Well we're now back in Vientiane...what was wrong with Vang Vieng? (I hear you all cry) Well nothing really. It's just that all the activities we wanted to do, tubing, cycling, caving et al all require the weather to be nice, which, for the first time in 8 weeks, it wasn't. Jen described it as jumper weather and the temperature dial must have dipped below 20 degrees (ooh the hardship!) for the first time since we've been away. Thus we decided not to hang around as various people were muttering that once the weather's set it it's in for days or even weeks...

In Vang Vieng we went out with Helen and Rich for a really nice meal and a bottle of Lao Whiskey (and lots of 7-up) of dubious quality (but hey it cost about 80p!!!) and had a really nice night - we all discussed ways we could maybe do the overland Vietnam thing together but they want to go North to Luang Prabang first so we wouldn't be able to do it for a few days. We are now planning to fly (not via Lao Aviation but Vietnam Air) as soon as we can get a flight which should be tomorrow or the day after.

We are down to our last 20 bucks now (which is a little worrying) as all the banks are shut as it was national women's day on Saturday...and no I am not making this up (it is Monday after all and despite women being the fantastic creatures that they are their cause is surely not affected by closing banks???)

So that's about it really the reason we didn't get any sleep on our last night in LP was due to our guesthouse. It is called Tum Tum Cheng which is the sound monk's cymbals make in Laos. We were of course, staying near the oldest and most famous Wat (temple and monk-house - not Bob though) in Laos and Sunday morning seemed to be the time they practiced their Tum Tum Cheng-ing. At 3am.

So it's goodbye to Laos (soon) and hello to country number 4 - Vietnam. our plan here is vague, although we are going to bump into Helen & Rich, because as we go north they are going south and onward into Cambodia. We are trying to arrange this for Vietnam's only dive site. The rugby 7's is all (hopefully) booked although we're still waiting for confirmation. We fly into Hong Kong on 27/3 and out again on 14/4 which gives us a couple of weeks or so to whizz round China.

Not alot else to report - I've got a very mild throat/chest infection, which will hopefully sort itself out, if not we're going to wait for Vietnam as the hospitals here are some of the worst in the world apparently. If we can't get a flight we're gonna have to go on the nightbus - 12 hours of utter hell, followed by a 24 hour train in Vietnam...either way we'll keep you posted.