Day 9 part 2

After lunch we did some shopping, and then met back at the hotel for 7 to meet the new person joining us and go out to eat. The new person is Aisling from northern ireland.

We had dinner at Ricky's cafe which isnt amazing but was cheap. After eating we went to see Vicky as she was having a tatoo done, then said bye to the welsh family as they were leaving early in the morning, then went to bed.

Day 10 + 11

We were up at 10am to see what everyone else was doing today, as this was a free day to do what we wanted. We thought about goin to the mall but it was a fair distance away and after we had had lunch it was getting on a bit late to go. So instead of going there we sat in a bar which played any movie you wanted (all pirate copies), so we watched Kick-Ass before getting an early dinner there.

At 6pm we met at the hotel to get Taxi's to the train station to get our overnight train ride to Laos. The train was not that busy and quite nice compared to what we were expecting. Andy had a top bunk bed and I slept down bottom, which had the nicer beds.

We all slept pretty well and got to the Laos border at 10am.

When crossing the border and paying for Visa's the lady didnt want andy's $50 note because it was too dirty, but she finally accepted it once we said it was all we had.

We got a bus to our hotel once in Laos. We walked the capital city Vientianne, which is very very small and quiet for a capital, and saw some sites like the copy of the arc de triumph, then went back to the hotel to go out and eat.

As most bars close at 10pm in Laos, we went bowling at the local bowling alley for an hour or two. I won the first game and Blaine won the second with a great 177.

Then it was back to the hotel to sleep before a bus ride in the morning.

Day 12

We got up for breakfast and had beef sandwiches, and met at 9.30 to get on our bus. At 10.30 the bus finally arrived and we went on our way.

We got to our hotel in Vieng Vang at about 2pm and took a bicycle ride to the 'Blue Lagoon' which was a lagoon in the middle of tree covered cliffs.

We headed back to the hotel for 6 and went out to eat at 7, nothing special to eat here but did get some nice spring rolls.

We then went to the bars here, which are all 'lying down' bars where you watch re-runs of family guy, simpsons or friends, which was nice to relax. Was in bed for 11.

Day 13

Woke up at 10 again to get breakfast and then head out at 12.30 to go 'Tubing' which is going down the river on rubber rings with stops along the way.

When we got there we all got a free drink which was honey-tasting and had actual bee's in the bottle, it was quite nice.

We got in our rings and floated down to the first stop which was just a bar with not much to do, so we moved on to the next bar, which had mud-volleyball and mud-tuf-of-war, which were both fun. We then moved down to the next stop which was swings and slides into the water. After these stops we floated for another 40mins or so back to the town and got out.

About to go off to an 'Irish Restaurant' for dinner.