Hey all, Arrived back in Thailand a couple of days and am in Chiang Mai in the north, but will update about our time here later. Better write about our last destination which was Luang Prabang in Laos. We came from Vang Vieng on yet another "VIP" bus which wasn't VIP at all and was a 6 hour drive through the mountains which felt more like an endurance test most of the time as we swayed from side to side. One woman decided she couldn't hack it anymore a...

Vang Vieng is the ultimate chillout and/or adventure town in Laos. We arrived after a four hour journey through the mountains to be greeted by a town full of guesthouses, bars and restaurants and limestone cliffs as a backdrop. All the restaurants have raised platforms with cushions to chillout on and all show episodes of friends all day so we spent our first afternoon doing exactly that as there's not much more to do! The next day we signed up for 'tubing' whi...

So, time to update about our 24 hour bus journey from Hanoi to hell! We set off from our guesthouse at 5.30pm in a taxi to the 'bus station' which turned out to be one bus down a side street next to a dodgy travel agency. After taking one look at the bus we knew we had been conned out of $25 for a luxury bus as this was anything but luxury! We sheepishly boarded knowing we would have to spend the next 24 hours stuck in it and managed to get ourselves some front r...