Hey people, Sorry, I have been truly crap at keeping you all updated lately. Um, can't remember where I left off actually... Ah, yes our arrival in Vang Vieng. Well we intended to stay two nights but these things rarely go according to plan and we ended up staying four. Oops. In all fairness though, for 36 hours of this I was comatose, so it would have been tricky to pack and get on a coach in that state. On a completely unrelated topic *looks shifty*, exercise caution when partaking in the local mind-altering snacks and beverages though children, they are e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y strong...er, apparently. The less said about that the better. Still, we've arrived in Vientianne and so far it's pretty much as we were lead to believe: boring, small and in no way as asthetically pleasing as the rest of Laos. We arrived last night and we're leaving either tonight on the 12 hour coach to Pakse. Fun, fun, fun. We're pretty much passing straight through Pakse I think as there doesn't appear to be anything too remarkable there (according to good old LP) and heading straight to Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Islands). Can't wait actually, there are dolphins! The coach trip here was pretty uneventful. Although, I was lucky enough to be seated next to a smelly Dutch guy who didn't appear to believe in personal space. Or deodorant. Oh and his charming friend (a really obnoxious Canadian guy) who made it his journey's mission to contradict every sentence I dared to utter in his divine presence. Then we were treated to several hours of Laos music videos and, even more excrutiating, Laos karaoke. To be fair though, the music videos were g-e-n-i-u-s. My favourite began with a beautiful Laos girl seranading her true love (who was dressed in the obligatory ape costume) as she was leaving on a coach somewhere. Whilst on the coach, she finds another ape-man and instantly falls in love with him instead (tart). She leaves the coach, arm in arm with her new apey love, apparently unaware that her former ape-blokey is standing watching them from a distance (he must've flown ahead I guess), clearly devastated, as the new couple run and laugh in slow motion along the shore, ape-man's faux fur rippling gently in the breeze... Aw, it's the stuff dreams are made of; moving storyline, excellent cinematography, ape costumes, what more could you possibly ask for? According to our schedule, we should be in Si Phan Don by now. Hmm, no matter, we shall be there the day after tomorrow. Hopefully. We are laughably disorganised... We have monday now, and monday only to somehow get hold of my uncle in Bangkok (which is no mean feat), get him to email our ticket details to us (we helpfully left them in Bangkok) so that we can fax them to Sri Lankan Airlines and then phone them to confirm our changed tickets. If we don't manage to do all this on monday, (which is looking pretty damn likely) we are flying to Sri Lanka 3 days later. Hmm... We should also be in Si Phan Don by this point which could prove to be problematic as they don't have 24 hour electricity, hot showers or the internet and I doubt they've ever heard of a fax machine. This could be interesting... Right, I'm off to Nazim -one of a chain of pure vegetarian Indian restaurants sporadically dispersed throughout Laos. Ahh, heaven- for some nourishment. Enjoy yourselves kids and don't do anything I wouldn't do, loadsa love Jxxx