Katie: You\'ll all be pleased to hear that we made it safely to Loas. No bus crashes. Our long journey of 12 hours on a bus was somewhat lengthy, but we had lots of room thanks to the Thai lady from the bus company who told us we were fat & so gave us a double seat each. Many thanks to her. The journey was somewhat nerve racking as the driver decided to drive the bus as fast as it would possibly go - I went for the \'close my eyes & hope for the best\' option. It worked & we eventually arrived safely in Vientiane. We explored a little & checked out the local monument, basically a glorified concrete arch in the middle of the road with what felt like an eternal flight of stairs to the top - very pleasant in the sweltering humidity. A good view of the city, although in my attempt to take a picture a local blew his whistle at me which I took to mean no photos. Not impressed. That afternoon I had decided that it was now time to remove my hair braids (which I had done in Bangkok) and as I\'m sure you an imagine, hair that has been in minature plaits for over a week causes much amusement when removed - imagine if you will a blonde Jimmy Hendrix & you\'re there. Also in our 2 days in the capital we went to a Buddha garden - we bargained with a tuk tuk driver for a good deal (bearing in mind this garden is 27km away) & in we climbed (with somewhat amusement) into our tuk tuk - or so we thought. Turns out we were in the wrong one & had only agreed on a good price because our tuk tuk was the smallest, slowest & in general, crappiest tuk tuk in S.E Asia. On attempt to pull away, I swear our tuk tuk did a wheelie, much to the delight & pride of the driver - we were clearly his favoured (and probably heaviest) passengers ever. We must have only topped 25 mph (only when going downhill) the entire way... we were over taken by nearly everything. Other tuk tuks laden down with people, mopeds with a family of 4 on them, cars, trucks, tractors... basically, anything with a motor. It took us over an hour to reach our destination, our pride & bums very sore once we did. Also please bear in mind the roads in Laos are possibly the worst in the world. This situation aroused much laughter from the locals the entire length of our journey, there & back. Well worth the humiliation though! We quietly made a swift departure from Vientiane the next morning up to Vang Viene. Another nail biting bus ride up & down mountains at alarming speeds - it was however a relief to find seat belts, although only to discovered they\'d all been severed with a knife. It was at this point I did wonder whether our lives might come to an end soon. But we did make it, safe & sound to Vang Viene. An incredibly small down but very pretty. We stayed our first night in bungalows on the river in the shadows of the mountains - very picturesque! On our first full day we decided to hire bikes & explore a little ourselves. I would not recommend to anyone to hire pushbikes (not mountain bikes, something made probably in the 50\'s - imagine the bikes the kids in ET had & you\'re getting close. Basket included) and then attempt to cycle them across dried up paddi fields. Unless you don\'t want to be able to walk the next day & be fairly sunburnt. It wasn\'t the best idea we\'ve had yet. Still, we live & learn. Yesterday we got up early to try & beat the midday sun and we hired inner tubes to go down the river. We were dropped off by a free tuk tuk (better than the one in Vientiane, although it wasn\'t hard to beat) about 10 mins up the road. Because the water level was low due to the dry season, the rapids made for an interesting ride - with yet again, very sore & scraped bums. Which seems to be a recurring theme on our travels. We stopped off for a beer on the way & saw a man with a dead (we hoped) snake... at one point the water was so slow moving, I was volunteerd by my ever so wonderful friends, so get off & push/pull (whichever I decided, they said) them downstream. I, being the dutyfull friend I am, obliged - and it still took us over 3 1/2 hours to make it back. The things us westerners will pay good money to do! Today we\'ve just hungaround the river reading our books & occasionally playing in the river like small, Loas children. Tomorrow we\'re going kayaking... who knows what adventures that will bring! And it is here my story ends...