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Right, just so I can keep up with this thing I'm just going to do one post for Laos. So we got the slow boat from Chang Mai in Thailand to Luang Prabang in Laos which involved a bus up to the border and 2 days on a boat down the Mekong river. There were quicker ways to do it but naturally we have to be tight-asses to stick to the budget. Anyway it wasn't so bad because we met a group of Canadians and some British girls from Exeter uni and we all took over the back of the boat. So we made the time fly by with plenty of booze and drinking games, keeping up the rivalry between Exeter and Bristol uni of course. The stop over between the 2 days on the boat wasn't so pleasant cuz we stayed in some completely backwards town with dodgy locals who stalked the girls when all the lights went out at 10.00 and cooked dogs in the street. And we stayed in an absolute dive right out of a teen horror B-movie with rats and creaky floorboards and wierd people roaming the corridor in the middle of the night. Anyway, when we finally got there, Luang Prabang was pretty cool, a nice little town characterised mainly by a massive night market again selling loads of random rags and trinkets similar to the ones on Thailand. We spent our 2 days there cruising around some awesome cascading waterfalls as well as the standard temple and sunset viewpoint visits that we seem to be doing everywhere we go in South East Asia. Actually the first night we bumbed into the Portuguese lot from the Chang Mai trek which was cool so went out with them and the second night we went out with all the people from the slow boat for Ben's birthday and got appropriately smashed in the local bowling alley (cuz it was the only place open past midnight). After Luang Prabang was Vang Vieng, another small town but a bit more lively. The first day we hired absolutely s*** mountain bikes and cycled to various serene lagoons with ropes and swings you could throw yourself off which was great fun. We also went to this pitch black cave where we almost killed oursleves stumbling around in the dark with only this small boy's s***ty flashlight who was our 'guide' and also saved us from a scorpion on the way up with a sharp aim with a rock. The next day we did the infamous tubing, again in a big group with everyone from the boat. You basically hire these rubber tubes and float down the river and there are various bars on the riverside blasting music that throw you a rope and reel you in for you to go and get hammered. It was pretty insane and they also had loads of swings, but waaaaay bigger and more painful than the lagoon ones the previous day, as well as zip lines and slides that smashed you into the water all over the place. It was not for those lacking in kahunas and I was friggin sore as hell for days afterwards, but it was worth it. Both nights in Vang Vieng we all went out and got pretty wasted so the whole time there was pretty much one big f***ing party, it was awesome. Of course we'll have to make up for it with some culture somwhere soon. We actually left a day earlier than everyone cuz we had to get down to the capital Vientianne, which really has nothing worthy of reporting except half decent food on the riverside, which was a shame but hopefully we'll bumb into them again further down the line. From Vientianne to Hanoi was a 26 hour bus!!! Next post....but it was not f***ing pretty I can tell you that now. Thank god for Super Troopers!
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