Vietnam Here We Come!!

Posted by Jonny

Posted on August 7, 2007

We fly to Hanoi this evening. Laos has been amazing. We met so so many cool people and have seen so many cool things!

So what happened on our way to the capital? Well we got our bus to Vangviang, 5 hours of hell with no air con on a minibus. It was tough but the next day was going to be quality so we didn't mind. Vangviang is basically a two street town. What makes it so good is that they decided to build bars along the Mekong River and give backpackers industrial size tubes and let them party all day!

Let me give ya a bit of background info first. The Mekong River starts way up in Tibet and enters the sea at Vietnam way in the south, passing through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia before gettting there. It's the same river we partied down on our slow boat. It's big and fast! So you get your tube, start at the top and float down. They throw ropes to you and pull you in to bars. The current is so stromg that if you miss a pub you have to wait at the next one. You couldn't swim upstream, even sideways is tough! They have music, food, drink (whiskey buckets and beer), volleyball, swings, zip-lines and huge poles to jump off (one is 100 feet high). We had great craic!

I was a little bit drunk so the rest of the lads were doing the swings more. One guy brought a camera so we'll have piccies soon. The internet is so slow uploading a hundred photos could take 2 days here!

In the capital now, Vientiane. Not much here except more temples etc so only spent one night here. Booked a plane to Hanoi at 17:00 today. Should be fun. In two weeks now we'll have been to 3 countries in South-East Asia which ain't half bad!

We say goodbye to all those we travelled with in Laos and we're starting afresh again. Thanks to Jerry and Huiben (the Dutch lads), Aiesha (Mon Cherie), Ruth, Mairead and Mary (the Irish, London girls), Will (the legend), John and Paula (our Mother and Father figures), and Dave (the krazy Kiwi). We may see some of them in Vietnam but if not guys, good luck and slan abhaile!

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