Today was another day we planned on going tubing - however after breakfast at friends bar and a chat with our friends from Canada (Pat & Jen) we decided we weren't to bothered to go. (As when we planned on going it was more of a day party where as now its quietened down also money wise didn't want to stay the extra days) this lead us to booking our ticket to Thakhet a day early! We decided to book our ticket at 10:30am and we were packed and checked out by 12:00 for our bus at 1:30 - this is our longest bus so far at 11 hours! So that should be fun.....
We knew Pat & Jen were also leaving today and I wasn't surprised when we were on the same bus - we headed south for around 3 hours until we arrived at Vientiane north bus station, from here we got a tuk tuk and mini bus to the south station ad arrived around 7. Our bus to Thakek wast leaving until 8:30 so we camped out on a table with Pat & Jen and two French girls who are on our bus. We learnt a new card game (called president) and passed the time playing this, apparently beginners luck doesn't work as I lost most games! After this we went and got on our bus, meant to be a normal coach and turned out to be a sleeper - this is definitely the strangest but most comfortable bus I've been on! So half hour in and the lights go out, unfortunately the bus continues onto Pakse so I had to set an alarm - then it's the fun game of find an apartment at 1am which went ok as we followed Pat & Jen and asked if they had any rooms, unfortunately we had a miserable receptionist who said they didn't have any rooms ( I checked earlier and they had 7!). So we walked with the French girls for around an hour trying to find somewhere (being offered to sleep in a massage room by one place) but eventually we found a place, it's not a palace but a bed and roof! Now for a well deserved Sleep!