I'm now in Vientiane and will be here for a few days, as the earliest we can get our Visas for Vietnam is Monday. We have a flight booked to Hanoi for late Monday, the alternative being a 24+ hour bus journey.

Luang Prabang was cool, in the evening we got a burger by the night market, chatted to some friends, and went to a decent bar called the Lao Lao Gardens. We got a good deal on some whisky and coke, which went down rather easily. This not sufficient, we went to the Vietnam bar where there were a few more from our boat trip. Somehow, Vic pursuaded the tuk tuk driver to let him have a go, after which he decided to not let me have one too!

The next morning we were going to go to the Palace (didn't look like one really), but bumped into the girls from Chiang Mai again. So, we went with them to the Buddhist caves alongside the river. It looked impressive from the boat on the outside, like something from Jason and the Argonauts, but the inside was a little disappointing. Statues of Buddha in a cave, that's it.

We finally got to go to see Pho Si, the top of which offers an almost panoramic view of Luang Prabang. Took some photos from there and then went to get our bus to Vang Vieng. The "VIP" bus was rather uncomfortable, and the method for seat allocation was ridiculous. It was overbooked, meaning people had to sit on plastic seats in the aisle. We arrived at 2am, getting up for lunch the next day and tubing.

Tubing had been described to me in a couple of different ways, but as something I must try. It involves sitting in the middle of a tyre's rubber inner lining, floating down a river, stopping every now and then at the various bars to drink beer. It was a lot of fun, and where we met a Swedish girl, Yahid, and a Dutch girl, Sophie. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with them, going to town after, for some milkshakes and pizza. Rather tasty too. We went to a "discotheque", where they seemed to play slow love song music all the time, rubbish.

The next morning, Vic and I decided to travel Lao-style, mixing it with the locals. So, we hopped on the back of a pick-up truck with a roof, to travel to Vientiane for $2.50 each. Not bad, although my backside had fallen asleep by the end of it. At one point, there were about 20 of us on there, with a pig in a basket oinking beneath my seat. "Am I dreaming?" I thought to myself.

In Luang Prabang, there was a group of four French people we kept bumping into. One was so typically French, he only lacked the garlic around his neck and a black and white striped t-shirt. Nice guy all the same, oh, and his name was Yan-Nick, to top it off (that was always the name of the French guy on the tapes in French lessons in school!) I was wearing my Rocky 4 t-shirt which bears the image of Ivan Drago standing proudly by the Hammer and Sickle. Of course, our friend Yan-Nick now believes me to be a Bolshevik symphethiser.

Since being in Vientiane, we have taken it easy, we've been on the move so much recently, the slower pace is much needed. The national boat race in on today and tomorrow, so we'll probably check that out, as well as finding somewhere showing the England game. I don't think there's much to do here, so we'll check out some of the normal tourist stuff and maybe go for a massage, I'm still aching - from tubing I think!

I'm looking forward to Hanoi, apparently there are some fantastic caves and beaches to go and see, hopefully better than the ones in Luang Prabang.