So Long to the Dong & Sabaii dee to my trip with the Kip

A little explanation of the title perhaps, Dong is the currency for Vietnam and the Kip is the currency for Laos. Sabaii Dee means 'Hello' in Laos.
12th July Left Hanoi & Vietnam today after a 22 day visit and flew to the Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Met 4 lads from Kilkenny on the flight and shared a taxi into town. Most of the accommodation in town was full and could not take 5 of us so I left them as I felt they would have it easier with a smaller group. I checked in at the very next place i visited for E5 per night and went out for dinner and a beer, a right of passage for any traveller arriving after a long days travel.
13th July I took the self guided walking tour around Vientiane today to see the sights. Its a pleasant enough place but not much going on. I booked my ticket to go North to Viang Veng, a place popular with backpackers.
14th July Arrived in Vian Veng today, a town famous for its 'Tubing' down the river. This is a real backpackers haven with loads of internet cafes, restaurants and bars. There are loads of places playing Movies, Freinds, Family Guy and the Simpsons continuously. I checked into the Champa Lao Guesthouse for E2 per night and it was a great spot. Situated on a cliff edge overlooking a bend on the river propped up by stilts, it has great views. Didn't do much today, just chilled out, had a look around and got to know some of the other residents.
15th July Went Tubing today with Brendan, a lad from Bantry today. Tubing involves floating down a fast river in a truck tyre tube and in the case of vian veng stopping off at the various bars along the way. The bar owners throw out a rope for you to catch and drag you in for a beer. We drifted down the 4km stopping off at a few of the 13 bars. The bars are a simple affair usually on stilts with swinging trappese type swings over the water and with a big cheer, one lets go and falls about 20 ft into the river below. Many people get rat arsed drunk and god knows why there're arent more drowned. Last night at the hostel we heard a girl screaming for help. She was clinging to a bridge below, had lost her tube and was very drunk. She had stayed too long at a bar and hopped into her tube as it got dark, lost her way and then lost her tube. She had decided against a life jacket too. Her 2 other freinds were missing and saw a search party in motorised canoe heading out to look for them. There are countless staff selling the trips but none at the end, helping people out of the water or checking off tubers that have arrived back. I pulled an American family and 2 dutch girls out another day that has missed the badly signposted exit. Thats the 3rd world I suppose and why its cheap.
16th July I wanted to do a short motorbike trip today but the rain was crazy. Our river burst its banks today and flooded nearby paddy fields and made some roads impassable. A bamboo bridge passed by in the water today as we ate breakfast. Watching from the balcony, it crashed into a bridge below to really loud cracking noise and we all cheered. It was amazing to watch. Monsoons are mad.
17-18th July Still in Vian Veng, pissin rain. Water level rising and watching freinds and family guy. Its OK though, lots of other backpackers hanging out, chatting in a great relaxing atmosphere.
19th July I decided to get the bus to Luang Prabang today, 135km North of VV. While I was waiting for the bus and watching the water levels rise, about 2 ft per day, there was a huge thunder type noise. I looked around and the whole cliff side of our guesthouse had fallen into the river including 3 chalet bungalows. I watched the bungalows float down the river and take out 2 bridges with it. The bungalows were evacuated last night. I had to laugh though, it was just the unbelievable spectacle of it all. I felt sorry for the management though (a mother and 2 sons) as their bungalows, their bridge, their concrete staircase and the site they were all on were all on their way down the river smashing up everything in their path. After all that drama my bus pick up arrived and I was on my way to Luang Prabang. Thought id get out while the going was good. On the journey the bus was weaving its way around avalanches on the road and all kinds of earth moving and farm machinery out moving earth off the only highway through the country. Its a very scenic road built by the french through the mountains. It was 300km and took us 7 hours. The bus was carring more people than seat and had plastic chairs all along the aisle with locals sitting on them. A nice finnish girl was put sitting up front on a collaspable chair beside the driver and his male assistant sitting on the steps the other side. She was obviously not enjoying it and i offered my nice proper seat to her. She was delighted and Ive been reaping the rewards of my kind gesture ever since. We (a finnish + english girl and an ozzie lad) arrived in LP & after the usual Tuk Tuk arguements we checked into a nice place. LP is a lovely town and I had my first glass of red wine in an age. It was a Chilean Shiraz and we paid E12 for it. I couldnt help thinking the waiter that brought it to us would only earn that amount in 3 weeks.
20th July Walking around LP today I was disapointed to learn that motorbike rental was not permitted in the town. They said it was due to the high rate of accidents but i felt it was more to do with the fall off in demand for tours etc to the locally located attractions. The roads were lovely around LP with nice little villages and photo opportunities rarely exploited on the back of a whizzing tuk tuk. I visited Phu si Hill to see a view of the town and the local Museum housed in former kings palace.
21st July Went to Tat Kuang Si waterfalls which was good. The falls are not particularly big (150 metre fall) but due to the high water levels in the area they are quiet spectacular. A staircase had been cut into the rock alongside the waterfall and as you walk up the stairs the water was gushing down them. Everyone got soaked but I had my 50 cent rain jacket in my bag. I decided to head back to Thailand along the Mekong river on a 2 day boat trip. While in the booking office a spanish couple on my waterfall trip came in and were telling me to go very early to the boat to get a good seat as it was 12 hours.
22nd July Arriving at the boat an hour early i got a great seat with lots of leg room. The boats were modern versions of traditional boats with car seats as the passenger seats and about 30% of them were hard benches. It was great, the views of the forest and riverside tribes were quiet amazing. It was a long 12 hours and thank god for a tatty Jeffrey Archer book i picked up in the guesthouse. 'As the crow flies' is a book about a young lad that builds up a property empire. Felt like I was back at work. Arrived at 'Pak Beng' 12 hours later, slower than it should be as we were travelling upstream in the wet season, and checked into a crappy place for E2 per night. Funny how ones mind set changes while travelling as i turned down a luxury hotel for E15 per night (a months wages for a local) and was quiet happy to save the difference. PB is a real outback place, with no electricity supply so all the electricity is generated by diesel generators. They turn them on at 5pm and they are switched off at 10.30pm. If you are not in your bed by then the place is pitch black. PB was muddy as hell and I could not walk in my flip flops as they kept coming off and getting wedged in the mud. I walked the mucky streets in my bare feet and felt like a local.
23rd July Lashing rain and mud squidgeing through my toes, I headed for the boat this morning at 8am and perilously decended down a muddy embankment with 15kilos on my back and 5 kilos on my front. Got onto our boat and it was nothing like yesterdays. It was all narrow teak benches and put up with it for 12 hours. Everybody ended up sitting and sleeping on the floor as we made our final journey up the Mekong towards the Laos/Thai border town of Huang Xai. We missed the 5pm deadline for the thai border so spent the night in HX. Had a dodgy Indian curry that night and the toilet has been my closest freind for the last day or two.
24th July Bearing in mind my delicate condition, I had sticky rice (rice mixed with gluten) for breakfast, a great way to clog up the digestive system and finally left Laos. I crossed the Mekong river (the border) in a motorised canoe to Thailand. It was good to be back to civilisation but i will miss Laos. It was a lovely primitive country with laid back freindly people which had a positive knock on effect on the tourists.
We got a bus that took through every two bit town and village on our way to Chang Mai (the capital of Northern Thailand) & hours later we arrived in the rain. We (me and an aussie lad called Mark) started negotiations with a plethora of tuk tuk and taxi drivers and after an arguement broke out between 2 of the drivers over one lad under cutting another we quickly exited in the back of our pick up truck taxi on our 3km (E1 each) journey into town. Our prefered guesthouse was full but got another place easy enough.