New Apollo Hotel Vientiane

... of Laos had made out of cement that the US had given them during the Vietnam war to build a runway, but instead they built the monument!<br><br>In the afternoon we then took a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam on a really old plane with propellers. (Apparently they have one of the worst safety records and the British tourism board advises travellers not to use them!) Still, we made it to Vietnam!

... upon a cafe that had FRIENDS on! That's another thing Vang Vieng is famous for, all of there restaurants are based around what's on. Pretty much FRIENDS or Family guy plays nonstop. It's such a treat actually, going 3 months pretty much no t.v just the occasional soccer match or **** movie and then coming here, having a seat in a cafe with your cold beer in hand and watching t.v from home. LOVE IT!<br><br>Until Next Time...<br><br>

... to find some decent food and an internet cafe in order to kill some time before our sleeper bus departed at 7.30pm. We managed to find an internet cafe but the town had little else there in which to tempt us to eat.<br><br>Come 7.30pm we boarded the sleeper bus. Once again Dave and I were paired together, but this time we had a top bunk. And so began my first journey from hell. I was on the inside of the 2 of us, and there was no safety bar on the bunk to stop people falling out ...

Sabaidee !<br> Les plus perspicaces l&lt;auront devine (je l&lt;avais fait facile facile, non ?), ma derniere activitee avant de quitter luang Prabang-la-belle fut: une journee avec les elephants !<br> Avant de partir j&lt;avais un peu de remords. C&lt;est un peu facile, non ? Un peu kitch peut-etre meme....Mais une fois arrivee sur place, avec Andrew (N-Z) et Sarah (Suede), je n&lt;etais meme pas sortie du vieux Land Roover que mon coeur battait fort et les jambes me tremblaient ...

... French influences, seen through its mini arc de triumph and numerous parisian-style cafes; yet beyond walking its pleasant streets and sampling from its local night food market (great bbq'd chicken and coconutty deserts), we weren't overly absorbed by this city's atmosphere.<br><br>All the more reason to spend a bit more time in Luang Prabang.

... mountains line the banks of the river. There are many caves to visit (which we did one day). I went rock climbing, which was excellent! The instructor was amazing. Unlike in Vietnam where the climbing outfit was run by westerners, this organization was Laos run. In Vietnam, everything was set-up for us to just go ahead and start climbing, which was good for an introductory lesson, but here we were encouraged to learn every aspect of the climb, including ...

... as the one the boys were in was a bit scummy. From there we all got lunch, caught up on internet and had our own wanders around the city. In the evening we all rented bikes and headed to a night food market - I tried a couple of new things but nothing that took my fancy! We then went and had a drink at a bar that could almost have been a bar at home. On ...

... th&#7871; là anh Vi&#7879;t c&#7913; ng&#432;&#7899;c nhìn lên trên cành cây, r&#7891;i gi&#7851;m ph&#7843;i bãi c&#7913;t. Hoá ra con kh&#7881; trong ti&#7871;ng Lào là c&#7913;t. L&#7841;i n&#7919;a, hai anh này cùng &#273;i b&#7855;t cá, anh ng&#432;&#7901;i Lào nh&#7843;y ùm xu&#7889;ng su&#7889;i, ch&#7841;m ph&#7843;i v&#7853;t c&#7913;ng, &#273;au &#273;i&#7871;ng. Anh c&#7889; nói lí nhí: cá to, cá to. Anh ng&#432;&#7901;i Vi&#7879;t nh ...

... not to if we wanted to look remorseful! After ages, the manager comes over with a metal block in his hand and asks us to explain it. Apparently it was a door cardlock which Ollie had broken as he opened the door (he'd not used force though so was confused as to how this occurred). He told us we'd have to pay $300 to replace it or he would call the police. We bartered him down to $200 (still not sure why a lock in SE Asia ...

Before we arrived to the border crossing we stopped at a shop to get me a visa. I had my picture taken and had to fill out some paperwork. We drive 1 block up the road to the border crossing. I pay US $31 to cross and my Thai friends pay nothing and just show their Thai ID card. We crossed the First Thai&#8211;Lao Friendship Bridge on a bus to Laos. I don't know exactly if ...