Hello Everyone!

We are currently in Vientiane in Laos following a few days in Vang Vieng.
Vientiane is a lovely city, which is very French. There are lots of lovely restaurants and bakeries - a lot of which we cant afford!! Last night we had a lovely meal at a tapas bar (I now like tapas)!
We are staying here for a few nights whilst we wait to fly on to Hanoi! We couldnt bear the thought of a 24 hour plus bus journey and so forked out for the 1 hour plane journey instead :)

In Vang Vieng we stayed in a lovely hotel called the Elephant Crossing where we had a view of the Nam Song river and the mountains behind it. Every morning we could watch either horses or cows come down from the fields to drink at the river.
One day we went tubing - which is basically floating down the river in an inflated tractor inner tube. This was a lot of fun - but took a little longer than expected and so we got a little bit sunburnt!
On another day we went on a hike to a nearby cave. Once we got to the cave, they told us the cave was up the mountain so we had to climb up the rickety wooden steps to the cave entrance. We had to climb down into the cave over loads of rocks! Tom thought we were supposed to go down this big dark hole to see the 'blue lagoon' - luckily, we decided otherwise - as it literally was a BIG DARK HOLE! When we got out of the cave, the guys told us the blue lagoon wasnt there anyway but at another cave about a kilometre away, called Lusi Cave.
So, we started towards this cave, through the ACTUAL jungle! I was scared but Tom was like Indiana Jones and taking photos of everything! We eventually reached the cave, which by the way, was WAY over a kilometre away (Tom: No lucy, you're just lazy!!!) and to get to the cave you literally had to scrabble up a vertical mountain!! We decided against it and trekked all the way back through the jungle and accross the wobbliest bamboo bridge we had ever seen!!!
For the last few days our legs have been REALLY hurting!
So now we are back in Vientiane! Last time we came here for 2 days and saw the Patuxai - which is an arc de Triomphe replica - really odd! We climbed to the top of that too - seems like we are always climbing these days! We also went to Wat Saket which had thousands of small buddha statues in the wat's cloisters.
Today we are going to Nong Chanh Water Park, which has slides and a lazy river for a bit of relaxing swimming! We will enjoy the slightly cardboardy ham sandwiches we have packed for lunch!!

We will upload all of Tom's photos soon - I may as well say that now as he takes nearly all of them!! (Tom: That's what two years of Photography Class will do to you Lucy!)

Lots of Love to you all,

Lucy and Tom

PS: Sorry for not calling recently but it seems impossible to get a Laos Sim for our phone! We go to Hanoi on the 23rd where we will definitely buy a sim card and will call right away!

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