Sabadii everyone!!

I am in Laos and have just realised I have written this blog in a long time, so now I am going to have to try and rememeber what the devil I've been doing since Hue!

So... after Hue we ventured to Hanoi- which is SO much nicer than Saigon. I actually really enjoyed it there. In Hanoi we saw water puppet show which was pretty hilarious and all in vietnamese! We also went to halong bay and Cat Ba island. We visited amazing caves there! They were beautiful and huge!We had this amazing boat and had a fantastic seafood lunch which was beautiful! We went diving into the sea... we were told there were no jelly fish- they lied. As soon as I got into the sea and was happily bobbing around, one girl- Max got up to the top of the boat to dive in and suddenly screamed and said ahaaahahaha JELLY FISH!! ITS HUUUUGE!! so we all start panicing in the water and in some comical way we were all directed to swim to the left and then to the right- we must have looked liked amazing synchronised swimmers! As soon as the jelly fish blobbed off we swam as fast as we could t the boat and it was everyman for themselves!! It was hilarious- the jelly fish just sting you here, they're aren't box jelly fish-but they still bloody hurt!! One girl, Mary wasn't well at all for the trip, and when we got back to Hanoi after our trip away we had to take her to hospital to be put on a drip. She is muuuuch better now because of it- aparently it was food poisoning.

SO after our last night with Luu (YEEEEY cleebrations the rubbish leader has gone!!) We got TERRY! who is Aweosme! A Thai guy who is a brilliant guide. With our new leader in tow we drove off to the border to Laos! The border was waaay up high in the mountians and when we got out it was raining and really cold- I had t put a jumper on I was cold!! It was like being back in England!! Form the border we headed to Vietiene (spelt wrong i think) Here we visited the victory gate, a temple... etc. It was enjoyable. After this Becky, Katy and I went on a hunt for the golden stoopa. You would have thought three ladies would have been able to get the right temple- we didn't. On the way there, there as a pyscho laaaady eating flowers and carrying a huuge kitchen knife, so we made a quick cross over the road to safety and carried on our adventure to the stoopa. It turns out we took the wrong road but ended up going to this beautiful temple with loads of tiny mirrors on it- was stunning! After our exciting trip to the temple, we flagged down a tuk tuk, that had two lcoals in it and went to the morning market- which in all honesty wasn't that great at all! We also visited the river and a a lady boy cafe... which was errrr... not a great experience!! I decided to not have a drink there but Becky and Katy did. They had juices and shakes. As the people were making them katy turned to look at the other 'kitchen' which was bascially some pots in the mud and saw rats!! And the more we looked the more we could see!! So we got out of there quite quickly, especially after realising we were sitting n an ants nest- which i am still feeling the effects of today, I have a huuuuge bite on my foot from them :(. Itchy as hell!! We met up with the group after and we decided to oing the local aerobics- i stayed in the side and watched and it looked hilarious!! They take exercise here quite seriously and in Hanoi there were big groups of poeple doing aerobics on the street at 6am. it's so hot here you can't do it in the day!

We only spent a couple of days there and then headed to Vang Vieng which is where I am now. Which is, by far, the most westernised town I have seen since being on my trip! It beautiful here, surrounded by amazing moutnains, right by the mekong. And all you can here is the friends theme tune. This is because every bar that's here shows friends or family guy (which of course i adore!) but i am finding it a bit weird that people come here to jst watch friends!! Although there is one main reason why this town is so bus with westerners which is tubing!! We did it yesterday and it was AMAZING!! You sit on these huge rubber tubes and float down the river! There are bars along the way and they throw out rope to catch you and bring you in! It was really cool- and not really cultured at all, although it was fantastic views, absolutely stunning!

Today has been adventure day! We went on a 10 mile (good god!) bike ride to this brilliant lagoon! Which was amazing because I was incredibley hot!! And then I went caving! The caves were massive and pitch black! Terry said they wrere 'just over there' he lied. It was up this huge steep, slippery rock to get there and then inside they were really slippy. Glad I did it though- even though I am now aching central!

I think I have finally updated you all about my trip. I can't believe it is nearly over and then me and the hogg travel on our own!! aaahhh!!

Hope you're all good, stil loving the gossip from home and that you're gettin my postcards!!

love you all millions and squillions

and also- sorry for the spelling and grammar, dad is dissapointed in me that apparently it is awful, but to be honest I type so fast trying to rememeber it all! so sorry- i'm sure you can make it make sense!!! :

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