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So here I am in Hanoi. Arrived last night after a slightly cramped and wholly uncomfortable 24 and a half our bus ride from Vientiane. Still at least I was expecting it, some of the guys on the bus had been promised TV, air-con and fully reclining seats. And they thought they were gonna get them!

Anyway here is a quick resume of my Laos expedition. I started in Luang Prabang after the two day boat ride. The boat ride was pretty cool, we stopped at some caves along the way (there is always a cave or waterfall to go to!).  Luang Prabang is ok but a bit of a tourist trap due to its place on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, you get reminded of that everywhere. The museum was pretty interesting though, especially the bits of moon rock sent by the Americans to commemorate landing on the moon, and a plaque stating they had taken the Lao flag with them. Its a shame that at the same time America were dropping more bombs on Laos than on Vietnam trying to destroy the Ho Chi Minh trail. Sound fair? Or the fact that the bombers were not allowed to land with any payload left so when returning to their Northern Thailand bases they would just drop the remainder over Laos. Good ole U.S of A!

The second day in Luang Prabang was the waterfall day. It was quite scary. We decided to go to the big waterfall here and went with 8 monks. There was me, an English guy called Ben and a Irish guy called Brian. There is another English guy, Daigoro, but he has a bad stomach. It started well, we were in the temple in one of the monks bedroom waiting for the tuk-tuk. This arrived and we picked up some more monks and went to the waterfall. As we got there the heavens opened and it absolutely pissed down. We climbed up through the jungle about 1000 feet barefoot and it was very slippy. When we got there we went to a plunge pool at one of the upper levels of the waterfall, about twenty metres wide and at the end of it a massive drop about 200 feet down and we were jumping in and climbing out, the only scary part being that the way out is right next to the drop. After a while we were sitting underneath the waterfall and one of the monks runs out, slips on the rocks and lands face down in a small rock pool. He was knocked unconscious and then two of the monks picked him up and started whacking his back, trying to wake him up, the worst thing you could do. Eventually we revived him but he was badly concussed but he managed to get down. I thought getting down was harder than getting up as the way was really slippy now, also you have to climb through and along the waterfall which is much easier going up than down. I got a bit worried up there because unless he regained consciousness we would be stuck because we couldn't lift him down and there wasn't much hope of any Lao medical centres being nearby!

Kuang Si waterfalls, Luang Prabang

From there we went down to Vang Vieng which is about half way between Luang Prabang and Vientiane. It was a cool place to hang around a few days. The whole place is built on tourism so you can spend the days doing various water-sports and while away the evenings watching films and drinking Beer Lao. The main activity is hiring inner tubes and floating down the river. It takes about 2-3 hours to float down and there are 6 or 7 "bars" set up along the way. It’s just like the Norfolk Broads! I did this for two days in a row because it was so relaxing. I got badly sun-burnt though as you are exposed to the elements! The last day in Vang Vieng I did a kayaking tour which has definitely been the highlight of my trip so far. As well as kayaking down the river we also visited this cave where you have to crawl, swim and scramble your way 800 metres around it. Some parts are about two foot high, one foot of which is water and you have to squeeze through, other parts are only about a foot wide (breathe in). We also stopped to jump off of a cliff. It was only 7 metres but once you jumped off it seemed like a long drop to the bottom. We finished the tour visiting another cave which had been used as a bunker whilst the old town of Vang Vieng was being destroyed by the Americans dropping their payload.

Pha That Luang, Vientiane

From Vang Vieng it is a reasonably short bus ride down to Vientiane (the capital). Although it is not as bad as people say, there is not much to do there other than sip shakes (more like smoothies) and eat pate (more like luncheon meat) baguettes. I did walk out to the Victory monument and the great sacred Stupa, about 4km out of town. It was so hot that I had to rest under a tree at the Stupa before walking back. Its supposed to be the rainy season but apart from the day at the waterfall and about an hour in Vang Vieng I haven't seen any rain. Its just too hot, I mean I like it hot but this is too hot  (shut up and have a solero). After spending the next day wandering around Vientiane I got the bus to Hanoi. A few stops, a quick bribe of the immigration and here I am.