Howdy all,

Spent the last few days in Vang Vieng and it was like backpacker Mecca! Loads of pizza/burger/western food places and the first Irish pub I've seen in Laos! The best restaurant name award goes to "Give Pizza A Chance" Genius! It was a really cool relaxing place but still had plenty to do. We hit the town on the first night and needless to say, were suffering a wee bit the following day! It was well cured by lying down in a cafe ALL DAY watching Friends on DVD. There's loads of cafes and they all show different series on the TVs. All you have to do is but some food or drink and you can sit there indefinitely! Was great for us!

The next day we decided to do something constructive so had a day of caving and tubing. The caving was cool, we visited 4 and most had Buddha's at the entrances. We were warned to stay with the guide as the apparantly lost a tourist in the caves last year...he was found a week later...Nuff said! We tubed through one of the caves which was an "interesting" experience. We basically sat in a massive rubber ring with a head torch through the dark. Now in Laos, health and safety doesn't appear to be an issue as the head torch came with a massive battery pack that we had to hang around our necks. Kim's had open wires and when she asked if they were safe th reply was "In Laos it is safe"!! We floated through the water and stopped a couple of times to crawl through mud and spiders in VERY cramped conditions...thankfully both myslef and Kim are vertically challenged, had you been tall or "big boned" (Bigger boned than me...) you would have struggled to fit through some of the spots! Was good fun though.

After the caves we did the "Fun" tubing...basically, we got in the tube again, floated down the river and got pulled into various makeshift pubs along the way! The bars were full of drunken backpackers, had cheap beer and buckets and most had some sort of daredevil activity too. The funniest was the zip wire into the water, if you didn't let go before it reached the end you were flung off and the landing looked VERY painful. Luckily I have got sensible in my old age and steered clear. Kim had a go on the massive water slide that raised up like a ski jumping slope and threw you into the water...and damaged a vital part of her anatomy in the process! We were both pretty sore this morning but it was well worth it!

We took a long and winding road (Geddit?) to Luang Prabang this morning and we'll chill here for a few days before going to Southern Laos.

Hope you're all well,

Sel

xxx