Boats, bikes and breaking glass doors...

Laos - our 2nd country! A short hop across the Mekong river, all seemed much the same on first glance, although a slower pace and a slightly less organised atmosphere.

Our family from the Lahu village had been reduced to 5, however then grew somewhat when we met 2 english girls who live and teach in China. Later on collecting a few travellers from holland and canada, that evening we watched the sunset over the Mekong on the roof terrace of the hostel. A beautiful evening sharing many a Beer Lao, G&T's and refreshing conversation. As it was so hot and with the need for cold beer, I created a home-made fridge, from two metal bowls and a big bag of ice.

The evening was slightly dampened when James came running through the glass door of our room - to surprise me with a hug - cutting his face, nose, throat and knee quite severely, needing a trip to hospital to get 18 stitches with no anaesthetic. Lucky for him he still had some Beer Lao in his system to dull the pain. A few hours later and £12 lighter (2 hours work from 2 nurses whom we awoke at midnight) we swept the glass shards from our blood-stained bed and enjoyed a few hours sleep.

Notice the 'dazed' look in his eyes

With James by now thoroughly tranquilized on a cocktail of pain-killers, anti-biotics and looking like he'd had a few rounds with Mike Tyson, we headed up the Mekong for a 2-day boat ride with our now group of 10, enjoying a leisurely ride and wondeful scenery, finally arriving at Luang Prabang - a lovely city with more of a small town feel about it. There we enjoyed some welcome rest-time for James to recover, delicious and fresh meals from the food market every evening - the cheapest and best way to eat here - and a trip out to Tat Kuang Si - the most amazing layered waterfall.

At the very top, looking across the falls

Despite being a city, Luang Prabang was a very peaceful place - I enjoyed bicycling around and getting up early to see the local rituals such as monks heading silently bare-footing the streets to collect their alms. I managed to squeeze a little shopping in in the night market - full of hand crafted and antique delights - in between playing nurse.

Monks collecting alms at 6am

After a trip to the local hospital on arrival to have James' wounds checked and redressed, most of which were falling off as we left the hospital - some wounds only 3/4 covered - we had little faith in the hospital skills. I redressed the wounds and later removed the stitches myself with a sterilized pair of nail clippers and James' penknife - not the easiest task (especially trying to differentiate between stitch and beard hair) however I'm pleased with my work and he is now healing well.

We took a small boat trip upriver to the little village of Muang Ngoi Neua (incredibly difficult to pronounce) which is only accesible by boat with no other vehicles in sight - idyllic and surrounded by amazing scenery. Last night at the bar I spotted Pimms on the shelf, yet the barman had never made a Pimms so I tried to teach him how to make an english Pimms - with the lack of strawberries and cucumber it was difficult but we finally achieved a satisfactory taste! He told me he will be adding it to his list of cocktails from across the world. Strange to find a bar like this in the middle of nowhere, I mean the village only had electricity from 6pm till 9pm but yet they had a bar with an amazing selection of liquors.

How about the riverbank for a workshop, Dad?

Relaxing at the Utopia bar, overlooking the Mekong

Back in Luang Prabang, I managed to persuade Beth to catch a night bus down to the capital Vientiane, which after the first couple of hours wasn't too bad, although the roads in Laos are so badly maintained it doesn't matter what level of comfort you opt for - you're still gonna be shaken around like maracas for the whole ride.

Sunset over Luang Prabang

Vientiane (christened by the French) is a fairly nondescript small capital sitting on the banks of the Mekong - the advantage of its size is that you can get everywhere by bike!

Happy cycling around Pha That Luang, Vientiane

We were passing through to arrange visas for Myanmar, a process that takes 3 days so the military government can run background checks making sure you're not a journalist or known for voicing strong political views. While they were checking up on us we decided to spend a few days in Vang Vieng, a small town a few hours north, infamous for it's "tubing experience".

Firstly, the town itself is in a spectacular location, nestled on the valley floor between towering limestone cliffs. It's beauty hasn't gone unnoticed - this is possibly the most visited location in Laos, where young travellers come to rent tractor inner-tubes and float down the Nam Song river that runs past the town. Innocent enough, you may think, except the riverside is dotted with 12 or so makeshift bars that pull you in, each one offering unlimited free shots and lao-lao buckets (a strong local rice whisky) and pumping out the latest dance tracks. The crowd is reminiscent of a southern Spanish holiday resort - young, scantily-clad, covered in felt-tipped obscenities and suitably drunk. As an extra thrill each bar has erected huge precarious swings and ziplines above the river, the highest around 15m, where revellers can hone their trapeze artist skills. No harness, no nets, just a vague indication where not to land (floating bottles indicate rocks), these are of course great fun but it's no surprise that accidents happen here all the time - and even the occasional death.

Our friend Nora the (apparent) trapeze artist

Back in the town, the bars have set themselves up to appeal to the hungover crowd by a load of video-bars - in which rows of cushions face a couple of TVs playing endless reruns of Friends and Family Guy. If that's not enough to dull the pain, the bars also offer a "happy" menu where you can order your shakes or pizza with extra marijuana, magic mushrooms, opium or even yaba, a locally made methamphetamine - not surprising then that many travellers end up spending weeks here!

Away from the town, we found a little sanctuary with beautiful new bungalows for dirt cheap. Beth started a morning ritual of meditation and Tai-Chi as it was so peaceful, in contrast to the video-bars and general debauchery half a mile away.

Not a bad view to enjoy breakfast with!

The view from our remote bungalow

We're now about to board a sleeping bus (full-on beds!! can't wait!) to Si Phan Don, or Four Thousand Islands in southern Laos, it will be our last stop before heading on to Cambodia. A couple more amusing signs of the pidgin English variety...