Happy new year, or should I say sabai di be mi (probably not as I have no idea how to spell it)!

We spent a very interesting new year in the Laos capital Vientiane. After checking in to our hotel on new years eve we went out to explore the city, only to find out that pretty much everything had shut up for new year! We found a French restaurant and had dinner there, there was a child begging at the table but after insisting we had no money to give him he eventually ended up with my bread roll which he thanked me for then immediately ran off with!

We went back to the hotel after dinner to book some flights and whilst sitting in the hotel lobby the staff kept inviting us to their new years eve party, which basically consisted of the hotel staff and a Vietnamese couple sitting on a table outside the hotel with beer and a BBQ. We cannot express how much we did not want to spend our new years making uncomfortable conversation in broken English, however, given that a) there were no other exits out of the hotel, trust me, we checked, and b) we are English and far too bloody polite to say no we ended up joining them for a couple, which turned into a couple more and so on. They kept topping us up with free beer and whiskey (which was like pure ethanol!) and putting food on our plate despite our protestations. But it turned out to be a really good night, I spent most of the evening chatting to a Vietnamese girl and the Laotian hotel manager. A couple of Americans were roped into joining us too so robin chatted with them. Basically anyone that passed in the street got roped in, a taxi driver dropped someone at the hotel and they literally dragged him out of the car for a drink, after he drank a pint and tried to leave they filled him glass again. One of the girls said that everyone has parties on new years and the driver will probably end up at a lot, at which point I made a mental note not to get in any taxis.

10 mins before midnight we headed to the Laos Plaza where there was a concert and masses of people outside for the countdown. After another beer here we headed back for a couple more at the hotel and then crawled into bed.

The next day we basically did what everyone back home was doing after new years, we went out for fried food, bought loads of junk and went back to bed for the entire day.

The following day we were planning to leave but we got shafted by the online company we booked the flight with so had to cancel and rebook for Tuesday. Vientiane hasn't got much going on so we checked into a hotel with a pool to spent the day there. Only there were no sun loungers by the pool so we had to lay on concrete and the pool was pretty murky so swimming was not pleasant!

Anyway, today we got a flight to Kuala Lumpur, which was not actually on the itinerary but we thought we'd pop by for a couple of days on our way to Bali, so looking forward to exploring here.