Did I say it would be an easy 22 hours down to the 4000 Islands? This is SE Asia so of course not. So after a chilled day eating and packing, the 3pm pick up arrives and passes and I start to panic that we will miss the actual bus down to Vientiane. Finally a clapped out, rammed minibus arrives and my friend and I squeeze on and naturally there are still a couple more pick-ups to do. Eventually, about 10 minutes after the bus should have left the depot, we are dr...

It was 100,000 kip (£8) to get the minivan from Phonsavanh to Vang Vieng which took 7 hours through the mountains and local villages and wasn't as bumpy as all the other roads I'd been on in Laos. From the bus station I grabbed a tuk tuk which dropped me off at Sengkeo Guesthouse that I had already booked for two nights but it turned out it would be cheaper to just turn up than book in advance. After initially been given the wrong room, as the old woman didn't r...

Having only spent one full day in Phonsavanh to see the Plain of Jars, this is a relatively short post. As is becoming usual it was a early start to wait for the tuk tuk pick up to take me to the bus station. Fair play to the driver to managed to squeeze 11 people on to his seven person tuk tuk, it was certainly snug. Once dropped off at the bus station a few kilometers away, we dumped our bags on the minivan and got a bit confused about not being given any tic...

So the journey to Luang Prabang was interesting from start to finish. It started with the agency who I'd booked the bus ticket through telling me that I wouldn't be on a VIP bus that I'd booked but a local bus but even then he wasn't too convinced that he knew how I'd be getting to Luang Prabang. When I got to the bus station I was actually told I was getting there by minivan, which was better as it would save two hours on the journey...or it was meant too. The r...

The crossing was a lot easier than I thought it would be, we flagged down a tuk tuk and managed to barter him down from 120 bahts each to 120 bahts for the two of us. This took us to the friendship bridge, which was so quiet and straight through the Thai immigration to hop on a bus that takes you over the bridge into Laos (at another cost of 20 bahts not that you have any other choice). And minutes later you're in Laos. The visa process should be simple but there...