'Hows It Goinnnng?!'

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So last time we wrote, we were off tubing... it pretty much went downhill from there!

We left Loang Probang to head to Vang Vieng (the tubing capital) and our group (of 8) was split up amoungst 4 horrible minibuses with no space and no air con, so on arrival we were not a happy bunch! Despite the fact that the two Germans in our group (Dominique & Stefan) always knew excactly where to go, we were forced to follow Will the Kiwi on a 30 minute march around the town (over various dodgy bridges) in search for the perfect place he had heard about.... we never found it and ended up letting the Germans pick a lovely little remote place where we stayed in bungalow like buildings in the middle of lots of gardens, very pretty but away from town! Lily and I shared a room with Rachel (also english), Will was on his own (hoping to get lucky, also no one else wanted to hear his made up stories) the germans had a room and so did our other two companions John (Aussie) and Dennis (Dutch).

On our first night we got sucked into a rubbish resturant which was deemed okay once we had drunk a few buckets, we introduced the Germans to british drinking games like 'fuzzy duck' 'never have i ever' and 'fives' and everyone started to learn a lot more about each other as we drank more and more. Will then decided he knew a brilliant place to go out, needless to say, it was rubbish, and he was wrong again... we ended up at a gay bar, where everyone had at least 9 piercings and dreadlocks, and strange animal print leggings. We stuffed down nutella pancakes and called it a night.

The next day the boys hired bikes, whilst us girls went off shopping and to book a hot air balloon ride... rachel chose 6am the next morning, how we came to regret that! At this time we also suddenly decided we would go to Vietnam and booked our ticket! After the Germans found some interesting caves, and the other boys got lost they met back with us and 6 of us opted for tubing, whilst the Germans went to do something cultural.

After annoucing we wouldnt really drink, we arrived at the first bar, and promptly bought a bucket and allowed people to write and spray paint our bodies. After about 4 bars, we were all severely drunk, had done about 3minutes of actual tubing and had lost our tubes and most of our possessions! there were several zipwire like things into the water(dangerous but fun) and also a large wooden tower, which lily and i climbed and then at the top annouced it was too scary to jump. as i said these words, i felt Dennis' hand on my back and suddenly i was in the air! Lily followed and only once we got out did someone tell us off saying 'you cant jump from there, thats how people die'... we didnt climb up again!!

We started tubing at 1pm and at somepoint we realised it was dark, and most people had left! we managed to find 4 tubes from somewhere and got some deposit back! We headed back to our guesthouse for a bbq, and an early night! However, at 3am we awoke, very very thirsty! we had no clean water so filled up our bottles and used water purification tablets... lily however decided there was 6 litres in her 1 litre bottle, so was left with what can only be described as swimming pool water. we also couldnt get back to sleep and made so much noise, the room next door must have hated us.

At 5.30 we had to get up for our balloon ride, which was beautiful, but we did wonder whether we would be throwing up at 400 metres high, and had to have chicken burgers to help the hangover. whilst we chilled out for the morning and then went rock climbing (thinking we would find a natural swimming pool) the boys went tubing again and returned on their bikes in a state, leaving us thankful we hadnt got on the back! This night we left the Germans to pick the night out, and found two perfectly good bars on a little party island! unfortunately i was not very well that evening( but still claim it had nothing to do with alcohol!).

The next day we did nothing but recover and chill out in a cafe watching american sitcoms, and spent our valentines night in a nice resturant with Rachel, waiting for the boys who turned up drunk again from more tubing!

We left for Vietnam the next day, saying goodbye to the boys was sad but we still had Rachel! After 29 hours on the bus to get here, we were stressed out (not as much as the man who got to the border, didnt have a visa and had to go all the way back again!) and so decided a night out would help. Our roomates (a room of 12, we were the only girls!) decided to take us out, and a messy night followed! (i was sick again, lily stripped, and rachel was in bed by 8pm to get up for a walk!). The next night we had a sober movie night!

We are just about to get on a 16 hour train ride to Da Nang, whislt Rachel has gone on alone, we are hoping to meet up sometime though. Whilst in our hostel, we ran into John and Dennis (who had supposedly gone to cambodia?!) which was a lovely suprise, and are now taking advantage of their free internet! Definetely planning a detox for the rest of our time in Nam! Have decided, if we only drink water, eat street food and dont snack, we deserve a massage at the end of our time in Asia!



xoxo

Amelia and Lily

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