The place we stayed in the last night of huay xai was just vile. There was bed bugs in the first room mart didn't understand why I was making such a big deal but there was no chance I was sleeping in there. So we moved.
So so hot - never realised the difference between a room with a fan and air con!
We had breakfast struggled to find a tuk tuk to take us to the airport. Weirdest airport I've ever been to. It's tiny tiny for one to check in I ha to climb over several boxes. Then airport security no body manned so I went through the metal detector with my bumbag still on and beeped but no one payed any attention. We saw one man actually walk around the metal detector. Passport control was a man sitting on a chair writing our names and passport numbers old school on a piece of paper. Departure lounge was a small bench to sit in whiles sweating in the heat..surprisingly no duty free. Plane was tiny also but the flight only took 55 minutes to Vientiane. There so healthy here the snack they gave us on the plane was dried fruit!

Arrived in Vientiane..it's a lot busier than the rest of Laos but nothing on a Vietnam scale. We thought we'd better book our bus to Bangkok for the day following and ran into a slight problem...
We barely even know the date/day let alone that it's thai/Laos new year..for a whole 8 days...which means all of the buses and trains are fully booked for the next 2 weeks. Crap.
So instead of a £28 bus journey for the 2 of us we we're looking at over £250...ouch. We tried all various options and didnt really have a choice.
We trawled Vientiane for a patch and pin with no prevail (praying the airport has one!) and went through the markets ate street food and then set up camp in a bar armed with the laptop an wifi..
We booked our flight to Bangkok (slowest wifi in the world btw!) staying there for 3 nights..strange how Bangkok just feels familiar to us now..known territory. It does also mean we are there for the start of their new year songkran..water festival. It's basically a giant water fight which is meant to cleanse you of all sins from the previous year.
We then managed to book our flights to Macau..also tricky as we had to make sure they didn't hit the weekend at all as the flights and hotels went up a lot in price. So all is sorted for now! A new day a new country! Realllllly excited for Macau have been for a while! On the home stretch now!
Up early to sort out tuk tuk to the airport..catch aeroplanes like buses these days! Atleast this hostel doesn't have bed bugs like last night. Grosse.