Third/Fourth week travelling! We can still say we are well and loving it!

I say this on each blog but it seems we have packed a lifetime of sights and sounds into a short period of time, I can’t specify the number of days as I am not even aware of the day, date or even time right now. No no, we haven’t been having happy pizzas in Laos, its just days and dates are only good for flights. Long may this continue….

This post is going to be a tad long, but we thought it would be best to tell you everything we have been doing, instead of running behind on the places and events!

I left you teetering on the verge of our tubing experience down the Mekong with our group of slightly disorganised friends. I suggest anyone coming to Laos to make their way to Vang Vieng for the tubing experience as we had the most possible amount of fun one can have on an inflatable in dirty water.

We will now explain how does tubing work: It all begins with hiring a large inflatable ring- the tube- which looks as though it may have been the inner tubing of a penny farthing (noutras palavras.. uma boia gigante tipo donut!), jumping on a tuk tuk with inflated (no pun intended) price and head all the way to the first bar.

Once your standing with your tube in one hand you need to balance the body by placing a ‘bucket’ in the other. A bucket consists of a lethal concoction of Red Bull, Coke, Ice and large amounts of whisky. Add to this the free shots being handed out like sweets and you have a group of well-lubricated travellers willing to try their hand at anything. When I mean anything we had people who are afraid of sitting on top of an elephant swinging 50ft on a trapeze into a slither of water in between rapids and rocks.

The idea is to float from the first bar down the Mekong river making stops at every bar to top up the rocket-fuelled buckets. Each bar has its own circus/ action man entertainment ranging from swings, diving boards, trapezes, zip wires and a backbreaking slide. There are seven bars along the way and safe to say we managed to see the rustic culture and fabulous architecture of each one. One bar even had its very own mud pit (uma piscina da lama) and being one of the latter bars on our tour we decided to have a mass wrestling match along with about twenty other travellers, the sights of people trying to escape from the pit of despair (aptly named by Team Rubbish) was hilarious and humiliating at the same time.

Well two days if that was enough for us so we packed our bags and caught the bus out of ''Tenerife'' to the capital of Laos- Vientiene.

Vientine, sad to say, it was our lowest point of the trip simply because it delivered nothing apart from high hostel prices, harassed people, awful sites and the time old South East Asian experience of food poisoning. Luckily or unluckily we did not catch this terrible stomach upset but instead the smallest member of our team deed. Well in war there is a saying ‘never leave a man down’, in Vientiene the saying is ‘every man for him/herself’ and we scurried out of there.

Our bus from the middle of Laos to the very bottom was amazing and unsafe in equal measures. We boarded in late evening arriving the next day at the break of dawn, but wait, how did you sleep I hear you ask? Well this King of buses was equipped with bunk beds instead of seats. If you ever get a sleeping bus in Laos and you’re given beds A18/17 then immedialty change as this was our fate. The cursed beds are placed opposite the only working toilet on the bus containing 50 volatile stomachs. Lets thank Valium, the wonder drug that makes you sleep the entire journey and is only available on prescription in the UK but is sold as freely as sweets in South East Asia. How was this unsafe? Well, as your sleeping you aren’t strapped to your seat and add Evil Canevil (aka the crazy driver!) to the equation and you have a very bumpy and ever so slightly dangerous ride.

Our final destination was the southern islands of Laos named Four Thousand Island (and no they haven’t any sauce in sight) that sits in the middle of our old friend the Mekong River. The Islands all begin with ‘Don’ and so it was a matter of choosing which Don to go for. Enter the aged old choosing ceremony of just pointing at the map and bingo you have youself an Island for the next 3 days, as it happens Sara chose an absolute beauty named Don Det.

The initial impression isn’t good as you are met by a beach of pylons (they still don’t have consistent electricity) and a severe lack of breeze. However as you move towards the ‘sunset’ side you can find hidden gems like the ‘Eden Gardens’ resort or ‘Mr B’s’ bungalow garden. Our bungalow over looking the Mekong with its own pontoon for quick refreshment cost us no more than $6 a night. Despite the fact it lacked a fan and toilet of your own but when your lying in the bunglow hammock watching the golden sunset you feel as though you may have swindled Mr B out his beloved Dollar.

So started our three days in relative paradise only moving from our slumber to dive from the pontoon into the Mekong for a refreshing swim as the temperature soared to about 38/39 degrees. Sara being Portuguese flourished in the heat however being a pasty Englishman I floundered like a fish out of water pondering how it was possible for my body to be wetter going into the water than coming out.

Apart from the excruciating heat, the island was a little paradise hidden in the South of Laos. Fair to say I don't think neither I or Sara suffered so much from the heat, particulrly at night as our room was soooo hot. It took us a lot of valium and trips to the hammoks to fall asleep. The other little detail to highlight in this island was the biggest concentration of mosquitos one has ever seen. When you think you have seen a lot of morquitos, think again. We are talking bundles of mosquitos by the rare lights the size of people.. it wasn't pretty but we managed to survive (despite all the bites!)

Leaving you with that mind boggling thought I will say adious and will be up dating the next blog in a couple of days (I promise!).

If you could, it would be nice to see who is actually reading this thing (as we are away and have absolutely no clue!) so please leave some comments so we know there is a world out there reading about our adventures!

Love
Tom & Sara

P.S. Ines your English is much improved!!!!!

Kap-Chai-La-lai (Thanks very much)