Laos

After braving some horrendous bus journeys from Cambodia to the Laos border we found ourselves knocked back by how stunning the Southern region was. We arrived at an area called 4000 islands, an area which geographically fractured by the mighty Mekong river. We stayed for a few days on one of the largest islands called Don Det, where electricity only ran for 4 hours a night and post 10 oclock everything was illuminated by candle. Only here have we found local delicacies such as the "Hang over breakfast", a pancake filled with paracetemol, opium, vallium and magic mushrooms, one for the brave I might add. It aws also here we have seen some rediculously powerfull waterfalls and the nearly extinct Irrawaddy Dolphin.
From there we moved up T'North with Luang Probang in our sights. Though to do this we had a few stop to make. On route we stopped at Pakse, a god awful town where we had an 8 hour wait for a connecting bus. To kill some time we chose to have a 2 hour massage each. My massuer, some bone idle git chose to do mine. He thought nothing of disguising his flactulence or texting all his mates with one hand whilst thumping my back with the other. From there we took the sleeper bus for 12 hours to Vang Vieng, a back packer must where the whole town gets hammered on buckets, go tubing for a few hours down the adjacent river, get more hammered and then trow themselves off back breaking death swings, yup health and safety is a phrase they have never heard of here!!!
We arrived in Luang for their New Year festival and were concerned we would find no lodgings for our stay, still we managed to find a stunning hotel bang in the center. We were bracing ourselves for the festival as it turned out to be a 3 day water fight staring at noon and ending 7pm. Its the only time you would dare to pour a bucket of water over an armed Police man or super soak a Buddist Monk, and this combine with shed loads of Tequilla and a massive water gun proved to be an amazing experience.
From there we had some of our toughest travelling with a 2 day slow boat journey to the Thai border. Seats were planks not wide enough for Posh Spices arse, and we had an Ozzy old boy who just didn't know how to shut up. We were relived to arrive in one piece!!!