After our last night in Vientiane, we got up, packed up our bags and left the guest house for the travel agent at the end of the road. After picking up some sausauge skewer things from a street cart for breakfast, we were soon loaded onto a tuk tuk and taken to the bus station some 8km from the city centre. After being dropped off, we were shown to our 'VIP' bus which was a big double decker coach which at some point may have been VIP but was now filthy and ...

The bus journey from Vang Vieng to vientiane was luxurious compared to that from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. The road was on much more level terrain, and the driver knew how to work the air conditioning. Thus, we were soon in the capital of Laos, and had to find a guesthouse. Hefting our bags onto our backs, we wandered through the streets in the heat, checking out a few guest houses before deciding on one which had a nice clean (if tiny) room and breakfast...

The packed minibus set off from Luang Prabang with us baking in the back seat, the driver refusing to put on the air con because we were going to be driving into the mountains where the air was cooler. He didn't seem to understand my argument about putting it on UNTIL we got into the hills, so we melted for the first part of the journey. Eventually though, we started climbing from Luang Prabang on winding roads through thickly jungled hills, and although the...

Once we were off the slow boat in Luang Prabang and reunited with Simone and Kai, we were instantly assailed by tens of eager Laotians trying to promote their guesthouses. Taking a few business cards, we ignored our way past the rest of the touts and made our way up the boat ramp and into town. We walked through the streets, between the beautiful if faded french villas which made up the old portion of the town, until we found a street with a high concentration ...

On our last morning in Chiang Mai we got up and packed, then had our breakfast whilst waiting for our pickup for our journey to Luang Prabang. A minibus arrived shortly, and we said our goodbyes to the staff and the dog at Green Tulip before hopping on board. We stopped at a few other guesthouses to pick people up, before leaving Chiang Mai. We got talking to a Scottish girl and an English girl, Patsy, on the bus as we headed north, through the countryside o...