The bus ride from Siem Reap into Laos was going to take us a full day, from 5.30am to 6pm. We were prepared for this and ready to sit on a bus for over 12 hours. What we were not prepared for was the change over to small, old minivan, with a cracked windscreen and no air con, with a driver who felt it necessary to go on a long detour to deliver planks of wood to a farm in the middle of no where. This wasn't helped by the fact that 15 of us were squeezed into 12 seats. We did not make it to Laos for 6pm. Instead we got to Stung Treng, the last town in Cambodia before the Laos border. And here we were left and told that we had to continue our journey in the morning.

So the following day we finally got through the border and into Laos. After the border inspectors had taken additional money off us for stamps!! The cheek.

Our first stop in Laos was 4000 Islands, where the river seperates around "thousands" of islands. We loaded our bags onto a small wooden boat and were taken across to Don Khong, the largest of the islands. The island was very basic, with the few locals there living in bamboo huts with no electricity. We hired bikes and explored the local surroundings. The majority of the island was countryside and fields, with the odd bamboo hut. We rode past a guy building a new hut from scratch by himself. We spent one very peaceful night on Don Khong and the next day got another wooded boat across to Don Det. Don Det island was a little bit more lively but just as basic. Here we booked into a little wooden hut with a balcony on stilts over the river. The Hammocks were very relaxing:-) We spent the day out on the river in a boat, watching the locals fishing and the sun setting. Again we spent just one night here and the next day caught a bus north.

We had decided we would head straght to the capital (Vientiane). However, this was an 18hour bus ride. So we first caught a bus to Savannakhet, and stopped for one night and then the following day got a sleeper bus onto Vientiane.

In Vientiane we spent a couple of days applying for Thai visas. This would allow us 60 days in Thailand and would mean we wouldn't have to exit and re enter should we stay longer than the usual month allowed. For the capital, Vientiane was quite small with a few shops and some nice bars and restaurants. We enjoyed a couple of nights sampling the local food at the night markets and enjoying the local beer in the bars.

After we had collected our visas from the Thai consulate we booked onto a bus for Vang Vieng....TUBING!!!