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Published: August 28th 2009
So we've made it to Laos, a country north of Thailand, south of China.
After 30 hours of travelling, leaving Auckland, waiting in Sydney,flying, we eventully made it to Bangkok at midnight. It was very hot at that time, so we dropped our bags off and decided to celebrate the fact of making it to Ladyboy city, by having a pint.
The next day we explored a bit of the city, and went to get a bus booked out of it as soon as possible. I quite liked my first impessions of the place, but our plan was to do some travelling around the other countries then spend a couple of nights in Bangkok before coming home.
We had an overnight bus up to the north, which wasnt too bad. We got free water and a free doughnut so everyone was happy. At the border town, we had a bit of an adventure. First of all a tuk tuk ride to the Thai border, to get stamped out the country. Then we got a bus over a bridge to the Laos border. After those formalities were dealt with, we got another tuk tuk to the capital, Vientiane. Vientiane is a bit of a quiet place though, and pretty small. The land space of Laos is the same as the UK I believe, but the population is about the same as Scotland's, just to give you an idea. So we spent the day exploring the streets, having some local cuisine, and beer. Thats one of the best things about here, the beer is very cheap.
The next day we decided to head further north to Vang Vieng. Everyone tells you to go here mainly because of the tubing to be had. Basically you get a rubber tube/tyre thing, get a tuk tuk 4km up the river, and float back down to the town. On the way, there's plenty of bars with cheap drinks that pull you and your tube ashore. As well as drinking, each bar has a flying fox and swing in to the water. It's great fun, but all the guide books warn you to be safe as the water flows quite fast and people have drowned before! Apart from that, its quite a chilled out place. Every bar has either family guy or friends on the TV, 24 hours a day. I must admit we did spend one afternoon chilling out in one of these bars. Apart from that, we got scooters for the day, but dont tell mum! It was very safe as there was pretty much no traffic. So we just drove up and down the road for the day pretty much, passing through a few little towns. Until, Nicola's bike broke down and refused to start 3 km from town. So, we took turns to push it back to town in the blistering heat. It must be averaging mid 30's, and very humid, it just doesn't cool down at night! We sneekily pushed the bike back into its spot at the rental place before they noticed though, haha.
So after a few lazy days there, we are back in the capital city. We leave on an overnight bus to Pakse in the south tonight. Unfortunately Vietnam will have to wait for another year as our time is running out, and it just isn't worth paying the money for a visa, and not enjoying it. After Pakse, I think we are going to a place called 4000 islands, which is suppose to be beautiful and untouched, they've only recently got leccy at some places, then its off to Cambodia.
I've still got huge New Zealand blog to do but I thought I'd put this up while I remember, and so you have something to read whilst at work for now.
See you 2 weeks today
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Natalie
non-member comment
ahh
cant wait til you get home :) glad you are having a good time! xxxx