Nong Khiaw, Muang Ngoi, Vang Vieng

Mornin'. Back to civilization. Spent 2 days in Muang Ngoi which is about 200km (or 4 bum breaking hours) north of Luang Prabang. Stop off at Nong Khiaw for some Noodle Soup with water buffalo meat. Muang Ngoi is completely cut off from the rest of the country - there are no roads leading there, there is no electricity supply or telephone cables. In fact the only contact with the outside world is a boat which belts up the Nam Ou river and coughs out its passengers on the beach landing. As you can imagine the place is absolute magic - situated in the middle of craggy limestone hills covered in thick jungle and a crystal clear river which runs by the town. The only accomodation is bamboo huts to be had for 1 Euro a night... The generators kick in at 6pm for 4 hours so people have a couple of hours TV and the Falangs have light by which they can drink their beer. Everybody is tucked up in bed listening to the crickets and assorted wildlife by about 10pm. Bliss.

Spent the second day tubing down the river with a Canadian, a Swiss and a French guy I met on the bus. It was MTV extreme sports weekend with the extreme parts being: Extreme slow river speed, extreme lack of air in the tube and extreme hypothermia towards the end of the 2 hour float. 4 Beerlaos later and the world was already looking better and my fingers had turned back to being white again.
Left Tuesday morning and took the fish finger express back to Luang Prabang. I call these pick-up trucks such because once you get off them you feel like a fish finger - coated in a layer of crispy orange dust. Then straight on Vang Vieng on the night bus, the driver of which is my new Top Trump favourite crazy driver, all I can say is that I am glad it was dark... Arrived in one piece like a James Bond Vodka Martini @ 2am.

Vang Vieng is the hang-out capital of Laos, stuck in the middle of some beautiful hills, littered with caves and every restaurant will offer to make your Milkshake / Pizza / Beer a "Happy" one. Which basically means they either sprinkle some weed or some magic mushrooms in to them... All for 30 cents more... Mmmm Green Milkshakes. Walked to one of the caves yesterday which was huge and right in the middle of it was a reclining Buddah, very spacey. Down below the cave was a beautiful blue lagoon, which was just what the doctor ordered after the walk. Spent last night on the roof of a restaurant ("Give Pizza Chance" - great name) lying on some cushions, hanging out with some people, looking at the stars and generally drinking lots of Happy Beerlaos :)

Fact: 20% of the Irish population is currently in Laos. I counted. Comment of one English guy: "Are there any Irish left in Ireland and did the last one turn the light off?"

Off to Vientiane tomorrow. "Top Trump Crazy Busdrivers" update to follow.