Hi Everyone!

We are in Vang Vieng at the moment, and had a really good few days.

Our last day in Luang Prabang was also my 21st Birthday! It was a really great day! Started off with a cooked breakfast for the first time, with bacon sausages, eggs and pancakes! Although we both felt very full afterwards :-) Then we relaxed until 1 30, when we went back to the Kwang Si waterfalls for the afternoon, as we both liked them so much the first time. We spent a few hours jumping in off rope swings, and just relaxing in the pools.

We got back a little later than planned, and we unfortunately missed the sunset, as we had planned on a sunset cruise on the river mekong. But we watched it from the riverfront for a while to make up for it. :-) In the evening, we went out to one of the best restaurants in the town, called Thanmak Lao, where we had a feast! We had local beef jerky, chicken and coconut milk stew, tempura pork and bamboo shoots with a sweet chilli dip, and a freshly baked loaf of bread with a smoky eggplant dip! We were very full, but went next door for two very nice slices of cake, and Kate had smuggled in some candles! For a happy birthday song :-)

Now we are in Vang Vieng, and are about to head off down to the far south of Laos tomorrow on a 20 hour bus journey! Vang Vieng is a touristy little town, where nearly all the cafes play friends and family guy back to back. Tom loves it, but me, not so much :-) The main activity is tubing down the river on tractor inner tubes. We were expecting a long relaxng journey, but found out just before it is mainly all about partying, with lots of free whisky shots and cheap 'whisky buckets' several bars on the way down. :-) There are also huge rope swings into the river, and Tom did two, but landed badly on the biggest one, and bruised his back :-) There is also later on mud volleyball, where you get caked head to toe in wet mud :-)

After the bars, those that are worst for wear take tuk tuks back to town, but we floated down the river on a tube for an hour to the city, through some amazing scenery which was really cool.

Yesterday, it was a bit cloudy, so we decided to go on a cycling trip through the scenic local countryside where we saw lots of rice paddies and mountains, and we ended up at some caves which were pretty nice, but ruined by a large tour group of French people! :-)

But we've had a really good couple of days, and heading onto the South of Laos, missing out the capital city and central parts, as there are few attractions, and we want more time for Cambodia and Vietnam.

Hope everyone reading this is ok,

Cya