As the crow flies, there are exactly 214 miles between our last destination in Thailand, Chiang Mai, and the next stop on our tour, Luang Prabang in Laos, so why it took us three days to get between the two is quite baffling. Our trip involved local buses, tourist buses, tuc-tucs, slow boats, small speed boats and the good old number 11 bus (our legs!) - all coming together to create one hell of a journey! We started making our way to the border on a collection of buses, with an overnight stop just across the border in Laos, but the bulk of the jouney was on a slow boat for two days that worked it's way along the Mekong river. The slow boat is meant to be a bit of an ordeal, with the locals cramming as many tourists onto the rustic wooden structure as it could hold, but in truth we actually quite enjoyed the trip. The scenery along the river was just stunning - lots of jungle dotted with the odd village community and beautiful sunsets; throw in some good chat and a couple of beers and we had ourselves more of an experience than a chore. So, finally, after three days on the road (and river) we arrived in Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang is a beautiful place and instantly we felt that the character and authenticity that had perhaps been lacking in Thailand, was present in abundance in a small town that had retained its character from the French rule and had a bustling market serving up local cuisine and crafts. During our first few days there we explored the area, took full advantage of the remnants of french culture by scoffing coffee, cake and baguettes and tried very hard not to spend all our money in the night market. During this time, we had a great day kayaking along one of the smaller rivers feeding into the Mekong - it seems that two days on a boat weren't enough for us! We teamed up with some fellow brits and a couple of enthusiastic guides and set off on our trip. We paddled down the river to a Hmong village and learnt a little bit about village life before invading the playground at the primary school. It was funny to see that the kids are just as mischievious as back in the UK, and how a quick snap from the teacher yielded the same contrite response. Once back in the kayaks we paddled a little bit futher to a beautiful waterfall where we swam and jumped off swings and rocks before settling down to a lovely home made lunch provided by our guides Chao and Chet. The last part of the trip was perhaps the most exhilarating as we paddled on weaving though fast flowing rapids until we reached Luang Prabang. Unfortunately, after this wonderful day, Kate had a disagreement with some noodle soup from the night market and our last couple of days in Luang Prabang were spent at a slightly slower pace.

After a few days of recovery we made our way to Vang Vieng by bus, as it seems did many other people from our journey on the slow boat. Vang Vieng is well known to travellers for being a place to go tubing, which basically involves getting into an old tractor tyre tube and floating peacefully down a river with a beer in hand - or so we thought. In reality, the town is nothing more than a collection of guest houses, restaurants showing friends and family guy on repeat and bars full of pissed up tourists. Similary, the tubing experience for most seems to involve hanging out in one of the many 'party' bars that line the first 500 metres of the river, whilst wearing matching uniforms of beautifully crafted 'in the tubing' vest tops, t-shirts and shorts - few make it any further. It was truly wonderful to see a group of brits shaking up cans of beer and then smashing them on their foreheads for fun. We decided to take a slightly different approach and casually floated the full length of the river, stopping at a few well chosen and all together more relaxed bars to take on board a few beers and a bucket of gin and tonic - far more civilised I think...ahem. With the main activity completed, there was nothing much more to keep us in Vang Vieng, and so we moved on, *somehow* managing to avoid purchasing an 'in the tubing' top on the way out.

Our final stop in Laos was the capital, Vientiane - a place which we had been advised to not spend to long in as there was very little to do there. On the contrary, we found plenty to keep us occupied and both really took to the feel of the place. We managed to see the Laos national museum, which though a little basic managed to convey their pride in defeating the 'the US imperialists and their puppets'. We also got a bus to the buddah park, which was basically a field crammed with stone sculptures of Buddah and other mythical beings, and saw sights around the town including the Arc De Triomphe replica and the golden temple (which was closed despite considerable effort by us to get there) - all fuelled by delicious pate baguettes and ovaltine milkshakes. Despite my brief description of the town - which is a result of my tiring brain - we really enjoyed our time in Vientiane, and in fact, all of Laos. We definitely feel that there is more to explore here, and would love some more time to do it, but that will have to wait for another time. Ahead of us we have a 24 hour bus journey across the border and into Vietnam, which has been described as a 'jouney from hell'. We'll be sure to let you know how we got on next time!

Bye for now,

Alan and Kate x