Stranded on a river in Vang Vieng, Laos

From Pai, I got the looonnng journey to Luang Prabang in the neighbouring country, Laos. This was a tough, windy bus journey through the mountains of Pai to the border of Thailand and Laos. Everyone on the bus felt sick, it was impossible not to. I would equate it to the world's longest and most unfun rollercoaster. The upside of the situation was I met one the greatest kids on my journey so far, Naz from Wales. She utterly bonkers and loud like me so we could chat rubbish (and did) for hours on end.

Just before the border we stayed in a questionable hostel provided in the package deal with transport to the next city and the next day we set off for the border of Laos. There was a lot of waiting around but with my new friend Naz and another guy who was heading the same direction, a Canadian called Steve, I didn't feel as hopelessly lost/alone as I would've done otherwise.

The next leg of the journey was a slow boat down the Mekong River. It would take two days. 6/7 hours on both days. Yep, it was an epic one, but also apparently one of the quintessential SE Asia experiences so I had to do it. The slow boat itself, was a little odd, in that wooden chairs had been replaced with car seats - I'm not complaining as it made it a lot more comfortable but it just seemed out of place, also where they get them all from?!

The journey (as everything I describe in this area of the world) was absolutely stunning. On either side of the river, the whole way it felt like we were sailing through the movie, Avatar. The mountains were lush and green and overwhelming in every direction.

We stayed overnight in a place called Pakbeng, a riverside town that could charge exorbitant amounts for a room because of it's location for all the slow boat tourists. The town itself was small and basic, the ATM (surprisingly it had them) machines were placed upon giant concrete platforms that you had to walk up concrete stairs to get to but the last step was completely missing so you had to leap over the gap and miss falling a few feet into the sewer below. Bit odd.

Naz, Steve and I met a couple of young German girls who had just finished sixth form/high school and were on a gap year and we all went for food. On our way back, we walked past a shop/someone's front room. (That's what all the shops and restaurants were in Laos, a different section of someone's house.) It was giant open plan room with a wall missing as if there needed to be a shutter there instead, on one side there was stalls selling pringles and oreos (standard) and on the other there was the TV sofa and a dining room table (crossing over as a restaurant table most likely). It was there we met a group of around 6 Lao and Thai men singing karaoke and drinking beer, who beckoned us to join them. So we went over. They offered us beer and asked us to pick a song. So we did. That's how the rest of the night transpired, we laughed and sang songs from Hotel California (the Lao and Steve especially loved) to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody (they didn't know) and they took a lot of pictures of us 'Westerners' and we took pictures of this whole bizarre scene.

One more day of slow boating down the Mekong and we arrived in Luang Prabang early evening the next day.

Luang Prabang was another pretty town that was quite touristy if you didn't manage to escape the centre. The night market was adorable however touristy, and sold things from scarves to paintings of monks shaped like ice cream (weird design) and rice wine in a bottle with a scorpion and/or a snake inside... not pleasant I know.

The main attraction here was to visit the waterfall nearby. I feel like it should be given a better, grander name than 'waterfall' as it was simply the most beautiful I've ever seen. The water was so pure it was not blue it was completely clear and it had so many layers to see.

If you made the trek to the top you could walk around a lagoon type area and go bamboo rafting like Naz and I did... that was a little tricky to be honest as you have a giant stick of bamboo to push yourself around with but all you really want is an ordinary paddle.

Around this time I met a couple of my favs from the journey, Alex and TJ and I guess I have to thank them for not taking out a restraining order on me straight away because this is literally the first thing I said to Alex when we were sitting opposite each other at breakfast one day in the hostel.

'So er, have you remembered it's your dad's birthday?'

TJ and Alex looked at me incredulously as if 'how the hell do you know?!' and I laughed a lot and apologised for being really freaking weird. The day before I'd been trying to FaceTime my mum at the same time as Alex was calling both his folks down a corridor in the hostel and I guess it's just impossible to block out a whole conversation as it happens beside you especially when Alex had spoken to his dad for a while then spoke to his mum separately and she said 'So we're going out for your dad's birthday..' and he freaked out and said 'oh my god is it today?!' but LUCKILY for all involved it was the following day. Hence, my helpful reminder ;) Alex and TJ both forgave me for being an uberdork and I met them again in Vang Vieng a couple of days later for one of the most memorable days of my trip.

Vang Vieng is an even smaller town based by another river with a lot of bars on stilts jutting out into the water. Catered for tourists three or four bars play Friends and Family Guy on loop (quite comforting with a hangover). This place is known for it's Tubing. It used to be an activity that resulted in a number of fatalities as you'd jump in a rubber donut/tube (made out of old car tyres) and float down river to a number of different bars blaring loud music and offering free shots and drugs would be everywhere. The Laos government clamped down on this a few years ago now so there are 4 bars you float down and between and it's not 'crazy crazy' but just a lot of fun and a good time. We took our own alcohol to save on money and had a great time at the different types of bars, starting with a giant game of (rude) jenga with a great group Naz, Steve, TJ and Alex and I were joined by a couple of beautiful Swedes, Cecelia and Malin who we met on the tuk tuk up to the first bar.

One bar had great pop music, where I was in my element and another had a giant puddle of mud which looked fairly innocent to begin with but actually it was hollowed out so the mud went up to your waist! We found out the hard way...

As it got to about half 5 we knew we needed to make a move because it was getting dark and we needed to get our tubes back by 6pm to get our full deposit back. We set off down river again and quickly got split up as the boys, Malin and TJ were up ahead and started swimming and Naz was behind. Cecelia and I stuck together and thank goodness we did because we royally messed up! It was pretty much my fault. I thought I knew how far to go but tubing stopped being fun and got very cold very quickly when the sun went down. We still had 2km to float down river in the pitch black. At one point a man on a bridge offered us a tuk tuk I insisted it wouldn't be far so we carried on floating/swimming a bit further for another 20 minutes or so when Cecelia made the point of saying actually it's too difficult to go further we should go back to the bridge. So we tried to swim/walk upstream. This was TOUGH and virtually impossible as the current was strong. We both started panicking at this point. The stones and rocks on the floor were really sharp and we kept losing our footing and getting dragged further down.

At one point, we had no way of knowing how much time had gone by, we were very wet and cold and we gripped onto a giant rock (it all felt very Rose and Jack in Titanic) in the middle of the river and started calling out for help. Every few minutes we'd see a light shining towards us and Cece (I love this girl) thought that it was a search party for us so she'd scream 'It's Eli and Cecelia, we're here!!', this happened several times until we realised it was just a passing motorbike or similar. After however much time, we realised that no one was coming to help so continued to clamber against the current to the one path we could see from the otherwise impassable riverbanks, either side of the river. We got out of the water and held on to our tubes. We were so happy to be out but we also had the issue of still be 2km from our hostel. Malin had Cecelia's clothes and shoes so we shared what I had in my bag. I gave Cece a towel to wrap around her and we shared my shoes, one flip flop each... Looking a state in the dark we made the walk back to town, hoping to catch a tuk tuk on the way. One group of Lao men called out to us to offer one and when we asked how much they decided (after around 4 minutes of chat between them) that they didn't have a tuk tuk after all. So weird and very annoying. Another tuk tuk driver we'd negotiated a price with proceeded to feel Cece up as soon as she got in so we immediately got back out and decided to commit to the walk. So we did. One shoe on, one off, we trampled back to town. Passing a number of locals on the way outside their houses, without any passing comment. It seemed as though seeing us scantily clad with the rings hung over our bodies, bedraggled and in the dark, was not an uncommon occurence to them...

As we got into town we then got a few stares for other travellers, a few knowing looks and rolling of the eyes as if to say 'it happens'. We rocked up to the tube shop and as luck would have it (at this late point in the day..) we'd arrived bang on 8pm. Enough to receive a portion (but not all since we were past 6) of our desposit back for using the tube.

We were absolutely exhausted but we knew we had to celebrate surviving the ordeal so we showered and went out to party that evening. Cecelia and Eli - 1, Vang Vieng river - 0. WIN.

I absolutely loved my time in Laos, I can't comment more on the country itself as I only saw the north and for only a week. But the food - all you can eat in Luang Prabang for 1 quid - was so good and the place is beautiful, mountains jutting up all over the place randomly. It'll probably stand for the people I met as I had such a laugh, well done team ;)