Hello again!

The evening of the 19th we went to Lao Lao bar where we met pretty much everybody that was on our slowboat and had a few drinks with them. We then went to a Laos club and then bowling!

On the 20th Samantha, Claire, Jess and I had a bit of a lazy morning and then got a minibus to Luang Prabang along 'The road of never ending turns'. The journey was long but had some really good views on route as we were going around the mountains. We arrived late that evening so just found somewhere to sleep ( a really nice place called 'Villa Vang Vieng') and went to bed.

The next day we met up with some of the other girls from the slowboat and went tubing. Tubing basically involves renting a rubber ring and floating down the river between various riverside bamboo bars. Each bar has various promotions and all have free shots on arrival so we all got fairly tipsy but nothing extreem on very little money. Unfortunately we had to get the tubes back by 6pm otherwise you loose the deposit AND get fined! So we only got about 1/5 of the way down the river before we had to get out and rush back to the main strip. That evening we were all a bit tired due to daytime drinking so we had a bite to eat and then Samantha and I went to have a look at the bar scene but quickly decided against it, i think we were in bed by 10.30pm!

On the 22nd we decided to give tubing a miss. We spent most of the day watching 'friends' or 'family guy'. I know that sounds like a complete waste of a day, but there really is very little else to do in Vang Vieng unles you go tubing! It was also quite nice just to do nothing for a day! That evening we met up with the guys that we met on the slowboat and went out to do some dancing! I had a really good night, but it a bit strange because you have to keep changing bars as one place closes and so everybody just moves onto the next one!

The 23rd we did a bit more tubing. This time we decided not to rent tubes but just to swim instead, which makes it a lot harder!! The river is quite shallow in most of the places so it makes it difficult to swim and the current is a lot stronger than we had realsied a few days before. Also there is the added problem of trying to keep your wallet and camera above water..! So after out attempt at swiming down the river we were pretty knackered so went for some food then went back to our rooms to pack!

Today we got a bus from Vang Vieng to Vientiene. It was possibly the hottest bus i have ever been on!! We were sat right at the back, on top of the engine! The floor was so hot that we couldn't put our feet on the floor but it was only 3 or so hours so it was just about bearable! We got to Vientienne around 6pm and checked into a cheap room for the night.

Tommorrow we are flying to Phnom Pehn in Cambodia.
Hope you are all well.
Lots of love. xxxxxxxxx