Vang Vieng: Famous once for its partying and tubing, I expected a very generic backpacker place. Although the town itself fitted my expectations, the scenery beyond was incredible. Huge limestone karsts set amongst the green Namkong river and low lying rice paddies. We opted for tubing on the first day so we rented 2 old black tractor inner tubes from the scariest laos people we have yet to meet. Only one shop in the town rents the tubes, and you can see why... Y...

Crossing the border between Thailand and Laos was very backward. We arrived at a shack on the Mekong river, officially exited Thailand and hopped on a small boat which crossed the river to Laos. We filled in the visa form and waited for our name to be called amongst all the other flashpackers. Our names were finally called 45 minutes later from the small window and we paid our $35. We were told the slow boat to Luang Prabang left at 10, then 10:30 and at 11:30 we...