30TH January we spent our first full day in vang vieng.Renown for its party life and tubing we headed straight into town to get our tube.When we arrived we thought we would never leave.After all where else in the world can you drink buckets of cocktails, drink beer, free shots, float between riverside bars and jump into the river from 1 of the many rope swings.These were no little rope swings, but huge ones that even my arse went a bit swinging off and dropping20-30ft into the river.

We were told by another traveller that 7 people a year die in vang vieng from tubing and that another guy a few days before us had died from the 'slide of death'...but odds were in our favour and you only live once.After a few beers, snake shots and buckets of whiskey cocktails our confidence grew on the rope/zip lines.Saying that Dan decided to go in deep.First attempt on the biggest rope swing to do a backflip.Let's just say once the adrenalin wore off he wasn't trying that again for some time.

Earlier that morning after wrestling those bloody ants out of my bag and trying to clean everything i went for a walk around to see the area whilst i left Dan in bed for a while with him making the odd dash to the toilet.I got chatting to a lad called Tim that turned out to be staying in the same place we had booked for the next 3 nights.He was a good lad and we met him out tubing and had explained how the zip line was so much better to hold on until you hit the bun throwing you off.Watching a few people do something similar and doing around 2 flips before hitting the water i thought i'd play it safe and let go.Little bit boring and whilst Dan was getting the free snake shots in i decided i'd hold on.It hurt.Big time!Tim had decided not to tell me he had dislocated his arm on it about 30mins ago and thought he send me off making the same mistake.Never again.

Dan had mentioned at the bar he wanted to write 'backflips for beer' and Tim wanted a backflip....thanks to Dan i also wasn't left out of the free beer J.I must say that the beer in laos is horrible.Compared to Chang in Thailand it was a huge step down and with only 2 beers in the whole place you were only going to get the same 'beer lao' in every bar.

After a bucket and my free shot I was getting less and less fearless about the rope swings and whacking out backflips off them which was great fun.Being a virgin tuber we had hired our tubes which we were floating from bar to bar and having spoke to some people that day we had been told all the action was in the first five bar, and it was.They were about 200m apart which was easily walkable L.You also have to get the tube back at 6 and apparently hardly anyone gets them back the river route and most get the tuktuk back.We were determined to get there though so at the 5th bar we got our man sized beer lao and floated down with it.No one told us it was about 3km back though and even with holding on to a kayak for 1km, getting sores on the inside of my arms, I only just made it back in time.

I had to make it back because i had noticed that i had lost my money (that was soaked as we didn't have a waterproof fanny bag) and so i paddled for my life.It was cold, boring after the first 30mins, no beer left and getting very close to 6.But after 2 hours of paddling i got my full deposit back and tip toed back to Spicy (our hostel).

Our hostel was unique.We were recommended it by a fair few people and it payed off.We had a 14 bed mixed dorm for £2.20a night i think it was but this dorm didn't have any walls and was inside a wooden structure with a 1 inch foam mat as a mattress.It was good there though,Great little chilled out hostel and because you get so drunk you sleep like a baby.The 14 bed thing did later wear off though.My family know exactly how i am getting in after a night out....but NOT after a Vang Vieng night out.

The first night out is always going to be the biggest and even after the drinking throughout the day we got on it.When your tubing people come around with bits of string to tie around you wrist and advertise there bar offering free buckets between 6 and 9.Well it would be murder not to take advantage of that and so we managed to get free buckets all night.We saw everyone out that night, Tim the dutch guy and his friend Ivor :S, Tim from spicy, people from spicy and all the people off the boat.It was like being back at home just strolling between groups of people and dancing.What a night it was.I again was passed out somewhere and after being told my Tim the dutch guy that his friend thought he had walked back with him, we think it was me.I have no memory of anything past 9pm but i did make it to atleast midnight because there are pictures taken at that time.I ended up in the hammock back at the hostel and when Dan and a Swedish girl rocked up 5 hours later we had a good drunken chat and woke everyone up with the words 'Is Tim ok though' and climbing up to his bed to check on him....he was fine.

After the huge night the only way we would get over the hangover was to drink through it.This time instead of getting a tube we just went straight up there tubeless and was fine having a few beers.The night though, topped up with our wrist bands again we got our free buckets and ended up at the Bucket Bar.Again, can't tell you a lot about it but it was another quality night.Waking everyone up, AGAIN, we hopped into bed with a killer hangover.This time we were on a major deTox.It got to the point when about 1pm when we got up and headed for some food we were just nibbling at it but what was worst was the fact i was so hot and kept going dizzy, i thought i was going to pass out about 3 times, so went straight back to bed and lay there for about 3 hours trying NOT to sleep as i was worried i wasn't going to wake up.We never made it out that night but spent the evening sat in the hammocks looking out over the river on facebook.

Our last night at Spicy we had to find accommodation as they were full and we wanted another day there tubing.We had picked up a fellow traveller called Imram.Well his name is Nati, but he's Israeli and on the old drunk nights that's what we named him.He's heading the same way as us and didn't want to continue with the others he was with.Me n Dan were surprised anyone wanted to join us after our display on those evenings but he was on board.

We had to sort out a few things like accommodation, bus ticket, Nati's Vietnam visa and get some money so we arranged that and went tubing!Facebook kept us in touch with Robbie who had just arrived in Vang Vieng so we met him out there aswell.He seemed to have trained up his drinking habits in the time we left as he had a man sized beer and was smashed!Robbie was back, and acted like a kid on Christmas morning just constantly excited wanting another swing on the rope swings lol.

The last night we had planned to take easy having a 28 hour bus ride to Hanoi in Vietnam but how can you turn down 3 free buckets???There are people starving out there and it wouldn't be right not to.Because there is a time limit on these buckets we went round collecting/drinking our buckets and settling at the Bucket bar.This night i remember better.With a limited budget (due to leaving Laos the next day and not being stuck with useless money) i only had my free buckets and stole everyone else's drink.We played drinking games with some aussie guys and german girls and got dancing all night.

We said bye to some of our friends and headed for the bus.I'm currently riding this VIP coach for Hanoi which lasts about 28 hours i think.Organisation in these places is terrible and we were picked up at 1:30pm and waited at the bus station for 50mins before getting on a very hot, crammed, non VIP bus!All being well we were meant to change at Vientiene to our VIP bus again.After being forced here and there we were told to board this one coach that was full and given kids plastic stools to sit on in the aisle.Everyone was pissed off at this as all the local's had seats and we had paid for one aswell,The laos people there were all k*** and just laughing at us.Its a 24 hour trip from Vientiene to Hanoi and they wanted 10 people sitting in the aisle...i don't think so.After 30mins of waiting and arguing with them there was a magically bus that appeared also going to Hanoi.This one all had seats for us and the air con we had been promised.To be fair it was pretty funny thinking about it but with a hangover, empty stomach, 5 hours on a bus and the idea off sitting in the middle of this other one on a petty stool just seemed too much.

I'm now about 2 and a bit hours into the big un to Vietnam and will try and get some sleep.Its only going to be about 20 degrees there and drinking should be restricted,

Byeeeeee x