we arrived in laos on the 17th june after travelling to bangkok from chaing mai via plane, then a train to nong khai to corss the border. what was supposed to be a 12 hour train journey was actually 16hours and what was supposed to be first class had bugs in the carriage!not good! after getting throught the border and sorting out visas etc we got to the bus station ito get to vang vieng and then had to wait 3 hours for a 4 hour trip....finally arrived around midnight!!!(oh yeah and spent 4 hours on a coach behind a guy with a massive gun hidden up his sleeve! vang vieng was ....rainy, it did not stop. We hired out bicycles and realised that there's actually nowhere to go so gave them back! the second day we attempted caving and tubing. basically trekked through slushy mud and cow poo and had to take our flip flops off because it was obviusly impossible to walk! got to the cave and on seeing it i refused to go in, the gap was about 2 foot wide and your face was touching the cave as you went through.(chelle was brave) so went all the way back again barefoot! anyway we had a good last night in vang vieng in this bar called smile bar so ended the trip there on a good note!!!