Vang Viennnngggging It

Sooo... I haven't posted in about 11 days or so so there is a lot to tell. The last time I posted I think was my last day in Chiang Mai which of course was another mad night of drinking with Oli but to be honest it has been so long that I really do not remember anymore of Chiang Mai so I will move on to Chiang Kong. Oli and I got a bus (raw) to Chiang Kong which took roughly 6 hours and was dirty/horrible/nightmarish especially when hungover. At Chiang Kong we met these two french guys who I talked to extensively for 2 hours before getting some much needed rest before me and Oli caught the slow boat to Luang Kabang (maybe wrongly spelt) the next day. We slept, got some food (I got a bottle of Samsum - Thai Whisky -50%) and got on the boat. The seats were quite literally planks of wood stuck together with nails - verrry uncomfortable, but as it was the first day of the boat ride everyone ignored the lack of comfort and got drunk instead. At the back of the boat it was Dan's birthday and he was getting slaughtered! Me and his friends all got really drunk and by the end of the trip I was going down each row shaking hands with everyone on the boat, meeting them then moving on to the next bench. Of the 60ish people I met I remember Dan, Charlotte (who we actually met in Chiang Mai) Scott a lad from Kent, my Korean buddy, and Mr. Oreo and his wife. I may have missed out some people but it wasn't ,y finest hour for remembering such trivial things as names, just faces! After 7 hours of wasting me and oli hopped off the boat and climbed the rocky hill to a tiny authetic village in the mountain. We booked our hotel for the night (1 pound fifty for the night) and went out to get some food. Here we met the dutch guy who's name I don't recal althugh he had an unmistakable permenant grin and the 2 french dudes. There was also Shanti (or something) who was a cool thai girl and her dutch friend. We sat and chatted (drank) with them for a couple of hours before going for a walk up the hill. We met a group of thai people about our age eating the wierdest food, and, due to my drunkenness we sat and ate this weird stuff. They also gave as Laotian rice wine that inevitably made me throw up - Chunder Everywhere! In my defence it was about 80%. We went to bed then got back on the boat the next morning. The next morning I remembered maybe two of teh people I had met the day before which led me to be known for my forgetting which may have offended some people. But soon I was chatting and myself again and me, Scott, Oli, Shanti, Charlotte and our new norwegian friend played arsehole for aroud 5 hours. It got quite nerve racking though when Oli introduced the anti-semetic rule which involved alot of exclamations of 'I am not the Jew!' and 'Yes, Im Hitler finally, give me your best cards Jew!'

After the total 13 hours of travelling we arrived in Luang Kobang! Oli, as always, had to find the cheapest accomodation possible so he dragged me, hungover andexhausted around Luang Kobang for about an hour to find the cheapest hotel which was maybe 50p cheaper than the other hotel - no hard feelings Oli. We met up with Charlotte, Scott and the Norwegian and went out. N.B It is despicable that I can't remember the norwegians name as I travelled with him, just us, for 4 days or more, sleeping in the same room. We went out to get the most budget food qwe could find and then went out to a really cool bar where we got some shisha and chilled which was nice change. Due to the 11:30 imposed Kurfew we went back at 11:30 and played cards for a bit before me and Oli went home.

The next day when we woke up I made the first serious mistake of my travels and went to Vangvieng with the Norwegian instead of staying a day at the waterfall. I would say that was the biggest mistake I had made thus far. The bus to Vang Vieng took another 6 hours although me the N. and two swedish guys ended up turning it into a "who can take the msot Valium contest" with me taking only 1 to be responsible, the N taking 4 and two swedish lads take 10 each! Needless to say they couldn't get off the bud and me and the Nor. had to carry them off the bus where they must have slept it off. We went to find a hotel and then went out to discover Vangvieng - the party centre of Laos. I loved Vang Vieng but there is no way I can remember every night in Chronological order so I will describe the standard night and then tell the stories I remember.

In Vang vieng you wake at 3 o clock in the afternoon and go tubing. Tubing is a very deep river with swings, zip lines and diving platforms (yes please) and of coure lots of bars, beautiful women and druuuunk people. One stays there for 4 hours getting drunk and having loads of fun in the sun before heading back to get washed up before heading to Q bar to get your free bucket at 830. You drink you free bucket which has about 5 shot in it and loads of red bull before pushig on to Bucket bar to get another free bucket at 9:00. From then on you drink lots more buckets or about 80p each if you buy it from the right place, so you end up drinking about 5 buckets , if you're a man and so you get extremely drunk. You head back to the hotel at about 6:00 in the morning if you are on good form. Throughout the first 4 days, before I met my Emily I got with 2 thai girls who were living together** and one dutch girl**.
These 4 days were a massive blur as I got paid to feature in tourist videos with my dives (doing triple summersaults and such.) On the fifth day I bumped into Emily Gale** who I met raving once at fabric just before her holidays. I didn't recognize her at first but I soon recalled and we have been together since. The first night we danced together and got off but she went back to her room with Laura (the mean but lovely one) and Ellie (the sleepy but cool one.) The next day we bumped into each other and had breakfast together at the aussie bar where we met an aussie mother with her son lars 11 and her cute kidnap tempting daughter 4. The daughter squirmed all over me and we sat drank with them for about 4 hours. We bumped into Vicky our cool friend who I met one of teh nights and we slowly all got really drunk. The restof the day passed by us in a blur but we had so much fun. We got back to the hotel at 8 and went to my room where I threw up (don't worry there are photos.) Shortly after Emily started throwing up, after I woke her(rookie mistake) from some serious food poisioning. From then on, as her hero, we stayed together withl ots of crazy things happening. THe next night we had shrooms at Z bar - the bar where I had been working, promotoing. We had a craazy night but Emily in "her bubble" didn't stay out for long and went back to bed. I stayed out till 5 and went back, where Emily was waiting for me in her bed. We went up to my room and went back to my room and slept after a very trippy zoot my boss gave me. The next day we chilled and that night I made the biggest mistake I have made in years. I ate a whole bucket of shrooms and started to trip HARD. I met a guy who traded a handful for what I think was acid - stupid stupid Hamish! I began walking back to the hotel when I bumped into Oli and Emily. I told Emily what was happening and she took me back to the hotel. I lay in bed and that's when every tragedy that has happened to me started to recur and all of teh dead people came back to me. I stayed up all night with terrible hallucinations of Gavin and other people. I woulddescribe the rest of the bad trip but it was too horrible to reccount and i think it is more of a think I could talk about, not write about and above all publish. I didn't sleep all night and my Emily saved me that night. We have only been together (not 'together' in a 'give it a label' kind of way) for 5 days, but I owe her everything. We got to Vientienne where I am now sorting out my visa to get to Hanoi (Vietnam) so I can rejoin her, laura and ellie. I miss her.