Thailand to Laos

At around 7pm we were picked up by a mini bus to be taken on a marathon 16 hour journey to Laos, as the doors opened we notices "the jocks", (a scottish couple we had met on the elephant adventure) an instant ice breaker we jumped straight in and already the conversation was flowing, Max had been to slow to get in and was banished to the front seat with Paul the driver, a small bus with minimal leg room I was instantly at a disadvantage because of my slender dancers legs, the cast of the coach consisted of us 4 boys, the Scots, 2 Irish ladies, a girl from London, and a filthy dirty crout called Rölff who was wearing an Oktoberfest shirt while tucking into a bratwurst and sipping a becks as we entered the vehicle. We set off and enjoyed small talk for a few hours before deciding rest was what the doctor ordered, we all tried to get sleep but as comfort wasn't priority I barely slept a wink.

Hours into the journey we stopped for toilet breaks where i spotted a Sloan Toad, we eventually stopped at a place to sort out visas for Laos, we were promised breakfast which we were never offered and the only thing getting eaten was my skin, I was set upon by all kinds of critters and come out covered in bites, the crout lived up to his countries sausage munching reputation and tucked into some pork while flicking through a book "WW2 - where did it all go wrong?" we changed bus and took off for the border, the journey was tedious we got our visas sorted, were extorted out of 1500 baht just to get into their country and changed bus about 5 more times. 


We finally settled on the final leg of the journey for a 4 hour drive and the final line up was us 4, London girl, the English wannabes of 2 Irish ladies and 2 Scottish folk, 2 Australians and a man who appeared to be Pakistani called Mohammad, after all our trying we had final given the stinking German the slip and he left us alone.

We had lots of fun on the bus and enjoyed each other company but after being awake for nearly a whole 20 hours I had enough, I put my headphones on and shut out everyone so I could have some more interesting time thinking about myself. Highlight of the journey was Jon's extensive knowledge of Geography, after slating immigrants he went on to say "The Somalians are worse than the Africans" which was bad enough, until he stated during a conversation with a lad from Perth, Australia that Perth was infact the capital of Austrlia and there were also no English people there, i didn't know where to look I had never felt so humiliated.

We arrived at our destination and the new found friends all decided to stay together so we all trusted Jack as he "knew a place". Turns out for once in the whole trip he did actually know somewhere and we all stayed there except the 2 Irish girls and London girl who had already booked a place up the road.

We booked a 5 person room with 2 double beds and a single, predictably Jon "not sharing a bed with a boy incase I enjoy it" Hubbard claimed the single, Me and Max are so comfortable with our straight sexuality we decided we would share, we even indulged in intercourse just to prove how comfortably straight we are. The room was surprisingly nice it had fans, alot of space and our own toilet, one slight problem was the amount of wildlife that inhabited the room, we may aswell have slept outside, after the first night a critter of some description fell on my head so after some brief panic I decided to leave the bathroom light on so the bugs would be attracted into the toilet.

That evening we all met up and went for team eats, we chose a nice friendly looking European place instead of sampling the local muck the rest of them eat. Everyone complained about there food being horrible but we gobbled it up and went back to the hotel for the night to catch up on sleep.

The following day we got up and had breakfast which was alright, before having team shit and and meeting up with all the guys to head up the river for a spot of Tubing, I must admit I wasn't too keen on the thought of Tubing but my opinion was changed when I was actually there, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and highlights include, Jon's tube partner cutting her foot open so much it resembles an axe wound, me being a hero and saving my partners flip flops and tube, some prick knocking a drink out of my hand reminding me that I can never escape the Watford experience, im sure Max must have knocked a drink over, Jon's nipple bar being called gay.

That evening we went back to the hotel got changed at about 9pm, when I asked someone for the time I was told 9 o clock but after such a long day I thought it was 9am, I was in utter amazement at how it could still be pitch black outside at 9am.

We went to a bar then some of us left to go back to the hotel to catch up on some much needed sleep, Jon decided to join in with everyone else and refer to himself as Mr Jon, I was moaned at when I called him it on the bus but that seems to be the order of the day when everything I say offends.

And that was our first day in Laos, overall impressions are lovely country everyone seems friendly and the scenery is absolutely delightful.