Laos

From Chiang Mai I took a bus to the border and the next morning I got onto the slow boat that would take me on a two day trip down the Mekong river to Luang Prabang. There were a whole bunch of other travellers taking the boat too and I got chatting to a few of them sitting near me - a process made a lot easier when the beers were broken out around lunchtime. The slow boat was pretty relaxed and turned out to be a pretty social trip - I'd end up bumping into quite a few of the people on my boat as I went through Laos.

We arrived in Luang Prabang in the evening and I got a tuk-tuk to a local guest house with a few of the others from the boat. After dumping our bags we headed out to sample the local nightlife. We had a meal by the river and a few drinks before heading to a local bar called Hive bar. When I got there I bumped into a Kiwi guy called Joel who I'd previously met in Chiang Mai. He told me that when the bar closed at 11pm they were heading on to a local party outside of town, so we decided to go along for this. At 11 we got a tuk-tuk which dropped us outside what looked like a wedding party. After a bit of confusion we worked out that the club was round the corner. We headed on in and had a couple of hours dancing away with the locals before heading back.

The next day I had a bit of a wander round the town's temples and other sights and then went out for dinner and drinks in the evening. There's not much nightlife in Luang Prabang as all the bars are required to close by 11pm - however one place that is allowed to stay open later is the local bowling alley!! So at 11 everyone headed over there for a night of drunken bowling. I'm not the best at this even when I'm sober, so safe to say I didn't get any new high scores, however it was a good fun night out.

The next day I jumped on a bus to Vang Vieng for some tubing. Put simply, this is where you get in a giant rubber ring and float down the river, and when you get to a bar they throw you a rope and drag you in! Each bar also has things to go such as rope swings, zip lines and mud pits to name but a few. Throw in large quantities of alcohol and this can make for a pretty messy afternoon!!

In Vang Vieng I bumped into with an Arizona guy from the slow boat called Kyle. along with his girlfriend, two English guys and a couple of Germans. We had a pretty big night out drinking buckets of whiskey, red bull and coke, and then had to drag ourselves out for tubing the next day. However, after a few drinks we were able to get into the swing of things - I had a go on a couple of rope swings followed by a very messy game of mud volleyball, where I got rugby-tackled into the mud (by one of my own team-mates!) within 10 seconds of the start. Was a good laugh and definitely a good way to unwind after all the travelling...

The next day I did a bit of kayaking and exploring the caves to the north of Vang Vieng (plus hitting a few of the tubing bars), before heading out for another late night in Vang Vieng town.

I then took a bus down to Vientiane (the capital of Laos) and spent a night there before flying to Vietnam. Vientiane is a pretty quiet town with not much to do - however I did meet a Dutch guy (Sam) and an English bloke (Chris) who were also getting the same flight as me and who I'd end up spending a bit of time with in Vietnam.

---

---