LAOS

A large part of Laos has been spent on the road; the scenery has been spectacular! Our mini bus driver regularly stops for us to take in this wonderful landscape as you will see from the numerous photographs, it really is a special place with some fantastic views. Our first 2 days were spent travelling from Hanoi to Lac Sao; a small market town with 2 hotels and one restaurant (any guesses where we ate that night) followed by Vientiane the capital of Laos. We explored Vientiane by tuc tuc followed by a morning session watching the SEA Games (South East Asia Games) We watched something called Sepak Takraw; you have a court similar to volleyball with net, 3 players each, a bamboo ball, one side serves by throwing the ball and kicking over the net. the other team can have a maximum of 3 touches and have to try to return the ball using feet only. These guys are pretty nimble, they do flips and kung fu kicks while trying to return, the server can bend his leg in angles i didn't think would be possible for a guy. Very talented! Oh and if anyone was tuning into these games (sky sports maybe?????) you might find a small clip of 4 English hooligans in the crowd cheering for Laos.!!

Next we headed to Vang Vieng, probably Laos' must popular destination, due to the tubing! We arrived at our bungalows overlooking the Mekong River. The scenery was amazing; this great river with the local kids snorkeling and hunting for fish with spears, a local man building his next boat on riverside, water buffalo all around, bamboo bridges crossing the river, longtail boats and kayaks sailing by with other tourists waving to us on the shoreline, sun setting behind the mountains!! Following day we enjoyed a 10km kayak down the Mekong enjoying some of the caves, a few small rapids and continually soaking each other with our paddles! We viewed some of the bars that we will be drinking at for the tubing later, enjoyed a giant rope swing into the river; but luckily enough we had just got out of the water when we spotted a snake swimming across from one side to the other!

Onto the tubing; for those of you who do not know what this activity involves check out (www.youtube.com - and search for tubing in Laos / Vang Vieng) We hired our tube and headed for the first bar, gave our tube (giant rubber ring) to someone who was stockpiling them next to the river and preceded for our first Whiskey bucket (believe me they do not hold back on their measures, half a bottle of Samsung Whiskey, half a bucket of ice, topped up with coke) knocks your head off! Half way through our first bucket there was a sudden uproar; people began jumping into the river, grabbing the tubes. They were all gone, we felt like school children telling the bar owner that someone had stolen our tubes, we were given a briefing of how tubing works, everyone for themselves. We walked to the second bar, retrieved our tube and floated down the river, where ropes were tossed to us and we were pulled in at bars further down the river, with the continuous sound of music and hundreds of tourists having a river party! More buckets, plenty of rope swings, giant slides, a few cuts, scrapes and bruises along the river bed and we made it back to dry land by 6pm to return the tubes! Drinks at the Aussie bar to review the day and few minor injuries, like the mysterious scratch across my head and the bruised a** cheeks! It was a fantastic day, capped off chilling by the sunset bar, stars shinning, mountains all around oh and our fantastic idea of trying to fit 6 of us into a giant fishing basket upside down backfired when we discovered it was covered in oil, so we all then had oil slicks on our clothes along with the bruises from tubing!

Next was Luang Prabang; stopped on route for some photos of the mountains, there were 2 rangers with AK47 along the road side, a quick photo before heading to our hotel and restaurant! I had a chicken hot pot; the deal is you have to cook it at the table yourself, chicken, noodles, egg, mushrooms, vegetables, throw it all in the Pork stock, fry the chicken and Bob's your uncle. I just want to thank Fon for her hard work and dedication that led me to eating that night! Thank you Fon!

We visited the Elephant rescue village following day, feeding the elephants and climbing aboard them before enjoying an hour trek riding through the jungle and river. Most of these elephants have been rescued after being mis-treated before, so it was good to see they were being well looked after. We had a trip to the waterfalls, enjoyed a longtail boat down the river before returning to Luang Prabang for some bike riding through the town centre (my bikes brakes decided to give up on me halfway across the City, not good) In the evening i tried some water buffalo steak before hitting the local market and some late night bowling action. The bowling alley was packed by midnight as it was the only place open after 11pm, was just like being back at Megabowl, though not as many strikes!

We boarded our slow boat following morning where we will be spending the next 2 days. Again the scenery is spectacular as the 5 of us along with captain and family set sail down the river before our overnight stop in Pak Beng. This certainly was a small place, a few cafe style restaurants, a few local shops, electric is turned off at 10pm and back on at 6am.We had a local curry dish before an early night as everything was pitch black at 10pm on the dot! We continued our trip along the Mekong following day, some local food cooked by the family on the boat, a short trip into the jungle to visit a local village and school, few games of cards and we were at the Thai border for our last part of the tour!