Vang Vieng & Luang Prabang

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10th March

Having arrived the previous night we had a full day to explore, the excitement was building for our planned tubing trip!
To begin with though we visited a cave that was a 30 minute walk from our hotel. To get there we had to walk through a resort and the bastards charged us for the privilege. Once at the cave our pockets were relieved of yet more kip, this cave must be the place to be if your a spider, don't think I've ever seen such big spiders in all my life, easily could eat a baby. the bodies were the size of my finger. The cave itself on the otherhand was pretty interesting and had a viewing platform with a spectacular view of the whole valley. Kim freaked out and went to sit outside as the rest of us explored the dimly lit passages. All in all though it was your average cave, dark and damp.
After lunch came the most exciting part of the day maybe even the trip? we were going tubing. we changed into swim shorts, bikini's for the women, and set off up the road to hire our tubes. With our money and camera's safely waterproofed we arrived at the first bar ready for a beer, what a mistake, it was so hot the beer tasted like shit in seconds and went down so very slowly. The atmosphere was amazing hundreds of people sat out on decks enjoying the sun with a drink in hand, a proper cool place
So a quick rethink was made and we got on the buckets! what a genius ides putting drink and pop into a bucket with a nifty handle to carry it with.
We moved onto the next bar by floating down the river in our giant tube, mind getting off was even harder than we'd expected, i jumped out my tube expecting ground but found only water and sunk way above my head, luckily i had my arm stuck above my head holding everyone's money and cameras, phew. So we clambered up the bank and settled down for another whiskey bucket. The second bar was nice enough to provide spray paint and templates for everyone.
All painted up we set off down the river again, stopping every now and then for a bucket or a quick game of mud volley ball. Some bars were nice enough to give us bogof offers or free honey whiskey shots (vile!)
That night after we had changed we went out for some tea in an attempt to sober us up, well it didn't work for us as we had another whiskey bucket with our tea. Needless to say we both ended up in bed absolutely hammered.

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11th March

The bus ride took 7 hours to get to Luang Prabang and it went up the most hilly and windy roads it could find! Kim's hangover kicked in and she was sick into the souvenir bucket i'd kept from the night before (i no longer have this bucket).
Once there Kim relaxed in the room whilst i struggled up over 200 hundred steps to see a Stupa with panoramic views of the city and the Mekong river.
That night we had Laos BBQ, the BBQ is placed into the middle of your table and on top of it a grill with a trough round the outside is balanced on it. You put stock around the outside and boil noodles and veg and grill the meat in the middle, we shared a pork and buffalo platter. Unfortunately the slow service ruined our meal experience, nearly 40 mins for a can of sprite!
But to make up for it we went to the night market and strolled around scouting out pieces for tomorrows buying frenzy.

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12th March

Today was amazing, we got up at 8 a.m. to ride elephants!! the elephant sanctuary rescues overworked elephants from logging operations and also takes in wild elephants that have been hurt. We climbed aboard and for little over an hour we wandered through the sanctuary grounds and even through the river, the elephant i was sat on did nothing but eat all the way round. I got the chance to sit on it's neck and ride along for a while, it's so bony and hairy . Kim chickened out and stayed in the safety of the chair on it's back.
Next on our agenda was a trip to a waterfall, it was huge. It started way up stream with a massive drop and the carried on dropping in small amounts and it went, there were pools were you could swim in between drops, Kim and the two Norwegian girls went in but the feeling of fish nibbling my feet was to much and i got out after all of 5 minutes in the water. The waterfall also has a bear sanctuary in it's grounds so for a while we watched the bears struggling to get treats out of logs and rubber balls. Did you know there are only 8 bear species in the world? I didn't.
We went back to the night market to buy all the things we'd seen the previous night. We bought alot but it only cost us 120,000 kip (around 10 quid). Kim got 4 paintings, an model elephant, and a lantern. i got the same elephant, a painting and some slippers (very comfy).
Once again we were off to bed early.

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