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Hello everyone, sorry about the time-lag in between blogs....we've been doing quite a bit of travelling around so had to find time to sit still for a while and type! When Tom left you we were in Chiang Mai before the Utd Pompey game... the next day we just chilled out trying not to spend money/melt in the ridiculous heat until the evening when we caught a night bus to Udon Thani on the Thai-Laos border. The journey was ok and we managed to get a bit of sleep considering it felt like we were going round corners on two wheels! Friday morning - we took a short bus ride to Nong Kai to some crossroads where we were chucked off the bus to catch a tuk tuk to the Thai side of the friendship bridge....another bus across the bridge to sort our Laos visa before a Songathaw took us to Vientiane - phew!! Vientiane is very small and quiet for a capital city...almost too quiet. Its a mix of Asian and French and quite pretty in parts but very few shops, restaurants and bars compared to other places we've been to - and especially for a capital. We had a couple beers by the Mekong river and were surpised at how low it was - definately due to it being about 42 degrees there!! Then we decided to 'blow' the budget and go to a French restaurant for an amazing steak!! A steak each and 2 beers was about 12 pounds - brilliant. As it was Friday, and the end of a hard week, we went on for another couple but again, surprised at the lack of options.
Saturday we walked off to explore the city and headed straight for the Arc d'triomphe - a copy of the French one, made from concrete donated by the Americans after the war to build a runway for the airport...but they didnt! (We've got photos but we havent got the camera cable right now - will add them later) Saturday night means football....so we headed off to find somewhere showing the games....we had trouble, but that was never going to stop Tom!!! During the Utd game it started to absolutely hammer down, we waited for a while but then decided we could be stuck there all night so put our wallets and the camera in a plastic bag and legged it, barefoot back to our hostel.
Sunday we headed off to the markets which were inside and outside and like a maze....and much like Thailand they all sell the same stuff as the stall next door. We both bought a t-shirt as we had a bit of a washing trauma in Chiang Mai where Tom's favourite shirt 'disappeared' and two of my tshirts came back with weird coloured marks on them. We were picked up from our hostel at 7.30ish and took the sleeper bus to Pakse in the south. The sleeper buses actually have beds rather than seats - brilliant in theory, and in practice if you're under 5ft 7...but we're not. So not much sleep was had as were in in the back over the engine with two German guys squashed in as well!!
Monday morning, bleary eyed we were put on another bus down to Si Phan Don (the 4,000 islands) where we took a raft with what looked like a lawmower engine attached to the back, across to Don Khong, the largest of the 4,000 islands. Mr Pon's place where we stayed was really nice, and we splashed out on air con for the first time on our trip - amazing!! We hired a bike each and pedalled off to explore a bit - it was really beautiful, very green from all the paddy fields and full of waterbuffalo, cows, goats, chickens and small children. Literally, there were LOADS of children on the island - they all shouted either 'hello' or 'sabai dee' or in one case 'farange!!' (foreigner) when we cycled past and waved. Very sweet. There wasnt much to do on the island but chill out to the max...so that we did. We were meant to go visit two of the other island - Don Det and Don Khon, but it was raining that day, so we decided against it. So instead we whiled away a couple of days just reading, playing chess (which Tom always hammers me at, except one time!!) and on Wednesday, Mr Pon being a bit of a legend moved us into a room with a tv so Tom could watch Utd - everyone was happy. Except possibly Arsenal fans. Ha.
So yesterday we left the calm of Don Khong and retraced our steps back to Vientiane before boarding a second bus to Vang Vieng where we are now! Not sure how long we'll stay here, but its the cheapest place for accomodation so far - 2 pounds each a night for a big room and our own bathroom.
Right, this is pretty epic so im going to go now and Tom will write soon with tales of tubing/kayaking adventures, waterfalls and caving!!
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Phew
Catching the no. 118 bus in Sheff will never be quite the same!!