Hello all from Vietnam!! I have a spare hour so thought I would attempt to keep up with me blog. However, I am not sure at which point you'll see it, Facebook is banned in Vietnam, who knew?!?! So can't get on it for about 2 weeks and me phone is still dead!!

So when I left this off I was in Luang Probang in Loas and we had just had our first night there which was deadly.

The next day though we all got up at 4:40am!! It felt like work a little too much for my liking!! But we did it to experience a tradition in Luang Probang where the monks walk down a certain road about 5:30am and the locals give them food. So we all set up shop and when they came past we put sticky rice in the bowls for them to eat later. However I was a little too generous with my portions and ran out pretty quickly and felt guilty when they were walking past I had nothing left to give!! But glad I experienced it.

After that we went to the museum of Ethnology, erm not much to say about that really!! Broke up the day I guess!!

Then we headed up to the waterfalls which was amazing as you could see from some of me pics on Facebook. We walked to the base of the waterfall and took some pics and then headed back to the swing and swimming pool which was alot of fun. Unfortunately we lost Dan who it turns out had walked right to the very top of the waterfall quite a hike in fact and looked shattered when he finally caught up with us in the swimming bit. He jumped on the rope swing and managed to do the wong way and nearly smacked his head on the tree on the way back in, which a rather attracrtive girl who didn't let go off the rope managed to do later!! It was a great way to spend a morning. We had lunch at the market, but poor old Jemma got stung by a hornet until our guides Louis and Bom came the rescue with some loacal treatments.

After a chill out back at the hotel we headed to the night market once again for the girls to do some more sdhopping and the lads headed out for beer and pizza!! Once the grils had caught up we headed to the only place that could serve booze after 11, the local bowling alley for a competion of lads vs girls!! We were quite pissed on the way there because we were all having a bit of a sing along!! For some strange reason we felt guilty about the tuk tuk driver waiting for us whilst we got hammered and invited him in to play!! They sell Loas Whiskey by the bottle there so we got 2 of them in and got stuck in!! Was a great laugh and of course the lads won. So when we decided to leave we realised that we had in fact being getting our designated driver a nit drunk which was proved a bad mistake when he kept stalling the tuk tuk and couldn't get up the hill out of the bowling alley!! But the sing alongs contined and full pelt all the way back to the guesthouse!!

May 14th kinda summed up one of the reasons I love Loas so much, we got up latish and all headed out to the old town for a walk. This was all after stopping at the local bakery and stuffing our faces of course!! So after a walk through the old town we all decided to get massages to relax. We left the girls in one and the lads headed to one up the road and for about a fiver I got a neck, shoulders and back massage for a full hour, was great apart from when they start punching you in the head!! Dan didn't enjoy his quite as much though, he felt the girl wasn't a 100% committed to it and was a bit rude!!

So after we had all being pampered we headed to La Pistoche which is a pool bar down some dusty road for a dip and some cocktails in the sun. The best way I could describe it would be to say it was like a pool party at someones house with people chilling in hammocks or on the sun deck, it was brilliant. Well apart from the fact my swim shorts fell down getting out of the pool, it would appear they don't quite fit.

Once the sun went down we headed home. After a shower and change of clothes we headed to Tum Tum Chungs for a group meal which was lovely, I had the fish and chips. We decided to play a few games in the hope of getting to know each other even better and reveal and few things about each other. All I will say is some things should be left unsaid and feel I should not go first in these games because I always reveal too much info!! I shall not reveal what I learned about my fellow travellers, what happens on tour stays on tour!! Got back in time just to watch the FA cup and get me head down.

Was up handy the next day to jump on the coach to Van Vieng along the rather windy hill raods. Decided to pop a valium to make the trip go a bit more pleasantly and it worked a treat!! We stopped at a restaurant along the way that was literally in the clouds, was bizarre. Made the mistake of taking another valium after lunch and knocked myself out cold!!

We arrived in Van Vieng shortly after 4 and our hotel is on the banks on the Namsong river and the views are stunning, great place to stay. After a shower we wandered through the town that is not particularly big and full of travellers. But after a bite we decided to visit one of the 'happy' bars to have some hash cake!! Now all I will say is you haven't been properly smashed unless you have been to Van Vieng people!! It will go down as one of the funniest nights of my life and was hurting with luaghter!! There was a video of it I am told, but in a paranoid state I deleted it!! Ended up out most of the night in the Q bar drinking buckets with Nicci, Laura and Dan.

Now here is the best part and only wish we had taken a camera because we would have had some amazingly funny pics of our day tubing!! As you may have noticed a recurring theme with this group we got up a bit lated and faffed around a bit!! But eventually we got to the tubing point and every bar offers free shots people, free f***ing shots!! Granted it is Loas whiskey that will rip your throat to bits, but it gets ya drunk!! After some drinks and a limbo contest we jumped in the tubes and the plan was to go a few bars down, that never happened and we stopped at the 2nd bar!! Especially after Lesley nearly had a panic attack once in the tube!! People who have doen this will understand waht I mean but by the 2nd bar I was covered, head to toe in spray paint and graffitti as was most of the group. I had a go on the rope swing there which was a cool and scary all at the same time!! After finishing the buckets we jumped back in the tubes, again the plan was to go a bit further down the river due to time, but you guessed it we ended up in the 3rd bar!! After a bit of a boogy and more free shots we jumped in the river to, you guessed it the 4th bar for some shisha and buckets!! Feeling quite brave at this point I did a tandom rope swing with Matt and we also hit the slide in this bar. Determined to get Jemma to go on the slide here I was asked to wait in the river for her whilst she did it and could pull her in if needed!! She did it, shot out the water and grabbed onto me for dear life, unfortunately her top had come off at the same time and some comedy falpping around ensued!! After finishing the shisha we jumped back in the tubes to the 5th bar for a bucket, then the 6th bar before realising it was getting dark and we still had over an hours worth of tubing to do!! Eventually it was pitch balck with us all trying to get to the end to get our deposit back and survive!! By sheer luck we found a water taxi that would take us to a tuk tuk on the banks. So we split into 2 and sent the girls in the first taxi then the lads in the 2nd. Now try to imagibe hiking through the brush in swimwear with a massive tube, not easy!! We got all 10 of us in the tuk tuk with the tubes and me hanging off the back by 8 and got our deposits back. We ended the night by chilling out in a bar watching 'Friends' reruns.

Got to admit felt a little rough the next day, but we had a 4 hour coach journey to Vietian for a flight to Hanoi the day after. Plus, we were all bruised, cut and battered from the tubing, my shoulders are killing me and got a huge bruise on the back of me legs!! Not much to see here in Vietian if I am honest. We had a wander round and I made some calls home. After that we all went out for dinner and had a lovely steak. We then headed to roof terrace bar that looks over the Mekong River to Thaliand that was recommeded to us by our guide. The bar seemed to mainly consist of Lady boys so no idea why he recommended it (I await the lady boy commetns boys!!). And we had a few beers before turning in.

We arrived in hanoi the next day which is were I currently am. I will tell you all about that later. But Hanoi is crazy and I have already had a go at the motorbike taxi and you really are taking your life in your hands!!

I hope you can all read this and enjoy it. Miss you all,

Mup