Phonsavan, stopping point for the Plain of Jars, an education in UXOs and the coldest hotel room in Laos. But only a brief stopping point, of a single day, so the impact of the latter wasn’t too painful. Despite good intentions to move from place to place less frequently and absorb our chosen destinations better, we worked out that with there being a further four parts of Northern Laos that we wanted to visit, less than two weeks to do so, and a full day’s jo...

I have accepted, mastered and now fully endorse the bum gun, the hand-held, high pressure hose that is Asia's alternative to toilet paper! Go on, screw your faces up in disgust, but I promise you I end up cleaner than you do, and in this climate things dry pretty quickly. And water is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than toilet paper. Only just thought of those two additional benefits, but definitely valid. This is my foremost comment on our time spent...

Luang Prabang aside, and maybe not even, Vang Vieng was the place in Laos we'd heard about most frequently, prior to arriving. And Vang Vieng tubing vests must be the most commonly worn garment we've seen on Westerners in South East Asia. You might love it or hate it, or love it and hate it, the Lonely Planet told us. Well, reservations placed to one side, we figured one has to find out about places for one's self. And I would say we liked it and loathed it. Per...

Sara and Matt left us the same day we arrived in Vientiane, on the 25th. And great fun as it had been travelling in a team of four for a while, Paula and I had also very much been looking forward to a couple of days of recuperation (which translates to basically doing nothing), having virtually moved non-stop since leaving Siem Reap three weeks earlier. Which is exactly what we did, hence I have very little to write about our time in Vientiane! Despite having the...

Paula decided to hunt for the diary. She had had it on Don Det, but hadn't taken it on our motorbike loop, so deduced that she must have left it either in Pakse or at our overnight stop following the infamous thirteen hour bus journey. A small town called Tha Beng, that we'd have to reach again anyway, to then continue north to Vientiane, a further four or five hours by bus. She managed to phone the guesthouse in Pakse, from the guesthouse in Ban Khoum Khan that...