Tuesday 3rd March - travelling to Vang Vieng

Tuesday 3rd March - travelling to Vang Vieng

Well come tomorrow I'd have been travelling a month and be half way through my time here.

Today was largely a travelling day - bar my gorgeous american breakfast where I got chatting to an American lady whose daughter was also in the acting / film industry - currently in New Zealand where Peter Jackson is making 'The Hobbit.'

Had a bit of a stress with the ATM it seemed to give me the 700,000 I had requested but it didnt I just hope I didn't lose the money. Its such a rip off you can only draw out 56 quid at a time and it charges you nearly 2 quid for the privaledge! Cant say I budgeted for that!

The supposedly 6 hour drive was on a rickety old bus that had a motorbike on top (not sure how they managed that?!), think we must have got scammed again because it certainly wasn't air conditioned! Fortunately I had a double seat to myself. They kept stopping at random places for the odd pee in a bush and lunch so it took quite a long time struggling up the hills. The drive itself was stunning, through the mountains and in the town, the view from the river is amazing. It was dark when we arrived in Vang Vien. The others just wanted to get a room and shower so I was quite dissapointed we didn't get to stay by the river. I was gonna split with the group and started walking to Marilyn guest house but it was a bit too far out of town, and so I wandered around and saw a few other rooms and got chatting to an English guy Jay who has been here a few days and who gave me the low down. We went for some food in a place they were playing the simpsons - all of the bars here have some sort of sitcoms running constantly. Good to chill or if you're eating alone. Btw, banana milkshakes here are gorgeous...!

Went out quite late by the time I sorted myself out. I found 3 german girls who I shared a room with in the end who are leaving tomorrow but it works out at 25,000 each - cheaper than Luang Prabang. From what can work out there is not much to do here other than go tubing in the day time which basically entails getting drunk and wet, swinging and messing about in the water. Sounds fun to me but I may not stay here as long as I thought.

We had a really good night out and I had a good dance at Bucket bar. The only thing is it shut quite early. I ended up having quite a few free shots they just give em away! Jonathan went home early but the rest of us stayed out until we got bored because basically the police arrived and they're really strict on curfews in this country, even thought slightly more lenient for backpackers / tourists I guess they need the income. Tomorrow is tubing which everyone raves about!

Money spent: Water 3000, breakfast 250, dinner 20,000 bucket 20,000, room 25,000, paid for room last three nights 80,000 coke 5,000 tuk tuk 7,000 and 10,000 beer on tap 6,000.banana pancake 10,000. TOTAL 166,250 kip or 13.30 pounds

Best thing: Dancing baby yeah!
Worst thing: Looong journey. Again.