We took a 7hr bus journey through beautiful mountain scenery, albeit very up and down and side to side so sleeping was impossible, to arrive in the town of Vang Vieng. It lies next to a river surrounded by towering stone hills (technical term - kirsts) which make the whole setting very picturesque, though typically it was overcast and fairly cold when we were there. Into this calm serenity chuck backpackers floating down the river on rubber rings, stopping at riv...

We caught a minibus from Chang Mai to Chang Kong ready to cross the border into Laos. After much crossing of rivers and filling in of forms and dodgy handing over of money we were finally in Laos and embarked onto the slow boat ready for a trip down the Mekong river. It was cramped and the seats were hard and we had to take it in turn sitting on the more comfortable floor before we arrived at a small town called Pakbeng for the night, only to find that they had ...