An early start today. We waited for our Tuk Tuk, which was late, but we arrived just in time for the bus. Unfortunately we were in the back row on a local bus. We had to laugh as we were repeatedly launched off our seats as the old bus bounced along. The sort of bouncing that puts your stomach up near your throat somewhere. The seats were ripped & people were packed in everywhere & yet it was somehow more comfortable than the VIP bus yesterday. We had a b...

Nothing too exciting today although it feels like that has been the case for quite a while now. We headed off in search of a place to have our clothes washed after breakfast, but after walking about 5 k's around town in pretty hot conditions we gave up. We gave the clothes to the hotel , which we had been trying to avoid as they were a little expensive, & returned to our room. There isn't really anything here in town to see unless we headed out to rivers &...

A sleep in again followed by packing & our final trek down the stairs. We left our bags at the bottom then went for a great feed at the bakery near our hotel. We returned to wait for our 12pm pickup which didn't arrive until 12.30pm. The mini bus then took us out of the city where we stopped on the side of the road. So much for departing from the bus station. Of course when the VIP bus arrived most of the seats were full but a lovely Chinese guy moved seats s...

Not needing to rush out today we slept in then began the descent down to ground level. We made our way to a bakery for breakast then sat in the shade people watching. We stretched it out for an hour before going to a book exchange so Jac could get some reading material for the next week. It was then time for a 2 km walk to the Cope centre. Set in the rehabilitation grounds of the hospital the centre explains the devastating effect that cluster bombs, or bombies a...

We were picked up by our mini bus at 9am. Being the first to be onboard we chose seats at the front to be able to stretch our legs a bit. They filled up the bus over the next half an hour before setting off to the capital, Vientiane. The road was nowhere near as windy as the trip to Vang Vieng but it was just as rough. Crazy to think this is a national highway. After an hour & a half we had gone half way so stopped at a little cafe for a rest break. After 10 ...