Its been a while!!!

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Ok so I know its been a while...got a little bit caught up with the whole traveling thing and forgot that sometimes other peoples travels are all some people have to live on 😉
I realise its been over a month since my last blog so I'll do my best to re-trace my steps but can't say I won't miss some stuff.
Soooo..last time I did this I was in Laos...really seems like a lifetime ago(excuse the cliche) While in Luang probang, I decided to go to see the waterfalls. Turned out to be a really great decision because A. Waterfalls were really beautiful and B. Met so many people along the way.
Previous to this trip, I have to admit that I was getting a little worried about the whole " travelling alone thing". Anyway, met an English guy, travelling alone, on the tuk tuk journey to the waterfalls...really sound guy, had already been to India and plenty of great stories to tell.
The waterfalls themselves were unreal...just didn't expect to see anything like this in Laos! They also had a bear enclosure and a Tiger. That was the only bad bit though, I met the Tiger trainer and was asking how I could get to see the tiger but the trainer informed me that the Tiger had died one week previous. You could see how upset he was over it and so sat and talked with him for a while. I suppose the only good thing about this was that at least the they really DO care about their animals! So went for a swim in the little pools created by the waterfalls and hung out with Tom for the day. Got chatting to 3 Americans(mostly Newyorkers) Danielle, Jared and Alex and arranged to meet up with them in one of the main Bars in Luang Prabang. Had a great night with all of them and once they all headed home..I was drunk enough to go a a meet an greet on my own..ended up in some other random bar and met a load of Irish girls there...including one girl travelling on her own(Helen).
After that night, I decided to be more cultural and checked out some more parts of Luang probang and made plans to head to Vang Vieng(half way between Luang Probang and Vietiene(capital))

So boarded the bus to Vang Vieng and who ends up sitting beside me but Helen. She had decided to head there too. About an hour into the trip, we hit...eh something on the road and had to pull over....as it turned out, that something, must have been pretty substantial cause it broke the buses' axel. So while we were waiting for the professional Laos mechanics to weld the axel back on, Helen and myself got chatting to another Irish girl(Yes, we are like a plague!) Derbhela...really nice girl from Kerry. She was travelling with her boyfriend Danny, who somehow was able to sleep through all of this. Once we got going again, carried on chatting to Derbhela and decided to join up and look for accommodation in Vang Vieng.

Vang Vieng(again) was not somewhere were I thought you would find in Luang Probang...if your looking for cultural experience, don't go here...but if you want to gett into a rubber tube, get really drunk and sail down the Mekong, then do!
Long story short..had 2 days of sailing down the mekong, stopping at various bars along the way, Swinging out of trees from 20 foot up and having a rather nasty paranoid experience on a "happy" shake. (not the most aptly named as far as I'm concerned!) Had a great laugh with the guys but decided to move on to the capital(Vietiene).
All in all, not alot to say about Vietiene, apart from, probably not worth a visit...it was fairly dirty, not much character and was glad to be heading to Ho chi Mihn in 2 days.

Ok Gonna have to leave it there for the mo, but will probably post blogs more regularly now. Oh and hope to obviously ad pics too.

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Photos

Laos
Ahh...my hotel room in Bangkok airport...NOT a sign of accomodation to come!

Laos
Bangkok airways twin prop plane...that was an experience!

Laos
Luang Probang ehhhhh airport!! Look at it...its so tiny ;)

Laos
Giddyup Nelly!!