So, it has taken me a while to finally get back onto the computer and onto my blog. A lot has happened which I will try and summarise!

I'm in Laos now, finally! So happy to be here, I was definitely ready to leave Vietnam. Wasn't my favourite of places, so busy and crowded. Although, saying that, the last few days in Vietnam were nice yet also sad because I had to say goodbye to 3 really close friends I made who weren't travelling all the way through into Laos.

We went to Halong Bay as one of the finaly stops before leaving Vietnam. That was so beautiful, got some great photos. It was so peaceful and just surreal to be honest. The water was so calm, it was so quiet out and the caves were amazing. We had a lunch on the boat which was pretty much just seafood which I'm not that keen on, but I ate it anyway and it wasn't too bad. We then pretty much just had an afternoon drifting on the water, it was heaven!

The next day, we left for Hanoi, our final stop in Vietnam. Here, we pretty much just did a lot of walking around and souveiner shopping. That night we had a leaving party for Vilde, one of the girls I became really close with. We stayed out for a few drinks, but not too long as a few of us were getting up early in the morning to say goodbye. The next morning was pretty sad saying goodbye to her, but we all powered through the day and took a walk around the town. Our tour guide showed us some good places. He showed us the place where Ho Chi Minh's body has been preserved and if it hadn't of been a Friday, we would have been able to go in! So that was a shame.

That night, we had a combined goodbye/welcome meal for the people who were leaving and joining. The new people are all very nice. There are 3 Australian guys who have joined, 3 Norweigian girls and 1 Japanese girl. Noone stayed out too long that night because we had to be up and ready at 6.30am the next morning to depart for Laos.

The journey to Laos took nearly 10 hours, it was a bore and I was quite sad on the bus because I had said goodbye to the 3 people that I had been spending all of my time with and it was like the beginning again, but of course I knew it was something that was going to happen and will continue to happen throughout the trip.

Once we arrived at the border, there was some dodgy goings on! the officials were trying to make us pay 50 US dollars EACH just to leave Vietnam, which majorly pissed our tour guide off. We were waiting around for about an hour whilst he tried to sort it out. The guards came up to us one by one to try and break us and make us pay the 50 dollars, it was pretty scary when I got approached! But luckily a few of the other girls saw and told them to go away! Finally we got through after paying a dollar per passport, still illegal, but better than the 50 dollars and we just wanted to get out!!

Our first stop in Laos was a pretty deserted place, but it was actually really beautiful. There was one main street and we were surrounded by so many mountains, we had a great view from our hotel room, especially at sunset!

We then moved onto Vang Viang. The infamous tourist place, where all the drinking etc takes place. Obviously, the most common activity is tubing, where toursits rent rubber rings and float down the river with many bars along the side where they pull you in and give you free shots etc. Our tour guide strongly advised against it as a lot of people die/get very injured, so when we did it, we had to sign off our trip temporarily. Obviouisly, I was sensible about it and didn't drink, just enjoyed being in the water and peaceful floating down the river (obviously only after passing all the bars with loud music!) But I did see how it came be dangerous. The water was pretty shallow and drunk people where swinging of tree swings and jumping into the water, it made me cringe just watching. Later that evening the town was FULL of drunken westerners, and we saw many horrible injurys too. I remember one in particular - after dinner, walking down the street I saw a guy being carried down the street, his feet drenched in blood with glass in. It was horrible. The next day, our tour guide, Steve, said he spoke to someone who was on a tree swing, was too scared to let go, so smacked into a tree, then fell in and broke his foot! So yeah, I can see why he wanted us to sign off the trip!! Anyway, the next day, we had a more peaceful day there, we went kayaking and went into a cave. Was a lot of fun! Although stupidly, noone brought torches, so we were using candles, it was actually like a scene from a horror film as our candles burnt down!!

We are now in Luang Prabang. We got here late afternoon yesterday, so spent the evening looking around the night market and then had dinner at this really nice restaurant as it was one of the girls birthdays. Today, a few of the group have gone elephant riding, but I thought I'd have a relaxing morning as later this afternoon we are taking a trip to one of the main attractions here, the waterfalls. Can't wait to have a swim :) really looking forward to it!!! So now, I'm off for a bit of shopping, something which I actually haven't done a lot of so far!!!