Greetings from VangVien in Laos. We have had a pretty good few days starting in Vientiane.

Since the last blog entry we have been to an open air sanitation festival a couple of nights in a row. There was a lot of dancing, music, beers, australians, germans, canadians and an opera sung by a very tall woman. At the end of the night we stayed and chatted to some Australians and were mobbed by some local kids. We gave them piggyback races up and down the dancefloor. That night we had a huge storm which kept us up most of the night. The thunder and the rain on the corrugated iron roofs was deafening. Good though.

During our second day in Vientiane we decided to get a bit of culture by looking at a big monument which is supposed to be the Laos Arc de Triumphe. It was a bit rubbish. Even the Laos people don't like it. Its unfinished and its a mess of concrete. In the evening we had 2 dinners and then decided to go back to the festival again.

Yesterday we came into VangVien after a bumpy 4 hour bus ride. We were acosted by a woman as soon as we got off the bus offering us a room to stay in. It was a Cabin with air con and private bathroom for 2.50GBP (There is no Pound sign on this keyboard). We decided to see some of the town, which is a very small riverside backpackers town, and the best way to see a town is by doing a pubcrawl. So we sat about drinking for most of the day and met a ridiculous man called Dale who looked like superhans from peep show, (or Ronnie Wood).

Today we went Tubing along the river. You pay 40000 Kip and they rent you a tyre inner tube and give you a Tuk Tuk ride about 4Km up river. You then float gently back to town. On the way, there are numeous bars and rope swings with some very lagered up folk. Especially Jocks. We only stopped for several beers.

Tonight we plan on going to a few bars and eating a massive Roast Dinner. This place has a lot of bars showing Friends Dvd's. But you can watch friends at home. Ridiculous.

PS. We were given a free shot of whisky by a fella in a bar on the river - brilliant.

We will try and put some photos up when we can remenber to bring our usb cables along.

Happy Easter

JDJ