Hi everybody!

We have been trying to write this blog for a while, but the internet in Laos was very poor so we kept on giving up, so apologies if it is a long one! Also, unfortunately we still can't upload photos so you will have to watch this space for them!

The journey on the slow boat was really good, we saw some amazing views and came off with friends at the end of it! It was definitely worth 3 days of travelling. We took a very long mini bus ride to Chiang Khong in Thailand and then in the morning we were driven in a pick-up truck to the port. We had to climb on a very small unsteady boat which we all presumed would be the boat for the whole journey! Luckily it wasn't, as it just took us across the width of the river to the Laos side and then we got off and went through a rather hectic customs! After about a 2 hour wait we went down to the port and got the slow boat. There was two boats going that morning but they were trying to cram all us westerners on one boat (all with backpacks) It was ridiculously full with people hanging out and no life jackets. Luckily a guy who had lived in Laos for 20 years kicked up a huge fuss and they arranged another boat - so we got on the less cramped one which had car seats fitted into it (opposed to hard wooden benches!) The views all the way down the Mekong were spectacular - lots of mountains, hill tribes and white sandy beaches. We got a brief visit to a beach when our boat sprung a leak!! After about 7 hours we docked at a very strange little town called Pakbeng which has literally just a few guest houses and places to eat, and only has electricity for 4 hours in the evening. It cut out earlier than we were told, just as Sam was about to have a shower! It was in the middle of nowhere and was only built for the stopovers with the slow boats. Anyway, we found a nice restaurant and went for a curry (Tom thought it was one of the nicest curries he had ever had!) with a Greek/English couple (Kostas and Heather) we had met on the boat.

The next day we had more of the same, a slow boat ride and amazing views! Incidentally, we have had to master a new skill now, we are just about used to carrying our rucksacks - walking across a plank onto a boat with them on your back is a different skill altogether! As dusk approached we pulled into Louang Phabang and went on a mad dash to find some accommodation for the night! We found a great place for $10 a night with aircon, ensuite and a balcony over the river!!

We really liked Louang Phabang, there is a heavy French influence there (which meant Sam could have a glass of wine for the first time in a month!!) We hired bikes out for the day and just rode around, stopping to look at things we thought were interesting! It was a really fun way to spend the day. There are a lot of monasteries and monk training schools?! In the town. We also looked in the museum (which is in the old Royal Palace) and walked up a sacred hill to get panoramic views of the city and to see a temple. On the day we were moving on, we got up at 5.30 am to watch around 500 monks walking in procession through the streets, gathering offerings from people for themselves and also passing them on to the disadvantaged children. It was an amazing sight which happens every morning (luckily Kostas and Heather had watched it the day before and told us about it!) There was a lot of very young monks (novices?) who you could see were still in training! We managed to get a photo of one having a sneaky bit of food from his offering pot!!

We left Louang Phabang after a few days to go down south. This was the worst bus journey either of us had ever been on and it lasted for 10 1/2 hours! It went through the mountains on very very twisty roads and we were on one of the so called VIP buses (which basically ferry backpackers around) which has the passengers sat on a top deck, so it was like going through the alps on the top deck of a double decker bus! We stopped at an amazing service station though, high in the hills where the children from the local village were fascinated by us.
Our next stop was Vientiane, which neither of us found too great. It has a laid back feel to the place but it's character is confused, as the countries turbulent history has had many failed attempts at styling the place! We walked around the main attraction in town, which was a rubbish version of the Arc de Triomphe (in their own words on a sign on the monument, close up it looks like a 'monster of concrete'). In the end we gave up, as it was a baking hot day and decided to use the swimming pool of a nice hotel instead!

We had intended to leave Laos and go to Cambodia by local buses and had set aside three days to do this, however after our last horrendous bus journey and for not much more money, we decided to fly to Siem Reap with Laos Airlines. This then gave us the opportunity to go to Vang Vieng for a few days whilst we waited for our flight. Vang Vieng is a bit of a legendary place on the backpacker circuit! It is a town set amongst the most amazing scenery but it is a bit of a backpackers playground and every bar shows episodes of Friends, Family Guy etc (which we actually appreciated more than we thought we would!) We went tubing for the day, which basically consists of you floating down the local river on a tractor inner tube. It rained the entire day when we did this, so it was very quiet and a little surreal! It was good fun, Sam managed to get a puncture (luckily a slow one) by listening to Tom's great advice of, 'just bump into the bamboo bridge you'll bump straight off it' which I did in a somersault! After our mini trip to Vang Vieng, we returned to Vientiane to catch our flight. So very early this morning we got on a Laos airline flight, which was actually very good and no way near the scare factor that some travel guides would lead you to believe. We are now in Siem Reap and plan to look aroung Angkor Wat tomorrow.

We hope everybody is well and we hope to get photos up soon!

Love Sam and Tom xx

P.S Hello to Sam's Grandad, it was nice to hear from you. We can just imagine if you were a couple of years younger, that you would be here with us joining in! Hope you're well xxxx