The return to Thailand -

So amazingly although I knew Lou and Yazz were flying to Phuket the following day none of us had worked out that we were all staying in Bangkok the same night!

We got in touch by text and once they had checked into their hotel they took a cab over to me.  It was sooooo good to see them after 3 months on the road and gave each other the biggest hug!  We headed out so that they could go and see Khao San Road again after nearly 10 years and reminisce a bit.  I thought I could find the way again walking without a map and we went past City Hall as there was some kind of event going on there – although we aren’t sure what but there were loads of locals and stalls and stuff going on.  From there we headed towards KSR but I ended up not really knowing where we were so we flagged a tuk tuk down and it turns out it was only across the road – whoops! 

Still we walked down KSR and they said it hadn’t really changed much and stopped off for dinner in one of the busy bars down there for their first thai meal.

We were all pretty knackered so headed back to our respective places at a reasonable hour.  That night I shared my dorm room with 3 Japanese guys – who came in, turned the lights on, faffed about doing stuff and then went out again without turning the lights off! V.annoying!

I had to get up really early the next morning for the 2^nd day in a row to get my flight to Phuket. I am being quite a bad backpacker really as I seem to be flying everywhere apart from my overland journeys in Laos, but when I look at the costs of the flight and they aren’t that much versus the amount of time taken to do an overland on my own, I can’t help it. Lou and Yazz were taking a slightly later flight than me so the plan was for me to hang around the airport for a couple of hours for them to arrive as their friend Josh was picking them up.  Typically their flight was delayed but Josh came and found me and we waited for them to turn up. 

We headed out to Josh’s place which was in a very residential area of Phuket away from all the touristy stuff, then he took us to a beach (can’t remember where again!) to chill for the afternoon and have some lunch.  

  

We all took a dip in the lovely warm sea J and then headed back to Josh and his girlfriends place for takeway thai food!  Thai style!  Its great, apparently they call this guy up and he delivers this big box which has this electric plate and bowl thing into which you pour a stock soup thing and then add all manner of other veggies and meats and fish to and just let it all boil up together and then start helping yourself as you add more stuff to it.  They even supply all the bowls and spoons and stuff and after you are done you chuck it all back in the box and leave it outside for them to collect the next day – I’m liking this style of takeaway J It was yummy and healthy with absolutely no work – well apart from cooking it yourself!

  

The next day we took a drive into Patong and I have to say I’m pleased I didn’t spend much more time in this area than the day as it felt like a really touristy resort full of tourist shops and bars but more than anywhere else I have been.  It felt a bit like a cheesy Spanish resort – but in Thailand - and the beaches were heaving and not particularly pretty.  Josh did tell us though that there are some much nicer areas of Phuket which aren’t as developed so if you go, don’t go to Patong, find somewhere else, we saw a bit more of Phuket as Josh gave me a lift to the airport that afternoon and we took the scenic route and saw a lot more of Phuket than just Patong.  We mainly went there as its where the Resturant group Josh works for is based and Lou and Yazz know the owner there as well so they wanted to go and say hello. 

Pum the owner wanted to come out to Lunch with us as well but didn’t want to eat there as she wanted “traditional” English fish and chips so we drove out of down to this amazing 5 star resort where we had lunch.  It was beautiful but nearly ruined as I think I got a bit overly hot and felt quite nauseous!

  

So as I say, after lunch Josh gave me a lift to the airport for me to head over to Samui and it was time for another tiny little plane.  This time though I have never seen a plane full literally of young people going over to party! I ended up sitting next to an aussie guy who was scared stiff of flying – not what I needed as I was pretty nervous myself on that tiny plane. 

Next installment - party times on the Islands!

Tubing on the Mekong River and cycling in the Vang Vieng Countryside....then on to Vientiane for Christmas

So this is the day I tell you about tubing down the river.  A legendary thing to do in Laos Vang Vieng.  So I had said to meet up with Amanda and Aoife but I didn't get up in time and was umming and arghing about going there alone.  In the end I gave myself a kick up the arse and decided to go for it - I could always come back home if it was crap on my own!  I headed over to the shop where you pick up a tube - its basically an enourmous rubber ring which comes from the inner of a tyre. Not too expensive to hire it but then you have to leave a deposit as well, and if you return it late they either take all your deposit or part of it - or you might not return the tube at all!

Afterwards you get in a tuk tuk truck which takes you 3 km down the river, and you have to wait in the truck until more people arrive to go down there.  I was really lucky as I got in the truck with some really nice people.  An aussie couple who i met briefly on the bus to Vang Vieng and 3 other girls.  Viivi and Laura travelling together from Finland and another girl called Pauline who was from another country in the netherlands but i can't remember where - oops!  We were all quite nervous about the tubing as didn't know what to expect.  We get down there and basically there are bars and more bars, well shacks that are bars, all built along the side of the river.  You chuck your tube on a pile of others at the side of the bar and grab a drink.  You have to be careful not to loose your tube as people loose theirs and take one and sometimes if you are late you end up with no tube, so you have to keep an eye on the pile to make sure there is still a tube left for you to take back - it doesn't matter which one as long as you have one!

So we all got a drink for dutch courage and after that we climbed into the tubes, it was surprisingly nice and calm although the current is faster than you expect, and you don't really have any control over the tube, you can paddle a bit but its hard to direct it!  as you float past the bars they chuck out a rope with a float attached which you grab hold of and they pull you over to it.  Basically tubing is just a big bar crawl!!  Quite a few people went a few days in a row and after the 2nd day they didn't even bother getting a tube and just caught a truck down there and went to a few different bars as you can walk to them they are that close.  My first day we made it to 4 bars which is more impressive than some people as they usually only make it to the 2nd bar!

Unfortunately I have no pictures of tubing but i may be tagged on some from facebook - i didn't want to take my camera just in case it got wet or broken.  In the end though it was a great day! We didn't make it all the way down the river because by the time it was the 4th bar the sun was going to be setting and its 30 minute drift down the river back to town so we crossed over the bridge and got a truck back into town.  We were 15 minutes past the cut off time of 6pm and they tried to keep all our deposit but we kicked up a fuss and they only kept a bit of it - cheeky buggers!

Anyway - we decided to all go back to our places and shower and change and meet up for dinner an hour later.....then carried on partying until far too late!  It was a pretty mad night as we ended up going over to an Island nearby when the bar shut where I spent ages chatting to the owner and an ex-pat.  The party broke up when a local plain clothes police man turned up with a gun in hand (mum don't panic please!) to say to everyone go home.  I've never seen a bar been closed and people depart so peacefully and quiet.  I think the only reason for this is because Laos is still an old fashioned place with a curfew so when the police say go home, you go home!

Pauline left the next day for her next destination but I made arrangements to meet Viivi and Laura the next day as we said we wanted to go tubing again but actually go all the way down the river properly without drinking! well we did meet up but were very very hungover.  We went down to the river but I felt so rubbish I decided to leave after a short while and collapse back in the hostel :-)

People slate Vang Vieng as being just a party town full of bars showing back to back friends and family guy but I have to say it made a nice change after everything else to veg out in front of a tv chilling out.  The next day I was fully recovered and Laura and Viivi had left for their next stop so I decided to hire a bik and go and see a bit of the countryside - best decision ever as the town of Vang Vieng isn't that nice to look at but the surrounding area is beautiful.

I did actually manage to break my camera so I have no pictures of this either :-( I cycled way out into the countryside on these dirt track roads for about 3 hours - it was hard bloody work at some points but I got to see some real villages - rather than ones there for tourists trying to sell you things.

The next day was my 6 hour bus ride to Vientiane!  Well I booked my VIP bus again, but this was certainly no VIP! I had heard about these things happening but there isn't much you can do about it.  I was sat next to a Laos guy for the journey who also lives in America and was on holiday - i seemed to meet a lot of them.  We talked a bit but not a huge amount and I spent the long long journey listening to my Ipod and then sleeping when the bus stopped rocking me from side to side after we got off the mountain roads.

So I didn't have anywhere booked up for Vientiane but had done some research on where a big block of different hotels were by the river and got a truck up there from the bus stop.  I tried a couple of different places but ended up in one called Riverside, a proper hotel with a good bed, good shower, good air con and a lift! The room was so cool with the air con I even decided to make myself look nice by blow drying my hair each day!

As usual my first day there I didn't do too much, that evening I went out for dinner and ended up chatting to two english guys who were very entertaining and told me some very funny stories about how they inadvertantly took part in a great race type thing and all the stuff they had gotten up to as the "british team" by default as no one else really entered from england!

The 2nd day I decided to go and try and find the COPE centre - a rehabilitation centre I mentioned before for people who have lost limbs due to the unexploded bombs. I walked quite a way but it was hot so decided to try and take a tuk tuk, i stopped a driver but it took  far too long to try and explain where I wanted to go so took to my feet again.  In the end it was only another 15 minute walk down the road to get there and was well worth it.  The visitor centre there shows films telling you all about the history of Laos and the unexploded bombs and land mines.  A very very sad story.  In brief, during the Vietnam war, America waged a secret war against Laos that they didn't tell anyone about (and back then no one knew about it) because the Vietnamese were crossing into Laos to get to South Vietnam.  This lead to America making Laos one of the most heavily bombed countries in the world.  So many people died back then and now they are still left with thousands of bombs which haven't exploded. The kids go out into the countryside in search of scrap metal to sell or pick up these cluster bombs which haven't exploded and play with them and then they go off and kill or maim them.  The film I saw was made by the couple I met in Luang Prabang and told the story of an aussie bomb disposal expert who went there to train "big bomb" teams in how to defuse these bombs that are still being discovered all over the place, mostly near schools and villages or buried underneath paths.

I saw another film afterwards which was the most moving one and actually made me cry as it told the story of a young boy playing with friends who picked up a cluster bomb which went off.  It killed most of his friends but he was only badly wounded.  His parents managed to get to him and hired a truck to take him to hospital....only to find that there was no blood or oxygen there, they then travelled to the next hospital miles and miles away to find the same thing.  They couldn't even get to the next hospital as it was too far and had to persuade the truck driver to take them and their dying son back to their home so he could at least dye at home.  Its just too awful to think that they only reason he died was a lack of medical facilities and makes me emotional to even write about it now.

Anyway after my visit there I took a walk around the town a bit more and looked around the markets and stuff.

Christmas Eve I managed to find an english pub I had walked past during the day that was advertising a christmas dinner but was closed everytime I did walk past it.  I went in there and got chatting to an old guy probably about 60 odd - what is it with me and these old men - none of them are even chatting me up!  But again, a really interesting person - was a writer and had done all sorts of things over the years so was a nice way to pass the evening.  So the pub was offering a xmas dinner the next day with all the trimmings and it wasn't cheap but thought it might be a good way to spend the day and hopefully meet some people.

Christmas day 2009 I woke up and went for beans on toast for brekkie :-) then an amazing aromatic oil full body massage that cost me a whole £6! After that I went and got spruced up for my lunch.  I turned up at the pub and got chatting to a few people but most of them left after the lunch - couples off to do couples things :-).  The lunch itself was ok - enourmous and not too bad but not the same as at home - but it did feel a bit more like christmas day at least.  I wasn't sure what to do afterwards when the people I eat with left but decided to go and have a gin and tonic outside and see if I could talk to anyone.  And I did!  I ended up chatting with an American girl called Alexis, another american woman who I don't know the name of and an aussie guy called Simon.  He was there visiting some locals that he knows and was meeting up with them that evening and said that Alexis and I were welcome to join them.  It's one of those moments you go - hmmm why not!  His friends - two women, came and picked us up in a minibus van thing and we went off to this very nice river front restaurant.

The Laos people are so funny and definitely like a drink - like the other family I met, we were never short of beer!  The took charge of the ordering and I had no idea what they ordered and I even tried ducks bill!  Work out what it is for yourself! It was interesting but not something i'll be eating again :-)  After dinner we went into the bar area and danced for a bit and then we ended up getting some crates of beer and sitting outside their house until about 5am!  A very random but completely fun Christmas day that I don't think can be topped for something different to do.

Needless to say after all that Boxing Day was a day to spend sleeping and recovering :-)  The next day I took another mini plane back to Bangkok for the night - where I discovered Lou and Yazz were arriving and we didn't even realise we were going to be in Bangkok at the same time!

Laos - Luang Prabang bowling, Vang Vieng the start....

So its been a bit of a whilst since my last posting - its been a combination of being busy, having better things to do ha ha and being lazy :-)

So lets see how far I can remember back - all the way to 13th December - ah the flight to Luang Prabang, on the smallest plane I have ever been on! I think it seated about 70 people but it was tiny with just two propellers on the wing!

  

Nicely it wasn't full so no one was sat next to me for my hours flight so I got to spread across the very tiny seats.  I got a taxi from the airport into the tiny main town of Luang Prabang to the guesthouse that I had booked online.  I turn up and they find a scrap of paper with my name written on it and then half don't speak to me but tell me to follow them.  I was a bit dubious as one of the reviews (but out of many on the site) said that they had overbooked and put them in another place up the road.  Well it turned out thats what they wanted to do to me, and they took me to this place that was a bit of a hole and felt all grimy and horrible.   I decided I would do the same trick I did in Pai.  I put my bags down and they hadn't asked me to pay anything yet so I went off for a walk around.  Unfortunately Laos is quite an expensive country in comparison to Thailand for anything half decent to stay in.  They charge or at least quote prices in US dollars so yet another currency to try and convert back :-)

All the guesthouses I found around the same area were wanting about $35 or $40 a night or the others were full already.  I found one place eventually who wanted $30 a night, managed to get them down to $25 a night and then when I said i would take the twin on the ground floor and no breakfast, got them to $20 a night.  It was well worth it as the room was really nice and clean with air con, a great bed and a decent bathroom - and hot water! woo hoo!  Anyway I figured it was a decent price and I could carry on looking but it would do.  I headed back to the other place to pick up my bag and told them I was leaving.  They tried to charge me about 20,0000 kip (only about £2) but I told them I wasn't going to pay them anything as I hadn't booked that place and I didn't want it - so I just walked off :-)

It was getting late on in the day and I was still feeling pretty crappy after being ill and not sleeping well so I went for a sandwich for dinner and tried to have a walk around town but felt so rubbish I went back to the hotel and just laid in bed watching stuff on the laptop (great!).

The next day was just the best!  I got up after an amazing nights sleep and went for an exploration.  Luang Prabang is a really pretty town in itself as well as having a nice setting.  The roads are fairly quiet so you don't feel like you are going to get run down by a scooter the whole time and its small enough that you can't really got lost.  The more I am going on the more I am realising that I really do prefer the small towns and small Islands to the bigger ones.  People are so much nicer and its much easier to get around.  It makes me think more about where I would want to live again when I come back to the UK.

I found the local food market where you see all the live chickens stuffed into baskets waiting to be sold - like I saw this woman walking down the street with dinner in her hand waiting to be prepared.  I wondered back up and out of the market and right down to the edge of town and saw some lovely old Wats and lots and lots of Monks.  I'll post those photos on facebook....eventually :-)

I got down to the river and was just mesmerised by how beautiful it was.  The place was just so calm and picturesque with farming going up the banks of the river on the other side then loads of trees.  The evenings in Laos are quite cool and the mornings start off very cool and misty and cloudy but it gradually breaks up as the day goes on so I decided to stop off at a place just on the side of the river to take in the view and watch the clouds break up. Laos coffee is a big improvement on thailand - although it depends if you like your coffee so strong you can stand your spoon up in it! Some of it so strong you put the milk in and you can't get the colour to really change :-)

After my coffee I carried on wandering down the road when I passed by this small house with loads of music, singing and chatting coming from it. As I was walking by I slowed down just to see what was going on and they turn round and beckon me over!  There was one man there who could speak english so he said hello and asked me where I was from etc.  I then asked if I could take a picture of them all in the house.  They said yes no problem - and could they take a picture of me! Of course the answer was yes ha ha. Anyway I begin to talk to them and they invite me into their home which I eventually accepted.  It turned out that one of the fathers of the extended family had passed away 2 weeks before and they were having part of the funeral celebrations.  The guy who spoke english was actually living in America for the past 30 years and was there on holiday.  He told me he hadn't actually seen half of his family for the last 30 years as until recent years there was a ban on anyone coming into to Laos as they had closed their borders to foreigners for a long time after the vietnam war.

  

They explained to me that it was a funeral celebration and that in their culture they have to celebrate the death in order to get the spirit up to heaven so they sing and have music and basically party! They were the most hospitable people and kept pooring me beers (which in all honesty I didn't want after being ill so recently) but they drink it with ice as its not chilled so I just drank it really slowly and diluted as I didn't want to appear rude by refusing their hospitality.  The same went for the food, they practically forced me to eat! There was sticky rice with some kind of pork salad with lots of chilli and lots of fat! I just about managed to force a small bowl full of it down.  Then out came a local specialty - fried seaweed sheets with sesame seeds - which was actually really nice!  Then out came some soups - one really spicy one which I didn't try and one tomato type one which was delicious. Then came the sweets which I tried a bit of which was really nice.  The atmosphere was so nice and happy and fun with them all singing and doing a bit of dancing.   I can't really describe it but I did film a bit of it which will really help to give the idea - I'll see if I can work out a way to upload it to the blog so you can see, if not it will be on facebook.  I think the one of the older guys was trying to get me married off to the guy who spoke english after I had been there a while which was hilarious, especially as he was about 50! They told me that they didn't want me to give them any money which I thought was strange but maybe it was because they were giving me so much beer and food - it either meant they genuinely didn't or they were hinting for it - either way I didn't but I ended up being there for so long that I went and bought some beer for them.  Well I say went, I told them I wanted to get them some beer and asked where to get it from and in the end they took the money from me, went themselves and brought back the beer and the change - i mean you can't get more hospitable than that!

It got to late afternoon and they had all been on about going to do Karaoke which i presumed they meant that evening.  I had been saying no when they had been inviting me (well you know me and my singing!) but in the end I decided it would be a fun experience.  Literally the minute I said ok I'll go they said great, and started packing up the food and everything else and we were off! It was about 5 in the afternoon :-)  I didn't realise but it turned out that the music equipment and the player was actually hired as we had to drop them off on the way to the Karaoke. I think there was about 8 of them and me - but they were so nice it didn't matter.  You could tell it was a genuine offer and they were a nice family.  So at the Karaoke bar they had a private room and of course I didn't think about the fact that most of the music would be Laos music.  There were a few english songs which they tried to get me to do but I wasn't having any of it.  The Laos music was very traditional and they got me up with them to do some traditional style dancing which is all in the hand movement with a little bit of hip movement.  The music was so loud in there though that i have to say I got to about 7 or 8pm and had enough as I had a massive headache.  Luckily they were also finishing up so we all headed out again and i got a lift back to the guesthouse.

You would think that the Laos hospitality ended there but oh no! I get back to the guesthouse and the owners brother was sitting outside with his friends and he was also visiting from the US so again spoke great english.  I went outside to have a cigarette before bed and they again forced me to drink beer! Mum I know what you are thinking - forced me? Surely not but you don't realise. I sat down and they offered me a drink which I said no to as I was going to bed and had already had quite a bit to drink, but they get a glass and poor it out in front of me anyway! Its really rude after someone has done that in such a poor country to refuse it so you end up drinking it! They also tried to force me to drink some Johnny Walker whiskey (THE drink over there!) but I managed to refuse that!  It turns out that the brother is in the Federal government over there working for the immigration service and gave me his card as he is in San Fran - so incase I have any problem! It also seemed that the Mayor of Luang Prabang was also sitting at the table with us - but spoke no english.  I finished the beer and they were literally trying to force refill the glass when I made it clear finally that I was off to bed!

The next day was an early start as I had booked an elephant trip to make up for the one that I missed in Chaing Mai as I was ill.  We went to the Elephant village about 30 minutes drive away from Luang Prabang.  There was an Aussie family booked in with teenage daughters and an Aussie couple called Kim and Sylvia with their 3 yr old son who were lovely.  When we reached the elephant village we had quite a while to wait to get on the elephants so I was sitting chatting to them.  It was great as they knew Laos and SE Aisa really well.  They are film makers and have done a lot of work and research in the country and lived there for a while.  They told me about a place in Vientiane which really gave an insight into the country - its called the COPE centre, which also showed one of their films - Bomb Harvest http://www.bombharvest.com/ which is well worth watching - but more about that later.

I had a lovely hours ride on one of the elephants down the river and back up to the camp.  Next was a buffet lunch all included  in the beautiful setting and then a very small boat ride up river to the Tad Sae waterfalls. I was so sure I was going to get soaking wet or worse in the boat but it stayed up right all right and I managed to get in and out of it without getting wet too!

The waterfalls were lovely and pretty but I wasn't prepared for how blooming cold the water was going to be! Stupid I know as the water is constantly running so it doesn't really get warm - but then I guess some might do.  I managed to have a little bit of a paddle but it was too cold to stay in it for long.

   

So after a nice peaceful afternoon we headed back.  I showered and changed and went out for the evening in search of people to talk to! At first I couldn't find any bars apart from a quiet wine bar. I did sit there and enjoy a nice glass of red wine which was bliss! It was a bit boring though so I figured there was nowhere really to go so was going to head back to the room early to watch tv. I went past another busy place on the way back so decided to stop there for a drink to see if I could meet anyone.  I was sat down and a few minutes later these 2 girls sat down on the table next to me. I was listening to their conversation a bit trying to work up the nerve to just jump in and say hi and join in, but eventually Amanda turned round to me and just said "Hi, are you on your own? do you want to join us"!  So of course i did, Amanda and Aoife were from Ireland and travelling together and they had met up with a guy called Matt from Hertfordshire again that evening that they met on the slow boat on the way over from Thailand.  So anyway I joined them for a drink and then they told me there was a bar called Laos Laos around the corner which was really busy so off we went.  It was a great night as I ended up meeting a load more people in there.

Laos is still a very traditional country which has curfews in place - these do vary depending on the town, but I think its there for safety so people aren't out roaming the streets at all hours of the night.  The curfew in Luang Prabang is actually 10.30pm, but some of the bars stay open until 11.30 like the one we were in.  They seem to have arrangements with the police to do this. Really promptly at 11.30 the staff come round and if you have a drink left they put it in a plastic cup for you to take with you and shove you outside! Next up is the Bowling Alley - one of the only places in Luang Prabang open later.  There is a disco but its all Laos music and only open till 1am but the bowling alley stays open till 3am ;-) A bit group of us pile into the truck to take us down to the bowling alley and its already packed - all the lanes are taken but there's a bar in there too so its a late night drinking den too!

The next day I was pretty wiped out so didn't get up to much apart from arranging a trip for the following day to go to the Pak Ou caves.Everyone that I had met the night before had moved on the following day or evening so I was on my own - no bad thing considering the hangover :-)  So my trip to the caves involved taking a boat up the river (slightly larger than the last one and at least I didn't think I was going to fall out of it!)  to see the cave of 1000 buddahs!  Before we reached the cave however we went to see a local village where they make what they call the Laos Laos Whiskey!  Its evil stuff I tell you - especially at the 11am that I tried a shot of it!  The cave was kinda cool to see and that afternoon I was supposed to go to another waterfall but I had a splitting headache the whole morning so I just went back to the hotel and chilled out for the afternoon (it wasn't a hangover I might add seeing as I hadn't been drinking the previous night!)

The next day I had my VIP bus booked to take me on the 6 hour journey down to Vang Vieng!  I got a pick up from the Hotel by tuk tuk and got checked in to the bus.  It was actually half decent as it was a proper coach with a toilet and they give you water and lunch is included at a stop on the way.  I was lucky as I ended up sitting next to a guy from the netherlands who was really nice and we chatted nearly all the way there so the time went really quickly.  Unfortunately someone was ill in the toilet so the bus smelt pretty bad for a while!

I reached Vang Vieng and decided to walk to the guesthouse from the bus station as on the map it looked really close.  Little did I know it was about 2km away.  Well 2km is ok - but not in the 35c heat with a massive back pack on my back.  I walked for about 15 minutes and then stopped to ask some westerners at the side of the road where it was and they told me it was really far, so I stopped and flagged down a tuk tuk.

So the place I stayed in had really mixed reviews on Hostelworld - its called Babylon.  Some of the reviews said that the owner was really rude and horrible others said the staff were amazing. Anyway I turn up and I had booked a small double room.  It was ok but definitely in the list of one of the least nice places I have stayed in with terrible pillows!  the first couple of nights in there i was ok but on the 3rd night I was about to go to bed when I discovered loads of bed bugs - ergh! I moved rooms and they put me in a triple room, I got into one bed and I think after it had been warmed up from my body heat all these tiny little ants appeared - ergh again! I got into the other bed and kept checking for bugs and it seemed ok.  I stayed in there that night and then the next night I had to move to another room again - and this time it was ok but the bed was rock hard! I guess it makes up for the lovely place I stayed in Luang Prabang.

So that night I met up with some of the guys that I met in the bowling alley in Luang Prabang, they had all been drinking all day tubing so were pretty knackered but we headed down to Q Bar which is the "happening" bar of the moment in the town. I ended up bumping into Amanda and Aoife again in there and stayed with them for a while and then bumped into a guy who i met in my bangkok hostel!  I ended up managing to loose the girls somehow and spent the rest of the night chatting to Mark and a female friend of his whose name i don't remember but was really nice.  I had arranged the next day to meet up with Amanda and Aoife to go tubing but they wanted to go much earlier than I did so I thought, well maybe I would just see them down there.  I think i ended up going to bed quite late and the next day woke up very late!

I was a bit nervous the next day about going tubing on my own but thought i may as well take the plunge. To be continued....seeing as this has taken about 3 hours to write so far :-)