Hellllllllooooooooooo - it's been a while so thought we'd take today out to do a big update (no new pics yet but Mark is on that and hopefully should have some more up soon - must say Mark has taken some pretty spectacular ones - i've just taken some!).

Anywho - hope everyone is well and as always thank you for the messages and emails it really is lovely to receive them and hear from you - apologies though for the sometimes delay in coming back to you it's surprising how computer phobic you start to become and how quickly time passes.

Right - so we are currently in Vientiane, Loas. When we last updated we were just leaving Chiang Mai and heading for Chiang Rai then crossing over to Laos. We had a fantastic trip to the border crossing town Khong Chong (i think) - we passed briefly through Chaing Rai and got to see the white temple - look it up it's a very beautiful (from a distance) and they very disturbed (when you get close) newly built temple - even had the top part of the body of predator mixed in - all very bizare. Anyway after a stop there we drove on to Khong Chong which was a final stop in Thailand before crossing over to Laos the following morning. On the bus we'd met a few easy going peeps - two in particular Wayne from the UK and Nick from Canada (canadians get everywhere!) and we all hung out later in the eve having some beers - not quite sure who had the idea to get some Lao Lao whiskey but two half litre bottles later there were many a giggle but we'd lost Mark - shortly found in room having what we'll call a rather bad allergic reaction to the whisky! Not the best placed plan seeing as we had to get up and head across the border first thing before embarking on day 1 of our 2 day down the Mekong river boat trip.

Somehow Mark made it through the morning and we got on the slow boat on the Lao side of the border and headed off down the Mekong on our slow boat (que introduction to Laos laid 'lazy' back experience). The boat cruised down the Mekong all day (we ended up leaving about 12:30pm - scheduled departure 10am) and arrived in Pak Beng early eve just as it was getting dark. The slow boad is a great way to travel especially when the weather is fantastic and the views are astounding - the locals also jump on the boat to be dropped off at different villages along the river - anything from motobikes to chickens comes aboard.

We had a night stop over in Pak Beng - the boat arrives early eve just as the light is fading as they are not allowed on the river at night - you then have to negotiate your way up the side of a cliff - if you haven't got your head torch find someone that has to follow as the 'steps up' can be anything you choose at the time until you find the actual ones! As Mark had managed to get through the day (just i think) we just grabbed to food - then headed for an early night so we could get up early and get to the boat to get some better seats for the 2nd day down the Mekong and arrival into Luang Prabang. The 2nd day down the Mekong was even better we ended up near the front of the boat sitting beside two Ausi guys - Andrew and Lochlan (Lochie) - who were teachers and decided that to date (all of 1 day) our Lao language was in need of help - so throughout the day we all tried to speak Lao - much to the amusment of 3 Local Lao ladies - who after much bothering by mostly the Aussies (they were a tad more confident than us - we just felt at that time we were just saying strange sounds) helped to correct us and teach some other usful and funny words - it was great fun - then one of the ladies decided to buy some beers to share and thus i had my first taste of Beelao - it is yummy! All very funny and the day passed along nicely as we cruised down the Mekong and into Luang Prabang again just as the light was fading. Lots of pics to follow.

After arriving in Luang Prabang our first adventure was to find our guesthouse - first impressions of Luang was that is seemed very chilled. As we walked down the road a group of girls in front of us screemed and jumped out the way of a snake slithering across the road - i stood my distance and the out of a shop shot a lil lao woman with a big broom and began beating the hell out of the snake - we moved swiftly on but i did notice later in the market that there are lots of bottles with pickled snakes in - who knows! Anywho we found our guesthouse and it was lovely - they even had a lil puppy called - cam-boa - apparently meaning good boy. We stayed in Luang a while and had lots of lovely coffee, cakes and beelaos - the best beerlao being when we walked to the top of a temple in town - people don't really go up there for the temple but for the amazing sunsets - which we watched (again Mark taking some great pics - to follow) the sunset with a couple of could beerlaos - we could tell others were jealous and wish that they'd bought beerlaos as well!

So after i think a week - we left Luang - not before i got the first bought of travellers D the day before we left - but with a day in between bed and the loo i figured i be ok for the 5hr minibus ride down to Vang Vieng the next day. Which i was - we set off from the bus station about 10 in the morning Me, Mark some Italians and some others - the driver must have been on a mission to be somewhere by somewhen as set off at a good pace - which is interesting when the road is mainly potholes and dust - so along we all went bouncing off the roof at times. What none of us had accounted for was the amazing and rapid height we'd reach with the spectacular views and winding roads - it would have been lovely to get some photos but everyone was very pale and focussing on one point whilst breathing deeply to avoid being sick. Once made it to the top and were heading down to a lower height all began to feel somewhat better and in we drove to Vang Vieng - beautiful place.

We only stayed a few days in Vang Vieng - but managed to squeeze in a good cycle (with an extra 10k added due to my insistance that we were going the right way - we weren't) and found a lovely bar to chill out and watch the sunset - once again with the obliguatory beerlao! We stayed in a nice setting but for me was a bit creepy and my imagination went into overdrive - but before i could drive myself crazy we were on another minibus heading for Vientiane.

The journey to Vientiane was fine - it seems the more south you go the better the road improves - we arrived to a lovely guesthouse and sorted ourselves out for a couple of days before heading off to Kong Lo Cave (about 6 hours direct bus out of Vientiane) - we ended up spending 3 nights there as is was so lovely - also home to the 7km cave all the way through a mountain. We took a boat - just me Mark and 2 guides through the cave and got to stop off and walk around inside to see the stalagmytes & stalagtytes (spelling?) - it was pretty amazing - after going through the cave you stop off the other side for 20 mins for a walk around - we met some workmen who were building a new road that side - they offered some local homebrew, rude not to. After 'refreshments' we got back in the boat and headed back through the cave (pics to follow!) - really a great trip. We arrived back into Vientian again last night and will now spend a few days here sightseeing before flying to our next country Vietnam.

So that is a quick (as i can) synopsis of how we got to Vientiane - i'm sure i've missed loads and we'll update again soon - internet is very slow and not to reliable in Laos apparently Vietnam is better. We'll get some more pics up to as they show better than i can ever describe how lovely and brillient everything is.

Also forgot to say when in Bangkok Mark ate deep fried bugs - it was very gross - he says that they were crunchy and tasted ok - his breath smelt like pork scratchings - bleh!

So take care all - until next time - Z&Mx