The aftermath!

A lot has happened in the last 24 hours. The most notable thing is the change in weather. The rain has now been replaced with broken sunshine.

This immediately put a smile on my face and I went to one of the riverside bars and basked in the sunshine for a while. I took a walk along the river after finishing my pineapple shake and noticed that many bars and bridges (pictured) had been swept away.

Next on the agenda was a catchup with family guy in one of the designated bars.

After a full days relaxing, I decided to eat at "Gary's Irish Bar", hardly an authentic Laotian choice, but very good food indeed! As the beers were flowing, I got talking to Gary the owner. He is an admirer of Nottingham Forest and more so Brian Clough.

We got chatting for hours and I was introduced to his friends, also from Kerry in Ireland. We ended up hitting Q bar and the bucket madness began!

With the rest of the evening a blur, I woke up to a sauna of a room as there was a blackout of electricity in Vang Vieng. I picked a really bad day for a hangover as not only could I hardly breathe or see where I was going, I also had a 7 hour bus ride to look forward to!

The total distance from Vang Vieng to Luang Pabang was only 200km. The reason it took 7 hours was due to the crazy hills; and as a result of the bad weather, we had to swerve round landslides & dodge pot holes.

In numerous discussions I had with various people, I was sad to discover that a British lad lost his life on Monday. Apparently he was on Mushrooms and was fighting with someone. When running away from the police he leapt off the bridge into the river which was too shallow.

This is a very sad incident to report, however mixing drink, drugs and a river is always going to be a fatal combination.

On a brighter note, I have now safely arrived in Luang Pabang & look forward to exploring tomorrow before flying to Bangkok on Friday.