We got up early this morning as our bus was supposed to pick us up at 8.30am. We sat outside our guest house waiting, the owner offered to ring the company at 9.00am as they hadn't turned up yet. Whilst talking to him we asked how bad the roads were, he said he used to drive the buses on this route and there are 3600 corners, argh! Still at 9.45am there was no sign of anyone so he rang again. At 10.00am a tuk tuk turned up and a guy on a scooter, this was for us. We got in the tuk tuk and the guy who came on the scooter said "so the bus has gone, you will go on a minibus now". Well this didn't go down very well, what had happened was we had booked the bus as a four with Sam and Steph and the tuk tuk driver "hadn't realised" there should be two more people from a different guesthouse so didn't pick us up. After 20 minutes of angry conversation about how they were going to fix this situation they gave us our money back and arranged for us to get picked up at 1.30pm to go on a minibus as there are no more buses going until 7pm tonight. This was the best solution we could get, now we have to go back into the guesthouse and wait. We sat for a while and explained the situation to the owner, he couldn't believe it either. We sent a message to Sam and Steph because we were supposed to be on the same bus! We thought they would get it when they get there and we could find them again in Vang Vieng. We decided to go out and get something to eat seen as we had time to now, we've had no breakfast and wouldn't get lunch so it makes sense. We made our way back to the hotel for just before 1pm so we would be well in time. At 1.15pm we sat outside then at 1.20pm the tuk run guy from earlier came to pick us up. He said the guy that came on the scooter earlier told him to come "now, now, now", I think James had definitely got through to him we were not happy! We got taken in the tuk tuk to the bus station where we saw the minivan. It didn't look too bad, our bags were put on the roof and we put our smaller bags on seats inside. Luckily we managed to get the seats behind the driver then James could have extra leg room. We sat and waited for everyone else to turn up, a french family of five came and a couple of locals. Our bags were wrapped in tarpaulin then tied on then netting over the top then tied again, this was the first sign it was definitely going to be a bumpy ride. Whilst waiting the older girl from the family sat in one of our seats, James pointed out that we were going to be sitting there, she just rolled her eyes at him. After the morning we've had this wasn't great, James pointed out that he was tall so needed the extra leg room and she just shouted "I'm just sitting here for now". James said ok but when we set off we will be there, the dad of the family said for everyone to calm down, James then told him of our morning and how it always seems to be the smaller people who need extra space. I think he understood a little. We all got in the van, the van could take 12 people but we only had 11, but the spare seat was between the older girl and the five year old. So James and I were sat on a row of three with a local, the dad of the family realised it was a little unfair so asked the local guy if he wanted to move back a seat, which he did. Finally settled we set off, the roads pretty quickly started winding up round corners, where the air con was turned off for extra power, then down round more corners with the air con on. We'd been going for a couple of hours when we stopped for a toilet break, but this just meant we were at the side of the road and there were some bushes. We got back in and set off again, it wasn't long before the family were asking to pull over again, the little girl had been sick. There are that many twists, turns, ups and downs that it is not surprising. We got back in and set off again, the driver had sick bags with him which was good because the two smaller children were sick again, no pulling over this time. After another 45 minutes ish the family were asking for another stop, we pulled into a restaurant place. I didn't mind this time because this place had an actual toilet. We set off yet again, another hour went by and the roads were getting a little better then we stopped at a roadside cafe place and the driver said dinner time. This meant everybody out while the driver eats his dinner with his girlfriend who's been travelling with us. Shocked this was actually happening we just sat at a table and waited. We were only 45 minutes away from Vang Vieng! Back in the van again we did the last 45 minutes and reached Vang Vieng bus station at 8.15pm. James had looked up a few places where we could stay so we chose one and asked to be taken by tuk tuk there, hoping they have a room. We got to it and they did have a room for about £4.50, basic but ok. We had wifi at our place too so we checked our messages, they had sent one back saying where they were staying. We sent a few messages back and fourth and they were coming to meet us as we needed to eat something. We got some food and Sam and Steph showed up. We started with what happened today? They said they were forgotten too and got to the bus late, the bus wasn't a VIP bus which we'd paid for but a 25 seater with no toilet. They were given some money back for the changes, they were expecting to see us there but were surprised when we weren't. They tried to tell the tuk tuk driver and the bus driver that there were two more people but they set off at 9.30am anyway. It looks like all four of us were stitched up! Plus Sam said she'd been sick for a big part of the journey and there were no sick bags on board, she luckily had one carrier bag. What a day we've all had, we've decided to take it easy tomorrow and save tubing for the day after.