Hello from a very tired Holly & Matt...

We finally made it to Vientiane. After possibly the longest and most stressful journey that we have had so far we got to the capital this morning at 6am. The bus left Luang Prabang at 7.30pm and was incredibly uncomfortable. Poor Matt was so squashed in that we knew it was going to be a tough journey the minute we got on. At least it had air conditioning as many buses out here don't and you hav to rely on an open window. The driver was playing really loud Laos music and turned the lights off at 8 so we had no choice but to try and sleep. There were two Laos guys working on the bus in addition to the driver who checked our tickets (not sure why two people needed to do that?) and didn't seem to do anything else of any value except occasionally spray the bus with air freshener. The first half of the journey was very slow as there are no street lamps or anything that resembles light on any of the roads and we think we were heading in to the mountains as the roads were mostly uphill and really windy. It wasn't nice at all and we suddenly remembered then that we had been advised by others NOT to take buses at night in Laos because it is really scary. Doh!

About an hour in to the journey the driver stopped the bus on the side of the road for about thirty minutes. We were all starting to think that he had broken down, but it turned out that he was having a chat on his phone!! Matt finally snapped and went and asked him to turn off the ridiculous music which was blaring out and making the kids on the bus cry. He reluctantly turned it off. We had very broken sleep for the entire journey and just found it so hard to get comfortable. All the other bus and train journeys we have done so far have been okay and we've managed to get some sleep, but this time it was really uncomfortable.

We finally pulled in to Vientiane at around 6am and started to leave the bus. It was only then that Matt checked our shoulder bag and realised that the camcorder was no longer there. We panicked and were searching everywhere on the bus, but it had gone. It was definately in his bag when we got on to the bus and he kept it under his seat for the entire journey. We think that possibly the guy behind him or one of the Laos guys 'working' on the bus stole it. The funny thing was that the bag was done up afterwards, it wasn't left open or anything and the cable that we took with us to link our camera to the USB (and also to charge it) was in the top pocket of the bag and that was also stolen. So now we have not only lost our camcorder but we can no longer download our photos or charge our camera until we get a new cable. It really was the last thing that we needed after that dreadful journey.

We took a songtow in to the town and then had to wander around looking for a room to stay in as we hadn't been able to book one in advance online. We are now staying in a horrible little room with no windows for $17 a night which is a complete rip off and other than Hong Kong, the most expensive and nasty room we have stayed in so far! All the other hotels and guesthouses were full so we had to make do with it. The really bizarre thing is that we thought Laos was meant to be a cheap place to come to, but our experience of it has been more expensive than Thailand. Everyone is trying to rip us off all the time - we just want to get out of here now!!

We know that we have to have both good and bad experiences and that's what this trip is all about, but we seem to have had our full dose of bad experiences in the last 24 hours! After finding a room, we had a quick shower and some breakfast and then headed to the Tourist Police Station. We can't go to the normal police, you have to go to the Tourist Police as the regular police aren't interested in our problems. The policeman told us we had to go to the bus station and check that the camcorder hadn't been handed in there. We knew there wasn't a chance it would be there as it had so obviously been stolen from Matt's bag, but went there anyway and managed to find our bus and the driver. Of course, he didn't speak English so we had to beg one of the men from the ticket station to come and translate for us. He really didn't want to help us at all! We ascertained that the driver didn'd know anything about it, and even offered large sums of money to jog his memory... but nothing. Then we had the fun experience of trying to ask the guy from the ticket office to sign something to say that we had in fact been to the bus station to check as we wanted to give the policeman proof. He refused to sign anything at all as he thought we wanted him to sign to say it was the bus station's responsibility. After coaxing him for a while, we managed to get him to sign a piece of paper that said we had been to the bus station. Even writing this is frustrating me! (bear in mind, it's about 34 degrees outside so that adds to the frustration of the situation). We then headed back to the Tourist Police, filled in a form which we then had to pay ourselves to be photocopied (!) and handed it in to him (but we had to rush because the office closes at 12 for a 2 hour lunch break!!!). Now we have a form that we have filled in with no official stamp or anything (he told us we wouldn't need one) and are hoping that we may be able to claim on our travel insurance but we're really not sure if this is enough. We want to leave this place as soon as possible as we just can't afford $17 a night to stay somewhere we really don't want to be, but we are scared to leave the country in case the form we have been given isn't enough for our insurance company and then it's too late to get the right stuff. So we are stuck in limbo with no idea what to do or where to go and there is nobody to help us or advise us!!! We know that it will work itself out and we are both over tired and frustrated at how the day has panned out, but talk about everything going wrong at once!!! We are now ultra-paranoid and are keeping all our stuff close to us and jumping when people walk past us and stuff, it's horrible!

Please don't worry though! Just venting in the blog! Will let you know how things go as soon as we have any news. Lots of love from a frustrated and tired Holly & Matt xxxxxxx