From Thailand we caught the speed boat into Laos to Luang Prapang down the Mekong River. It took about 6 hours rather than the 2 days on the slow boat. The journey was an adventure in itself, we all had to wear crash helmets and life jackets in this tiny speed boat all crammed in - it was a great laugh.

Luang Prapang was really pretty little town with loads of good restaurants and bars. Here we went to a gorgeous water fall with bright blue lagoons at the bottom where you could swim.

We then headed to Vang Vieng which is basically a backpackers town where all the bars play continues episodes of friends!! The only reason to visit here is for the tubing. Tubing is basically where you get a tractor inner tube and float down the river stopping off at loads of bars along the way. All the bars have rope swings or zip wires and loads of mud!! We went tubing 3 days and many buckets were consumed, but thankfully no injuries apart from hangovers!

From Vang Vieng we kayaked down the Mekong river to Vientene, the capital of Laos. The canoeing started off quite tame until we hit the rapids! I was in a canoe with Tom and on the 2nd set of rapids we capsized and got caught in a massive whirlpool. The whirlpools kind of suck you under and its really difficult to get out!! Eventually we managed to get back on the canoe and then capsized again about 2 seconds later - I really thought I was going to die!! However we all survived and managed to get to Vientene in one piece.

Vientene was quite small considering it was the capital. But it did have some amazing restaurants and the first place I've found decent white wine! We visited a few temples and museums here, but only stayed for 2 days.

We caught a night bus down to the 4000 Islands - interesting journey as the 5 of us had the back row which was like a big bed, but it was so bumpy noone had any sleep apart from Dale who had taken Valium! 4k Islands were beautiful, really quiet and laid back. We all got huts with hammocks and just chilled for a few days. We did a couple of bike rides around the islands as well which were stunning.

We then heading to Cambodia....