Luang Prabang

The bus journey from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was very picturesque as it meandered through the mountain- or so we were told! I won't mention the hangovers, but we slept a fair bit! As the bus took all day it was dark and we found a hostel which was like a massive treehouse (and paper thin walls).

We went on some bikes the next day while we decided what to do next! We seemed to cycle far but was probably only a few kilometres. By the way we will stop talking in kilometres and dollars when we get back!

We went to a few places out of town where the locals live and a dodgy bridge that used to be a train track. Our bikes weren't the type for 'off road' so if you think 'Raleigh Chopper' you're probably not far off!! It did have a basket though for all of our belongings. Lovely. We got some nice photos by the river and had a fruit shake (we're off beer!) as the sun went down.

We finally decided to do a trip here and unfortunately sacrifice Chang Mai in the North of Thailand. We have saved that destination for a future trip (along with many others!)!

Next day we got picked up at 8.15 and headed to the Lao elephant reserve. We were taken to our tree lodge where we were staying the night which was amazing! It had a roof but was pretty much open air!!

We got a minibus to where we would start our (walking) trek. There was just us 2 and a guide. We hiked for about 2 hours before having lunch. Along the way we stopped at ethnic mountain villages. People were going about their daily live as the 3 of us walked through which was great to see. As we continued we mainy saw women working (unlike Britian, JOKE!). They were carrying huge sacks of rice on there back with a strap on their forehead. We saw them making tobacco and sticky rice as we walked through. The guide picked a fruit off a tree which was called a maxim. It was citrussy and once you ate into it a white froth appeared which turned sticky like cobweb needless to say it put us off eating the rest! He also pointed out papaya and pineapples growing. Emma saw a huge spider (see photo) as we cooled off by a spring!

We met up with another group and headed to a water fall. We stopped en-route as the locals were gathered around. We got closer and saw a lady holding and tugging at the end of a poisinous snake! She dug it out and knocked it on the head with a shovel! Apparently that was their dinner for that night!

The water fall was better than we expected. It wasn't the tradition single drop fall but instead had pools and lots of short drops. The water was torquiose and really really cold - but needed after our sweaty trek!

We had a suprisingly good night sleep dispite the 2 huge furry spiders (hand size) in the bathroom. If we had seen the scorpian in our bed that we saw in the morning, we may not of slept so well!

In the morning we went to 'get' our elephants to take them for a bath in the river! Emma got on first and sat on the elephants head with a mahoot (elephant driver) behind her. Then my elephant was brought out and was told to get on without a mahoot! There wasn't anything to hold onto (we were straddled on it) and the elephant immediately went down a steep bank as our first challenge! They got in the river and splashed about a bit which was fun. If anyone has ever tried to bath an elephant (not an everyday occurance we know!) whilst sat on it you'll realise that its quite difficult to try and hold on (to nothing) whilst splashing them with water!
We ended our time with the elephants with a trek around the jungle.

In the afternoon we went kayaking down the river. We were doing it for quite a while so and it started to ache. We're getting quite good at kayaking now (we've been twice) so are thinking of entering into the mixed doubles at London 2012!

We went to the night market and spent more money. Our Bangkok package is getting larger and larger - may need a ship container at this rate!

There is another reason to send a large package home and that is due to Miss Sealeys cone hat. She has carried it from the north of Vietnam in a large blue plastic bag.

Vang Vieng

We arrived in Vang Vieng after a loooonnng bus journey. We got picked up by a pickup truck, then changed to a minibus then to the big bus, which all happened in the space of 1 mile!! The bus was late to leave so got in when it was dark. Everyone was pretty happy to get off the bus as a local kid was sick everywhere and it was running down the aisle of the bus!! We heard Vang Vieng was a party town but it looked empty apart from people sat watching re-runs of friends which was on in a lot of the bars! We later realised everyone was tubing!

Found a ridiculously cheap double room which was really nice for about 3 gbp! Bargain.

The next day we headed to the 'tubing' centre. They give you a tractor tyre inner tube and a tuk tuk ride to the start point which is about 3km away, all for about £4 (if you didn't lose tour tube). Our tuk tuk had a guy in it who went to Vang Vieng for a week but a year later he is still there having tubed nearly everyday!

We arrived at the start point ready to go tubing but the first bar was packed so we stayed there for about an hour or 2. They had a massive swing which went into the river which we both went on (before we got too drunk!). As you looked down the river it looked like a huge playground for adults with bars, swings, slides and zip wires dotted around!

We eventually made it to the mud pit bar and you can guess what followed. Needless to say we didn't take our digital camera but instead bought a classic waterproof wind me along type camera.

The sun was setting and we thought we needed to hurry up and get to the end. We stopped off in one more bar which had a ginormous slide which through you into the river! It was ace especially as it was going dark!!

We went to carry on but there were no tubes left. We pretty angry we had to cross the river and pay for a tuk tuk which also meant we lost our deposit for the tubes! What (we think) happened was either the bar hid them as they made some money from the tuk tuk or people that didn't get tubes nicked them!!
A fun day though and probably a good thing that we couldn't continue in the dark!! But at the time.....!

The next day we went tubing again! We left earlier with the view to making it all the way to the bottom. We went to the first bar to go on the swing again which was just as scary and fun the second time! We worked our way down until we made it to the last bar which was in an amazing setting. Underneath a cliff face and in the trees. They had a fire going at the bottom so we drank our 'Beer Lao' while we warmed up.... before getting back in the cold water. We got back to the centre for 5.55 just in time to get our deposit back.

That evening we headed out to a bar and played killer pool. Having failed miserably the night before I came 3rd and was given a bucket of whiskey and coke! Yuk! But free drink is free drink so we drank that for a while whilst chatting to some people. The night got later and later and went to bed realising the bus journey to Luang Prabang in a few hours time was not going to be a good one!! We always seem to do this to ourselves!

p.s. no pictures as they're on the wind up camera! I don't fancy scanning them in just so you can see them!

EDIT! The pictures are now below. They were taken with an underwater throw away film camera! Some pictures may not appear to have anything in, but if you look closer we are usually mid-air!

Vientiane

As you are reading we can tell you that we survived our flight with Laos airlines! In the Lonely Planet it says that 'Laos airlines do not release their safety records'! Hmmm I wonder why. Apparently they're fine now though. We got on a 60 seater twin propeller plane which made a stopover!

We got off in Savannakhet in southern Laos which was where we'd be getting our visas. Now we'd heard about overcharging at borders but thought they wouldn't do at an airport, surely?! They did. 1 guy wanted 1 dollar to pass our passports to the next desk. We also thought $35 was a bit steep for the visa! All they do is stick a sticker in your passport! Now if I wanted a sticker after being ripped off I'd rather go to the dentist, at least you get something in return! If I thought the money would goto towards education, health care and transport links then fine buy unfortunately I doubt it does.

The flights were great though, we weren't travelling that high so we could see more.

We found a ridiculously cheap hostel for £3.20. It was a complete dive but we thought we'd give it a go! We ended our day with a 3 litre pitcher of Beer Lao for 3gbp! See photos!

As we were packing in the morning we found our snacks had been eaten by what looked like a mouse. We did find a dropping under our pillow when we arrived so our fears were confirmed! We left for Vang Vieng as we are on a tight schedule as there wasn't much happening in Vientiane.