Hello, Laos is proving to be much more stressful than I'd expected. Having stress with getting a new Chinese visa, which means I haven't got an awful lot of time to travel because I need to be back in Vientiane by Friday. Bus journey from Vientiane to Luang Prabang sheer and utter horror... only curves, curves, curves, sharp curves, blind curves. For 9 hours, we hardly ever spent more than 5 seconds going in a straight line. I still feel sea sick. Plus, there were loads of mosquitoes on the bus. I killed 10 but still got bitten severely in the only area of my body apparently not soaked (enough) in mosquito spray, the lower part of my arms. Got about 40 small bites on my right arm alone. And am now panicking severely about getting malaria, dengue fever, Japanese enciphalitis... it's easy being a hypochondriac in Asia. Luang Prabang is lovely and very relaxed. Unfortunately I've only got a day here; I was going to take the nightbus back to Vientiane but considering the road - that would be pure suicide. So I'm off again early tomorrow morning. Next entry will be from Vientiane, hopefully with a visa for China in my passport. Lots of love Jn x