After having my proposal for a virtual learning environment rejected, I've spent the last 2 days just doing it anyway by cannibalising old computer equipment. I had already done most of the reading while in China so kind of know what I'm doing. This means 2 days of just clicking 'ok' or adding a detail here or there, like that Simpsons where Homer gets to work from home. Rather than replacing myself with a broom and going to see 'honk if you're horny' (I checked, it isn't playing), I thought I'd add another blog entry. First for the present - I got my box back! I think they'd had a rummage around in it out of curiosity, but everything seems to be there. After deducting about £8 for the final month's bills and end-of-contract cleaning, I got my deposit back too. That's the great thing about living in Thailand, even people who might try to overcharge you (letting agents, landlords, taxi drivers) are amateur compared to the rip-offs I'm used to from daily life in England.

The only downside was that I got the box after the public transport had stopped. Never mind, it wasn't overbearingly hot. After walking for about a mile I was ready to give up and just drop the box into the uni, but I was delighted when a girl on a moped pulled up and offered me a ride. Balancing on the very back with the box between us, she was able to weave her way across town and drop me off while holding a decent conversation in English. All smiles and off she went - there are so many times here when my faith in humanity is topped up, when you meet someone who just helps you because you look like you could use some help - no other motive. Unless it's a bit of foreigner celebrity, but I don't really think so.

So - back to Laos. I left the last entry after bedding down in Vientiane. I was told to meet the bus at 7am at the border to link up with the other people going to the conference, but I've got quite good at reading 'Thai Time' so at 7am I was just getting ready to go down for breakfast. At 8am I called one of the guys on the bus, and he was at the border with no sign of anyone. I had another cup of tea, and then took a look around some of the city before getting the bus. We still had time for a brew, and eventually we were put on and taken off various buses before being put back onto the one we'd first got on and leaving at about 1030.

I'd originally wanted to do this leg of the journey by boat, but the water level was too low. It's a real shame because the scenery is amazing, but the roads are terrible. I was glad to swap my window seat away and continue the journey in ignorance of the precipice we were screeching along. We had a Thai dubbed version of Mamma Mia to while the journey away, and I still can't get rid of the image of Pierce Brosnan singing "Lay all your love on me". Considering I'd only thought of him before as a greasy gigolo (Mrs Doubtfire) or James Bond, this was unusual. We then had a film about a mermaid who became a girl and tried to seduce a lifeguard. While the storyline seems rock-solid and up there with the 80s greats such as Overboard and that one where the guy falls in love with a mannequin (thinking about it now, it could just be called Mannequin), it was a modern film so the execution was lacking. My favourite DVD on a bus story is unattributed as I can't remember who told me, but it was a 15+ European bus journey where every bump in the (bumpy) road reset the disk, so they spent about 10 hours watching the first 15 minutes of the same film constantly repeating. You have to admire their tenacity, and wonder if anyone on that bus ever watched the end. Would you feel that you had to because you'd seen it so many times and needed to know the end, or would you just be sick of it? I really hope there wasn't an autistic passenger, otherwise they'd have had to sit on the bus at the end of the journey and watch the remaining film the same number of times they'd seen the start.

We stopped for lunch in Vang Vieng, but didn't see any of the tubing. This is one to definitely come back to, the idea of floating down a river in a giant tyre and being pulled into waterside bars along the way sounds very relaxing. Like Laos' answer to punting. There are rope swings too, it looks like somewhere which gets full of idiotic tourists but is still fun (though not anywhere near as extreme as this is demonstrated in the full moon party).

After 12 hours I'd finally succumbed to travel sickness, even after taking my miracle knock-out pills that you can only seem to buy in Thailand. We had a big formal welcome dinner with a dance and the ceremony of tying string on our wrists (see earlier posts) and then a cracking dinner. I think we got to bed at about 11. I was sharing with another teacher who kind of looks like the actor from Gimme Gimme Gimme, so it was nice to continue the ABBA theme from earlier. We had a beautiful hotel, only the second time I've travelled on an 'expenses paid' deal and I was very impressed (the other was an exam board in London, and they also did very well). Whether from the journey, meal, relaxed feeling or relief that all my visa and travel uncertainties had resolved, I was asleep in less than a minute and didn't wake up until I was running late for the start of the conference. What little I saw of Luang Prabang was impressive, and I could look forward to about a week there to see more of it.