get out of bed and had been rather sick! That evening we chilled out in a bar called Jaidees which was a really alternative, chilled out bar on the river bank.
Then next day we got a bus to Vientiane which was only 4 hours, so went pretty quick. We had a little trouble finding a guest house and eventually settled for a rather scrutty looking one but was dirt cheap (about 1 pound a night!) That evening we went bowling which was great fun though, we did get rather bad after a few beers! On the way back to our guest house we walked past a party which we invited ourselves into. On entering we were handed bottles of beers and became the main focus of the party. Florence and I got up and sang everything I do on the Karaoke machine for the birthday boy, which went down a storm!
The next day we went to Buddha park which was awesome! Its a park full of Hindu and Buddhist statues which are really incredible. There was one you walked inside and had 3 levels, each representing Hell, Earth and Heaven. It looked like a giant, clay, kids, school project. It was really cool. We then saw the beer Laos factory on the drive back and got the tuk tuk driver to stop. We went in and asked for a tour, to which a phone call was made and we were taken out back, handed free beer and stickers and saw the factory pumping out beer after beer! It was pretty cool.
We then saw 3 other buddhist temples one which had thousands of tiny buddhas in the walls and another which was supposed to house an emerald buddha, but it didnt look that emerald to us!
That evening we went in search of a night market but just kept being taken to shopping malls so gave up. We ended up sitting along the river again drinking more beer Laos. It was our last night with Chris and Florence and although we still had the next day with Florence it was sad to say goodbye to Chris. Its strange we've only been travelling with them through Laos but it feels like we've been together for ages!