So ja, we've travelled half way around the world since our last update.
Chris's fantastic negotiation skills put us on board a minibus heading south towards Vang Vieng when we last updated the blog. We left the bus station at 4-ish and it took us 5.5 hours to do 200km. Why? Well it was the most gorgeous drive and the driver didn't drive faster than 40km/h at any point because the road was so so so curvy. It was like one massive snakes and ladders board with no straight lasting longer than 5 meters. It was beautiful though - mountains, green, villages right on the road. When it got dark, I swear I've never seen more stars. It was stunning (and a little terrifying as the locals have no fear speeding past on motorcycles, trucks overtaking on blind corners...anyway, we got there in once piece!).
We stayed at Les Jardin right on the river. Vang Vieng is an awesome place. In the main road, most of the restaurants have Friends on loop. One restaurant had squeaky Friends, no doubt from being overplayed. Most people in the town were travellers, so there is a very relaxed feel to the whole place. Everyone either cycles or has scooters, there are little shacks that pose as barber shops, it is really very nice. The first couple of days, the weather was really nice so we decided to hire bikes to cruise around. Our bicycles was something out of the 50's - for those who has known me since primary school, I was back on my pink bicycle with the white basket. This one however, had no gears or shocks, so it was quite a bumpy road seeing as we went off-roading. Chris opted for a mountain bike on the second day as he perceived the basket as...a little too un-manly.
We were hanging around waiting for JM and her friends who showed up on the 7th. It is Chinese new year so she got holiday now. Anyway, along with her arrival also came the many tourbusses with Chinese people...the quaint little town turned into Waterloo station with busses coming and going daily. They're quite a noisy bunch, the Chinese. Vang Vieng was suddenly really busy.
It didn't matter though, because we hired more bikes and cruised around a little more. Chris fell in love with a Vang Vieng pancake (or was it the lady that made it...?). The weather wasn't great, so we watched a couple of movies in the makeshift restaurant bar thing-e-me-bobbies. We got invited to go to a Laos festival. We were dancing Laos style. That basically means you dance in a massive circle, with two lines facing each other and weaving your hands through the air, not touching. Chris got roped in by the older lady and was dancing away. It was good fun.
The next day we went tubing. Now tubing is SO MUCH FUN! You pay 40,000kip (about $5) for a tube, dry-bag and a one-way tuk-tuk ride. Then they drive you 4km up the river and you start tubing. You don't even go 5 minutes and the first bar shows up. They all have massive swings into the river. It is so cool. Chris and JM went first and then talked me into jumping. It was AWESOME. So high, but you just have to bite the bullet and hold on and jump. To go on the swings, you have to buy a drink. At the next bar, Chris and Jeanne-Marie swung again. We all got attacked by a crazy Aussie with a bottle of pink spraypaint. The whole bar did. Chris got a smiley face on his back, JM got Wonder Woman on her back, Ronnie got a pink leg and I got the pink iron fist.
We stayed put at the last bar for the duration of a few buckets. This one had the meanest swing. It was about 15m high and swung you about 10 m from side to side. You could either let go at the end (which was the highest point) or in the middle (the lowest point). We got braver and braver as the dutch courage settled in. Not only us, but the rest of the about 200 people that were there. They had an Irish DJ blasting music whilst you cheer on the brave 'swingers'. Chris and JM went first again - it looks SO scary - and then convinced me that it was ok. It was brilliant. We went about 3-4 times. So much fun. Anyway, it was getting dark and we started heading back down the river. Little did we know that we hadn't even made a dent in the distance that we still had to travel and we ended up flagging down a long tail boat in the end to take us back to our bungalows.
We had a very hot shower and then headed out to Smile Bar on the island for a bit of a bum-wiggle. It was such a great day.
We had to leave Vang Vieng the next day. We opted to kayak down the Nam Lik river. We were joined by a bunch of Chinese again (SO noisy) and a few Aussies and Canadians. We had to go through a massive rapid - it was so much fun. They don't tell you big it is before you go through, they only tell us what to do when we go through. Anyway, it was so good. We stopped for some bbq'd chicked skewers and cliff jumping. Chris jumped off the highest one - must have been about 15 m high. The Chinese took about 30 minutes each to make the jump. it involved running backwards and forwards, trying to grab the cliff once they've decided to make the jump and lots and lots of yelling and screaming.
Anyway, we finally arrived in Vientiene and booked into a hotel somewhere. The next day we flew out to Bangkok and we just stayed in an hotel near the airport.
We flew back to London on Wednesday. We spent the night in Emma and Jaco's flat (thanks guys - you rock!) and did heaps of admin on Thursday. We met Caitlin McDonald - Connor and Nicky's beautiful baby girl. Even Chris got a little broody. Finally a girl - now little James Howe and Bean White have a girl to fight over! Connor, get that shot gun ready eh! We saw Di with her massive hump - good luck with that one girl, we couldn't believe how much Di's bump grew over the last few weeks.
We went out for a nice meal with Kylee, Dan, Sean, Di, Dave, Colin, Marco, Bel and Ant. It was really good to see everyone. Thanks for making such an effort on Valentines Day and on a school night!
We drove down to Chris's folks and we're sitting in their lovely house in Kent. We're spending one night here and then heading to Cape Town tomorrow.
We can't believe how quickly the time has flown - the first part of our trip is over. Today in one month, we'll be married too! We're quite keen to get back, we have so much to do still and we (when I say we, I mean I) are getting rather anxious to get the ball rolling! We're looking forward to meeting up with all our friends in South Africa.
Lizelle & Juan - one more week peeps! We're holding thumbs and hope everything goes well! Really looking forward to the wedding!
Emma & Jaco - thanks for the use of your house. We left all the lights one, the TV blaring and the heating on on full (just kidding). Thanks so much - you rock!
Happy birthday Claire, Lisa and Simon, it sucks that we can't make your birthday tonight. Have a fab time, laugh your head off and have so much fun. Hope all your birthday wishes comes true this year!
We'll keep you posted.
Signing off
Us
xx
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