25th Jan we had spent enough time in Chiang Mai that we were happy to move on.We got up about 10:30 am and scrambled all out stuff together, collected the washing and decided we would head to Chiang Khong which is the main border crossing over to Laos.It was a 5 and a half hour journey and we managed to catch the next bus which left 15mins later.The journey went pretty quickly and was comfortable with a couple of stops on the way up.The second stop was at a stunning white temple so we hopped out and had a look around.It was all really nice but what topped it off for me was the monk praying in there as I couldn't work out if he was real or not as he was sat so still.

When we arrived in Chiang Khong we had no accommodation sorted, again.The first guesthouse we saw was 100baht which is cheap so we took it and later realised why.It was a sort of terraced thatched hut and when someone walked down it shook the whole place but it was alright....and then we sat on the bed.It was the hardest bed ever.But it was only 1 night so we soldered on.

After dropping our stuff in to our lovely room we headed out for a bite to eat and the first restaurant bar we saw, we took it.It was alright aswell with a good atmosphere and the food weren't too bad either.We had a couple of games off pool, bosh on the tinternet and joined a group for a chat.

We got a pretty early night and i was detoxing from the previous night so i was hoping for a decent sleep (considering the bed) but no.The previous after only 1 Chang and waling towards the first bar i kept looking around as i thought i saw someone next to me, only when i turned around it was a coke can or a tuktuk.This happened about 5 or 6 times and i thought 'that's a bit strange' at the time but thought nothing of it.Well.....tonight it was about to come back, but worse!I lay down, checked the time 10:12pm, and shot straight to sleep only to be woken up from a bad dream/nightmare.I was holding my phone when dan seemed to smash it out of my hand, hit me a few times and grab my head and continued to smash his head against mine.This went on for a while until i woke up, but when i woke up i could see some of these faces again.There was absolutely nothing in the room bar a door and a fan but when i was looking i seem to be able to see 2 faces.I scrambled for my phone trying to wave a light at it to see what it was but there wasn't anything there either!It s*** me up big time and i was sweating and scared to sleep so kept my phone on lighting up the room for about 30mins before turning away and heading back to sleep.In the morning i thought it was pretty funny but a bit worried it was going to continue.I linked it to the anti-malarials we have, doxycicline , as the doctor told me that they have quite a few side effects and 1 of these being psychological problems but i wasn't to worry as this only really happened to those with a history of it and i clearly don't.I decided to see how the next few nights went with them before I'd try and get the more expensive malarone tablets.

The following day came and it seemed to carry on from the how it left off last night for me.We were low on money and needed some for the slow boat later in the day.It took us about 20mins to find an ATM and then it didn't work!We were told the nearest 1 was at a bank further down the road, another 15mins walk. Dan had forgot his PIN number so he was trying to ring his mum to find it out but with it being 1am back at home that wasn't easy, especially with no singnal.It took a good hour to get money and water for the day so we grabbed a tuktuk to the border crossing, got our visa exit stamp and crossed the river to Huay Xai on the Laos side.It was super complicated to work it out with getting an arrivals card, visa and slow boat ticket.Everyone seemed to have got the package deal with everything done for them but it was a bit more expensive and at the time we thought it was alot more!

About 11am we caught our slow boat that was going to take about 7 or 8 hours to arrive at the first destination along the Mekhong River where we would stay the night and catch the next one to Luang Prabang a further 11 hours away.There were two slow boats and we wanted the 1 with a few guys we had been chatting to but even with a 50/50 chance we got it wrong.We did happen to see a guy called Steve again for we met a few days ago in Chiang Mai but we were cramped, uncomfortable and not looking forward to the 8 hours on it.2 hours in the boat pulled in and was soon followed by the other boat.They came pretty close to each so me and dan grabbed our stuff and jumped on the other boat.We had finally found the 'party boat' where everyone was sitting at the back in the enginge room chilled out and very drunk. The scenery was incredible and i spent many hours just looking out of the window at the many small tribes in their wooden huts and traditionally fishing. About 10 guys were sat on the roof of the slow boat drinking and this wasn't allowed as guy quite recently has been up there drunk, fell asleep and fallen off....no one saw him again and he died.But after being up there an hour 1 of the people working on the boat went up there and charged them 2000baht to stay up there which they paid.They would soon regret that as an hour or so later the boat turned and everything went with it.It was capsizing.We were wedged at an angle and took about 5 seconds to get it back on its feet but very almost went over and any longer we would probably have taken in enough water to completely capsize.Luckily though we were alright, but the 6 people who fell off the roof weren't.The Mekhong is a huge river and very fast flowing and it didn't take long for them to be drifting away from the boat.It took half an hour to rescue them all with some being picked up by the other slow boat (our first one) and the rest who managed to swim to shore.Everyone was ok but a bit shaken up.After all it's a story to tell the grand kids.

We arrived in this village (our overnight stop off) pretty late and it was dark with no accommodation.We followed a large group and managed to get a nice room for 400 baht.5 minutes after being there the heavens opened and we found ourselves in a tropical storm.The electricity in the village goes off at 10pm anyway but with this storm there were power cuts all the time.We went to get some food and sat with an American guy looking over the beautiful mountains being lit up by the lighting with a candle lit dinner.It was no romantic night, just there was no electricity and its all there is in a place like that.It rained most of the night but cleared up in the morning.

The following morning we were up early and down to the slow boat which was due to depart at 9:30am.We got straight on the party boat, but after yesterdays disaster most people sat at the front giving me, dan and 2 others in the engine room plenty of room to lay down.This soon wore off as throughout the journey it was getting more and more popular as people saw us all lying down and getting some sleep so towards the end it was a fight for your space.I managed to get a couple of hours sleep but spent most of the journey staring out of the window at the mountains listening to my mp3 player.Its probably one of the most stunning places views down the river in the world but you can't really capture it on a camera.Drifting by the local villages that literally had nothing and were fishing and farming whatever they could for food.After leaving Steve on the previous boat he managed to find us again, ditching his bag from the other boat and jumping on to ours at some point.We arrived at Luang Prabang 2-3 hours earlier than we were told, to our delight, so with steve we headed out to look for a cheap room.Everyone seemed to walk around for hours looking for a cheap place with many of the rooms being about £15-20.We settled for a shack that was falling apart, with hard beds, smelly toilets and thin walls as it was priced at 80,000 kip around £6.20 for the room.We grabbed some food and a drink and went for a walk around to see if anyone was out or there looked to be a good place to chat to people. We found nothing, so got an early night for a change.

28th January, our only full day in LP had been planned to hire motorbikes and head up the mountains to the infamous waterfall but after talking to a few people it seemed it wasn't only the guesthouses that were trying to take your money, it was also the government.To rent a motorbike in Chiang Mai is cost less than £3.Here, its $20 of which $15 goes to the government.We priced up tuktuk's to the waterfall and this we managed to get for 30,000 kip which is about £2.50 so we went with that.The waterfall was great fun.Its what you associate with a waterfall, rope swing, deep water to jump in to and so we loved it!Dan was whacking out double backflips off the top of the waterfall which everyone was cheering and clapping lol and secretly...he loved it!After a couple of hours we headed back for food and whilst at the restaurant we saw the guys on our boat and at the waterfall who invited us to utopia later that evening.So we finished our meal, headed back to the guesthouse to drop my laptop off and went to look for utopia.On the way we met one of the guys that was part of that group who was also heading there.Turned out they had left and we couldn't find them so we stopped for a drink in the coolest bar ever.You lay down on the floor with loads of cushions etc looking out over the river and hills.It had no fence up and so you could just dangle your legs off the 30ft drop...we joked about how in England you would have to have barb-wired fences head height, warning signs and yellow lines to not go near the edge.We stopped for 1 drink as it was expensive and headed back.

We had a bit of a lie in that morning as our minivan wasn't picking us up until 1:30pm so we went to the wifi bar and tried to upload our pictures to facebook, look at our future travel plans and email some folks.The picture uploading didn't work, again! We grabbed some last minute potato chips and caught a bus journey of death.I don't know how we survived it but the guy was rallying through the mountains (that had no fence with huge drops) and i was air-born on some occasions from hitting the bumps in the road at such speed.It took 6 hours to get to Vang Vieng which we couldn't wait to get to.

We headed for the first cheap guesthouse near where we had booked the next few nights (spicy) and paid 40,000 kip for a room (£3).It was a double bed, with a hot shower and came with free ants.Loads of them!We should probably of complained but i expected they would keep them to themselves....though when i jetting them with a hot shower and sprayed them with deet (works well by the way), i think they were planning there own back.

We dropped our bags and the 2 dutch guys who we were looking for a guesthouse with came round and had a bit of chat where we went for some food and a drink.After a very nice steak with pepper sauce I went back to the room where Dan had headed back 10mins before us because his arse was going a bit.Well i say a bit, a lot!He had the bug we had heard alot about and so he took a load of pills and tried to go out.Turned out he couldn't soldier on and so we went back in the thought that if he got better overnight then he would be good to go the following day.