Start of week 4

Hello all. I am now in Laos, arrived here yesterday. after a 10 hour drive we stayed over in a weird ghost town called Lacsao, everyone lived in wierd little huts and it was really really quiet and a bit creepy. not much to do either, and went to dinner on a restuarant named 'the only one', as it was literally the only restaurant in the town! i had 2 eggs for dinner, and then woke up and went down for breakfast in my guesthouse and was handed the menu... eggs, eggs or eggs? i went for the eggs, again, so now i'm all egged out.
After another 7 hours in the bus today we arrived in Vientiane which is the capital of Laos. the town is really nice, very calm and chilled out and everyone is very friendly. In some ways its actually more developed than Vietnam but its also very small and simple. I think we are going out tonight for a few drinkypoos and then i am getting up tomorrow at about 4.30am to watch the monks collecting alms, which will be heaps of fun with a hangover. not to be missed though.
So an update on the last few days. I think my last post was from Hoi An? after that we went to Hue which was only about 4 hours drive but worlds apart from Hoi An. Firstly, it was raining and freezing cold. well when i say freezing, it was probably about 15 degrees but im used to 35! it was also weirdly industrialised, it kind of reminded me of aylesbury which is not what i hoped for when i booked my tickets to the other side of the world! we went on a motorbike tour there which was fun, it took us further out into the country side through paddy fields, visited an ancient burial site and a Pagola/Pagoda cant remember which one. but it had The Happy Buddha Statue and lots of Monks everywhere. i think i am turning into a bit of a biker chick, i absolutely love riding on motorbikes! my driver had a lazy eye which was a little worrying but he was a nice enough chap! i got burnt on the exhaust pipe which was a bit annoying but it has left a really cool scar on my leg which makes me look hard so its fine. i'll just say it was from a motorbiking accident, no need to go into details. almost as impressive as my big brothers shark bite scar!
Then we got a sleeper train to Hanoi. it was delayed for quite a while so we had to sleep for a bit in the waiting room, we must have looked like such typical backpackers. when we arrived in hanoi we went straight to Halong Bay for the night, now it really was cold there. and again a little weird, it was a massive tourist resort but completely empty. The only thing we did there was a boat trip to the Halong Bay caves which was good. We had lunch on the boat which was AMAZING, i'm not usually a seafood person but i really enjoyed it. we had crab and prawns and squid (didnt eat that) and then this big old fish for main course, no idea what it was but it tasted good. The next morning we headed back to the centre of Hanoi where we went to a market and then went out in the evening to a shisha bar called dragonfly which was really cool, however there was a traumatic experience that night when we found a dying cat at the side of the road and an australian guy who said he was a doctor came over and decided the only thing to do was drop a large rock on the poor moggys head. he did it, the cat didnt die, he did it again, cat still not dead, third time lucky, the cats brains were splattered all over the pavement. (sorry to the weaker stomached readers.) anyway me and riana thoguht we should get rid of the remains of the cat to keep a bit of dignity so we put it in 2 carrier bags and wrapped it up in an old pair of tracksuit bottoms we found on the road and then put it in the bin. we then drenched our hands in antibacterial gel and went on our way!
The next day we were all hungover but thought we should get up and do something midly cultural so we went to Ho Chi Minhs musoleum. The taxi driver ripped us off and then when we got in they told us we had to pay because we weren't vietnamese! I thought this was quite racist but anyway we handed over our money and got in, walked around for a bit, saw an old house and a pond and then when we went to find the actual attraction (Ho Chi Minhs Body) we were told it was closed! major disappointment. That night we went out for dinner and a few of us ordered Hanoi beefsteak, mine came out fine but 2 of the girls meals were just pork steaks disguised in a brown sauce! it was so funny. they tried to send them back and the waitress said it was just different beef. it was definitley pork. but mine was good anyway.
I think thats everything up to date! ive probably missed out laods as usual, will post again soon but going to go and get ready for dinner now. Keep the emails and comments coming :) lots and lots of love xxx