Laos

So when I said non-jet plane I really did mean it. Not only do Lao airlines have a very questionable safety record (which they don't release), they also have no jet planes at all only propeller ones. In fairness to Lao airlines the flight was actually quite smooth (though I was very alarmed just before take off when only one propeller was moving). The staff even managed to serve and clean up a meal within the ten minutes between ascending and descending. We were glad we flew in the end as the views flying into Luang Prabang were spectacular.

Luang Prabang is little more than a town, very french in design but a nice place to spend a few days. We were able to catch up with Sandra who was there for a few days, over some beer Lao and a lot of shopping at the night market. The night market is fantastic there, I'm still regretting not buying anything more but my exploding bag couldn't handle any more at the time!

Laos is the only country on this trip that has comparable rain abilities to Ireland. All day rain with no end in sight! Over the year we obviously lost our ability to carry on regardless of the rain, so we only managed to visit the Wat Xieng Thong temple and then sit around drinking tea. The temple was very different from anything we had seen in Thailand, lots of mosaics and blue glass. After several more cups of tea we met back up with Sandra for some more shopping and some drinks to say goodbye until we're all back, poor and penniless, in Ireland.

Unfortunately the next Luke was confined to bed with a bout of food poisoning, so I played nurse in between going off for some walks around Luang Prabang and along by the Mekong. At 4pm I saw the monk's do the daily drumming. It was quite funny as they were all quite young and taking pictures of each other banging the drums. Their new facebook profile pictures perhaps...?!

Once Luke recovered we caught a very bumpy bus to Vang Vieng. The town of Vang Vieng is incredibly touristy and a bit of a kip but it sits in the most amazing luscious scenery. The most interesting and infamous way to view this scenery is called "tubing" and is achieved by sitting in a large inflated tractor tube while floating down a river. It didn't take the locals long to see a gap in this mode of sightseeing and promptly set up riverside bars. They throw a rope, you catch it and into the bar you go. In-genius really but this when things get dangerous as each bar has a rope swing or a zip line and when you see people wandering around with a whole bottle of whisky to themselves its hardly surprising that things sometimes go wrong. Have to say we thoroughly enjoyed our float down the river. Even managed to bring a disposable camera in a dry bag, which I quite cleverly managed to fill with water while some kids rescued me from floating past the very small "end of tubing" sign! Miraculously we managed to get some photos. Despite all the dangers on the water it was my choice of footwear that got me in the end. Plastic flip flops in raining season mud equal a broken toe.

So the one thing that everyone told us about Vang Vieng was that we would see every episode of Friends ever as all the bars play friends all day long. Needless to say we were a bit disappointed when most bars were showing the Olympics instead! Not as exciting as you may thing as they were only showing sports that Asia is good at like women's weight-lifting and Badminton! We managed to find one place showing it which helped kill a few hours in the evening- there is not a lot to do in Vang Vieng otherwise!

From Vang Vieng we got a supposed 3 hr bus ride to Vientiane , the capital. Travelling is never easy in Laos and half way there we caught in a line of traffic that just was not moving. On further investigation (walking 15 minutes past all the line of cars) we found the whole road was cut off due to a mudslide. Given the landslide had occurred at 4am and it was noon when we arrived, and there was no sign of a digger we were not very hopeful of making it to Vientiane that day. Luckily the locals had set up noodle stalls and were serving cold beer but despite this we were very thankful when a digger arrived and cleared the road.

Vientiane is quite small despite it's capital status. While we were there everyone was in the midst of preparing for the Mekong to flood, which has happened since we left. The sandbags were stacked to about 2 and a half foot when we were there but there plane was to build them to 8 ft. Because of the city's size it was quite easy to tour the city by foot so we set off on a self directed walking tour. First stop was Pha That Luang, a large gold stuppa which is one of the most important monuments in Loas. Its quite impressive from the outside but there wasn't a whole lot to see inside. From there we walked along the "Champs Elysee" of the east, a very generous term for a wide road. It was quite french though, it even had its own arc de triomphe called the Putaxi. Well its really just a concrete arch that was never finished. From there we followed the avenue until Talat Sao Market where Luke contemplated purchasing snake wine, which comes complete with a pickled snake. Our last stop was Wat Si Saket which is home to thousands of Buddha statues- they were everywhere! All the walls were lined with large statues, while the walls themselves had hundreds of grottoes containing small Buddha statues. After our long walk, especially long with a broken toe, we settled at a riverside bar and had a few beer Lao watching the sunset. We even had a game of bowling that evening!

Once our Vietnam visas were ready, we booked a bus to Hanoi mostly because it was $150 cheaper than a flight. Unfortunately it turned out to be the bus ride from hell. The 'bus station' we were dropped to was actually some guy's garage where we sat inexplicably for 3 hours.

Once on the bus we had to clamber over 50kg bags of rice which lined the floor. The lady in front of Luke was adamant that his legs were not that long and broke the chair trying to push it back. During this commotion I dropped my phone and it was promptly swiped. This was all before we left Vientiane fully. Once on the road we stopped every hour or so, seemingly to discuss how to get past all the floods. At one stage it was decided that all the luggage in the hold would have to be moved on to the bus so it wouldn't get damaged by the flood waters. Not an easy job as all the Vietnamese were smuggling back tvs, tables, lamps etc. At 2am it was decided this would all be moved back.

Later on in the night I woke up to find the bus being pulled by a tractor through waters almost up to the windows, as we floated past a sunken bus which obviously didn't get as far as us. Immigration took four hours, and was a free for all as everyone threw their passports into a giant pile while every crowded around passing back random passports as they were done. All except the shiny wine EU passports which were held to ransom for a dollar. Once through immigration it took an other hour for the bus to move, because the bus driver was refusing to pay a bribe despite the fact the bus was loaded with Heineken, red bull etc. Nightmare. Once the rice reached its destination in Vietnam we were kicked off the bus into a jeep which eventually made it to Hanoi. Needless to say it was one very long (24hr) bus ride... we so should have gotten the flight!!

Vietnam update to follow...

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