Friday 8th June

We woke up and got ready for our pick up at 10:30am, which was by Laos's standards, late! We got dropped off at our bus, which was empty. An hour and a half passed before we actually got moving…! Before long we were shifting through mountains towards Vang Vieng. It was a pleasant journey as Laos is extremely beautiful! It was raining, a lot, luckily the roads held out!!

We finally arrived in Vang Vieng and it was raining…! We wandered round for a bit trying to find a decent place to stay and we settled on Pan's Place. For only $2.50 each I couldn't complain! We had some lunch before having a wander around the town. I brought some more flip flops, hopefully these last longer!! Despite what Vang Vieng is famous for, tubing and partying, it is actually a pretty place.

We bumped into Stefan and decided to go for a drink with some of the others at his hostel. It was actually a pretty fun night!! We didn't actually go to bed until 3:30am!

Saturday 9th June

We didn't get up till quite late, like many of the travellers here. I was feeling pretty ropey, no more whisky buckets for me…! We decided to get some exercise and fresh air; we hired out a couple of bikes and went for a cycle around town. We tried to locate the caves that many people visit here; we found a sign and followed it up a dirt track. Our bikes were not designed for mountain terrain so we pushed these for a long time, trying to avoid the puddles! We got to a house, in the middle of no where and paid the entrance fee to the 'caves'. It started to really rain now! We balanced our way through the rice paddies, trying not to fall in and get wet feet, across the most rickety bamboo bridge I have ever seen! My gymnastic skills came into motion, while Stu went for the elegant approach and crawled on his hands and knees. If I wasn't laughing so much I would have taken a video!!! We then hiked through jungle and out the other side to the caves. Which were not impressive AT ALL! But the whole trip here was hilarious enough! We walked back, across the bridge and through the paddies again. We were soaked through, shoes and all. Nothing we had on was dry! Luckily before we left we brought a dry sack for tubing so our wallets and camera were still dry!

We finally got back to the main road, where a local said the caves were further along the main road! Whoops! Never mind! We enjoyed out time cycling in the countryside, very different from the town! We had enough and cycled back into town, where it rained more! It was nice a cooling though, we got back to our hostel and ran into the bathroom to dry off! All in all, my hangover had receded and felt more human!

By the time we had dried and gone back downstairs, Joe and Seb walked in, the guys we met on the Halong Bay booze cruise! We had some lunch and catches up, we went to one of the bars for dinner later on and watched some TV before hitting the bars. I managed to stay up till 3 am before going to bed!

Sunday 10th June

We woke up early (for Vang Vieng!) and waited for the boys to wake up! We headed out at 2 pm and hired out a couple of inner tubes jumped in a tuk-tuk and headed for the river.

Tubing was everything that was expected, I think if it was high season it would be more packed and I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much. We hijacked the frisbie and played beersbie, which apparently I have a secret talent for! You basically have to throw a frisbie and knock the beer can off the opposite team off the pole! If you manage so they have to drink. We meet quite a few people while playing until this Italian came over and ruined the whole game, so we all left, to the bar next door. Before long it was 5 pm, whoops! We grabbed our tubes, minus Seb, and jumped into the river. We stopped off at the two bars that had the rope swings and the slide named 'death slide'! Don't worry, no one was hurt or injured, well maybe Stu's dignity!! I can see how this fun can seriously hurt you, but we were sensible and we didn't drink much and we were able body! Maybe I was a bit cautious with Stu, only because he has no ability to float and the river was pretty fast flowing!

After our fun we jumped back in our tubes one more time and floated on, it was getting dark and I persuaded the boys to get out of the river, and get in the tuk-tuk. Good job we did as we were still miles out of the city. We got washed and dressed (still missing Seb) and found some food.

We arranged for a man hunt and searched the popular bars, where we did find Seb, a little worse for wear, but alive still. We managed to stay out till 3 am again, before throwing in the towel!