well we spent a lovely few days relaxing by the nam song river, and had some early birthday celebrations for jess on the night of the 20th. we were at an outdoor bar and a storm started, we ignored it until it caused a powercut then we had to stand under the bamboo bit of the actual bar, it was amazing to watch the lighteniong there is like nothin weve ever seen, it lights up the whole sky. it was definitely an unforgettable way to start my twenties! we woke up (far to early) the next morning to get the bus to luang prabang, the bus ride was amzing, 7 hours through the most beautiuful scenery we have ever seen (although jess did make some comparisions with the dales, which han didnt seem to take seriously!) ... read more

We arrived in vientiane yesterday at about 6pm (after being late for our flight and running through kl airport with our backpacks on looking like absoloute idiots!) and found a guesthouse - our first proper backpacker one rather than the luxury we had in KL! we paid 78,000 kip, which is about 7 pounds for the room between us. The guesthouse has a shared bathroom but we never saw anyone else use it, the shower was pretty grim but overall it was fine. We just had a fan in the room though which considering it was 36 degrees in laos yesterday took some getting used to! as soon as you step out of the shower it feels like youve never been in! Once we got our room we wandered to the riverbank to eat and have ... read more

We have arrived safely in Kuala Lumpur! Flight was fine when we finally set off after an hour delay, apart from a bit of turbulence early on that had us clutching each others hands (and our beers!). We had a bit of a strop initially when we realised that we were on a row of 3 seats after we booked to be in a row of just 2, hannah was planning to complain when we got home (just like her mother always does!) but when we realised we actually had all 3 seats to ourselves we soon shut up and got some sleep. When we arrived we decided we should start as we mean to go on and not waste half our money on a taxi, so off we went on the bus to KL city ... read more

We are (just about...sort of...possibly) ready to go. Give or take a bit of travel insurance and the small issue of currency. Well ready or not, we leave on saturday and have put together an idea of an itinerary. So, to give people who might be interested an idea of where we will be and when, and also to check this thing works before we try and figure it out in a baking hot internet cafe somewhere in laos here it is.... 13th June - Arrive KL @ 1.50 pm, go to radius international hotel 17th June - Fly to vientiane, Laos at 3.10 pm, arrive 4.45 pm. Spend 3 night in vientiane 20th June - Bus to Luang Prabang, spend 3 nights in Luang Prabang 24th June - overnight Bus to Hanoi, Vietnam 25th June ... read more