Laos

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Hey hey. Well today has been a long old day but after spending five days in Laos, we have made it to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

Starting off with our coach journey from Bokeo to Luang Prabang, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the coach was a special sleeper bus meaning it had double bunk beds on either side. This hugely made the long journey easier and we both slept pretty well through the night. We arrived at our destination at 5am and were thrown on a toot toot taxi half asleep to take us to our hostel. For the first time since being here, it was freezing! Rather than go back to bed, we thought we'd make the day worthwhile and explore all day. Although it took me till about 8/9am to properly wake up and we sorted out our Vietnam visa in the morning, by lunchtime we felt like we'd already seen the whole city. We chilled that afternoon with the idea that we'd have a big night out that night.

The night out itself started off really well, was very fun in the middle but ended up with me finding Yoni asleep in the hostel corridor outside our room and having to put him to bed.... We began the night in a club called Utopia where we recognised loads of people we had met previously which was cool. Then after the club shut at midnight, everyone made their way to the bowling alley as that was the only thing that stayed open late. Yoni and I ended up in a game with three Argentinian girls where we both came joint second after some shocking drunk bowling. We started another game with new people but we don't remember how it finished! Anyway, on the way back with a group of girls, YC took a turn for the worst in the taxi and after heading back to the hostel, I next found him passed out on the floor! We still both had a jokes night though.

The next day we decided to take the four hour 'dangerous' bus ride to the crazy unique city Vang Vieng. The journey wasn't the best being hungover, squashed into the corner with no leg room and the roads being up and down scary bendy mountains. We got to the city at 7pm and had no accommodation booked. However, on our bus, two Germans were in the same problem so the four of us found a hostel together with a four people room. We went out that night and the four of us had a crazy night! We quickly learnt that Vang Vieng isn't like the rest of Laos and has its own 'no rules' rules. All the locals there seemed to be constantly tripping on mushrooms including our hostel owners. After a really enjoyable night, we went to bed around 2am as we had to be up earlyish for Tubing.

Tubing is the most popular tourist thing to do in Laos and it's where you go around the river in the city on a ringo and stop off at 3/4 bars throughout the day. The bars had places to chill, mini football pitches, volleyball courts and table tennis tables. Tubing lived up to its high expectations and we had a quality day. The ending was fairly dangerous as it began to get dark and being in the river with lots of rocks could have been scary but we got back all okay. We were pretty shattered that night and after watching Arsenal lose again we went to bed.

Our last full day in Vang Vieng was spent in internet cafes sorting out our Vietnam visa again and also our accommodation over NYE in the Thai islands. We had got up pretty late so by the time we finished our admin day and after we ate, it was dark. We chilled that night in a bar with the two Germans and another two English people and played cards the whole night until late.

So that was our time up in Vang Vieng as this morning, we had a bus journey to the capital Vietne as our flight to Vietnam was from there. Vang Vieng was a real fun place though and we made two good new friends who we will meet up with on the Thai islands next month. The journey, after a smooth flight, has been less enjoyable. Both our debit cards have been blocked even though we informed our banks we are going abroad and my currency cash card has been playing up meaning we initially didn't have the money to pay for our visa stamp into Vietnam. It's all sorted now though and after an hour drive from the airport, we were dropped in the city centre at midnight with zero accommodation booked again! We obviously looked clueless and shattered as a random Vietnamese guy gave us both a lift on his motorbike to a local cheap hotel which is where we are now. Tomorrow, we will properly explore Hanoi.

That's all for now really. Been a more chilled week compared to the first two.

Cya later!

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Comments

[Laura Grant]

Great reading
Lovin your stories. Be careful and carry on havin good time. Miss u xxx