So following on from my last post...Not much happens in Luang Prabang. Our guesthouse was by the river so had quite a nice view from the shared balcony...if not for the masses of power lines that snaked around the electricity posts in what looked like spaghetti junction - definitely not safe!

Anyway, the day we arrived we went for a wander around and priced up some buses over to Hanoi, Vietnam. We had decided that we were going to spend 2 nights in Luang Prabang, giving us two full days which we thought would be plenty of time. Little did we know how right we were!

We rose early on Thursday and decided we were going to get some bikes to ride around LP, as it is relatively flat and small, and a bike is the quickest way to see most of it. Well off we set along the riverside, and halfway to our first destination Nina gets a flat! Well that wasn't a good start - we trailed back to the bike rental place, got it fixed (at least it was free!) and set off again. Now apparently LP is a UNESCO world heritage city, with 'an outstanding example of the fusion of traditional architecture and Lao urban structures with those built by the European colonial authorities in the 19th and 20th centuries'. Now we saw some nice buildings but I'm not sure how it deserves this status! Despite this it was a pleasant cycle round the river side - the town sits on the river banks of the Mekong and its tributary the Nam Khan. We saw a couple of temples then decided we were going to go to the museum and try get some culture. The museum was quite interesting - it's actually the ex-Royal palace, which as Laos no longer has a Royal family it was strange to see how much they revered them since they were overthrown by the Communists. But that's beside the point.

By mid-afternoon we'd seen all there was to see and thought we'd try book a bus for that evening, no point staying Laos longer than necessary if there was nothing to do! Bad news though, it was full so we had to book for the next day. For the rest of the day and the next day we basically mooched about, I finished a book and found a new one in a book swap place, had a wander round the night market and generally wasted time until our pick up for the World's Worst bus journey at 5pm.

Now we'd been told that this bus trip was going to take 22 hours over the border. Now that's bad enough but try nearer 27. It got off to an auspicious start when the tuk tuk didn't arrive to pick us up, so I had to run down to the travel place we'd booked from and remind him! We got to the bus station at 5.30, only to find the bus wasn't even setting off until 6.30, so we already had an hour to wait before we could get going.

The bus was a sleeper, which in theory sounds great as they seats are a bit like sun loungers with long leg rests, however Nina's side of the seat didn't have an armrest so she was in constant fear of rolling off the side. No fun there! We watched a hilarious martial arts film with the worlds worst Lao dubbing for a couple of hours then I read my book. Now in general I don't sleep well on public transport, something about it being a bit chilly (even with the blankets provided), the fear that every time the bus stops someone is going to run off with our luggage in the hold, and the general discomfort of the seats, but this was about 20 times worse than anything I've ever experienced. To start there were vomiting Laotians left right and centre, and someone hurling into a plastic bag behind your head makes it difficult to relax. By approximately 9pm I started to need the loo. Now I'd purposefully not really drunk anything as didn't think there would be many toilet stops and there were no toilets on the bus. This did not help my attempts at sleep. Anyway by about midnight I dropped off into a fitful sleep, waking up everytime the bus stopped to pick someone up or drop someone off. THERE WERE NO TOILET STOPS. I was literally about to die, and whoever invented Chinese water torture is one clever man. I would have spilt Government secrets to go to the loo!

About 4am I was half awake, at the time of day when there is no light, everyone is asleep on the bus and we're plummeting along a mountian road with fog and mist everywhere. It was pretty depressing and the kind of time I start to worry about things and generally make myself miserable. At that time I was about ready to call it quits I was missing home so much - my toes were freezing, I needed the loo and just wanted a hug, but alas that was obviously not to be! Anyway about half 5 in the morning the bus randomly stopped, amongst a large selection of lorries. There was no explanation, the engine was just turned off and I sat staring out the window for an hour or so until I couldn't take any more and asked the driver if there were any toilets nearby. He just laughed and pointed down the road. Well let me tell you, tramping down a muddy road in the almost dark, foggy and cold mountain road looking for a hill to wee behind is not enjoyable. The relief was unfathomable though. I trotted back to the coach a little lighter of heart, and found out the reason we'd stopped is becuase we were at the border... which didn't open until 7.30. Well we weren't told this by the travel agent!

By 7.30 we still weren't moving so walked over to the immigration with a girl called Mika who was on the bus with us - everyone else being from Laos or Vietnam. Immigration was fine, and they even changed our left over kip for us, after a minor misunderstanding! Sadly we still had to wait another 45 minutes for the bus to trundle through the inspection bay and get back on - since we'd left Laos and entered Vietnam we couldn't get back on earlier. D'oh! From 8.45 we set off - finally in Vietnam - and the rest of the journey was without incident, apart from being totally starving by the time we arrived in Hanoi as we'd eaten all the food we had taken with us.

Lessons from Laos

• If you do not let go of a zip wire before it hits the buffer at the end, you will do three unintentional backflips into the river, and your neck WILL ache the next day.
• Chopsticks are the most ridiculous utensil ever, and not the friend of a hungover person.
• Lao people get horrendous travel sickness and like to vomit in bags and throw them out of the window.
• People lie about journey times.
• Laotians must have the most flexible achilles tendons in the world with the crazy crouched positions they sit in.
• Hocking up massive phlegm balls at 6am really loudly is acceptable - particularly outside our windows...
• The cats have a particularly weedy miaow.
• The men have a tendency to have a disgusting massive fruit nail on their little finger - it's not a good look!
• I still don't know whether it is Laos or Lao P.D.R, officially...
• Take more food than a sandwich on a long trip, and possibly get a catheter fitted.

Much more to update you on as we've been in Vietnam a week so I'll get a shifty on!

Becca xx