Hello all!

Well we were very sad to leave Luang Prabang, such a beautiful place think we could have stayed there for the rest of our trip... or forever. Still time is very short, and with the halfway mark fast approaching and loads still to do we reluctantly moved on!

We got up very early, and a little bit groggy as we had been out for a few drinks the night before with Jamie and Jim, who we met on the boat trip. We packed in a bit of a hurry, checked out and caught a 'Jumbo' to the bus station (which was more of a dirt patch with some buses parked up). We were quite pleased with ourselves, as we managed to save quite a bit of money on the bus fare by getting a later bus, but could have stayed in bed longer had we known... grrr! The journey started off very nicely. The bus was air conditioned but didn't have a toilet like promised! We drove up into the mountains (the most amazing views) all of which was totally untouched and even stopped at a little traditional village. They live in tiny little woven huts (like the picture!) and it was really sweet to see, lots of chickens and ducks and kids running around. It was quite strange really, as there was a building that claimed to be a primary school, pumping out music from a HUGE set of speakers.

After sitting for a while, and stocking up on drinks etc we continued on our journey. However, after about 5 minutes we rounded a corner and came to a stand-still on the side of the mountain. There must have been around 20 trucks and buses stopped going in our direction, and we were a bit unsure about what was going on at first. Once we had pulled up (at the back of the queue) we got of to have a bit of an explore, and to see what was going on. After a short walk, it became very apparant...... LANDSLIDE!!!! We bumped into quite a few people who had left on earlier buses, the earliest had left Luang Prabang at 7am, and some had been waiting for at least 5 hours by the time we turned up. Apparantly at first there had only been a couple of men trying to clear the roads with shovels (in one persons words... working for 2 mins and stopping for 10), but by the time we got there, there was a bulldozer which had cleared away the worst of it! There was a truck who by the looks of it had been caught under the slide and was being pulled out by the digger. It had rained a bit and the road was so slippery it was just sliding around everywhere! It was quite funny to watch as the locals were on one side pushing to try and stop it from sliding, and not really doing to well... don't think its the best idea to get in the way of a 7 ton truck sliding towards you! As it started to slide backwards towards us we decided to leave them to it lol. We took a walk up to the nearest village a couple of km's away and got some fresh pineapple and one lady let me (Nina) use her toilet! Was quite interesting to see the inside of one of their houses. They are so simple with a wooden bench they all slept on and a tiny wood burner in the corner. The toilet was a little shack out the back with a hole in the ground! The funniest thing about these little wooden shacks, is that almost evey single one of them has a huge satellite dish out the front... somehow doesn't quite fit!

By the time we had got back to our bus we had been waiting around about 4 hours, getting extremely muddy and almost falling over alot. Ben almost lost a leg and shoe haha. The whole road was covered with mud for a good 2-3 km's with traffic backed up for almost as much again on either side, and we thought that it was looking like we were going to be spending the night! Eventually traffic started moving, although very slowly as each truck/bus would slide around the corners and have to be pulled out! Our turn came up and we thought wahoo, we're moving! However, when we got to the corner the bus started sliding sideways, the back end moving very quickly towards the very very large drop! We were bricking it as we were watching the edge getting closer and there were people standing to the side running for their lives to avoid being pushed off the side with us! Just as we thought we were going over, we came to a stop, diagonally across the road. We quickly vacated the bus and stood at a safe distance, watching the digger trying to straighten the bus and get it moving. After about 20 mins of pulling and pushing and sliding around it finally came free and the bus was towed up the road (with us running along to catch up with it!) It was quite an experience, one of those things you hear about in Laos but think it won't happen to you lol. Very scary at some points too but we made it!!! lol.

We were now about 6-7 hours behind schedule but happy to be on our way. We were quite gutted it was dark by the time we properly got going as we couldn't see all the views that were said to get better and better as the journey went on. Still we were very glad to not be spending a night sleeping on a bus, praying that no more landslides hit.

After an hour or so, we stopped in a small town, which was all closed down for the night, and almost pitch black as there were no street lights. Nina needed to use the loo again, and ran around madly looking for a toilet. I (Ben), seeing she wasn't having much luck, got off the bus to help and the bus driver pointed us to some stalls on the side of the road. We couldn't see what he meant as it was so dark, and presumed he didn't expect her to wee on somebodys food stall! After a minute of standing there, looking like lost sheep, they started beeping and shouting at us, to which I (Ben) told them to f*** off in not so many words. Still, seeing we had no choice, Nina stepped behind and into the toilet... well past her ankle, while I stood trying to block the view from the bus and give her a little bit of dignity. We got back onto the bus, very annoyed with Nina caked in crap. We were then told that there was a toilet on the bus that we could use (after being told for the entire journey that there was no toilet!!!). I think it goes without saying that we were livid, but could do little about it as they barely spoke a word of English! Luckily Neen had a spare pair of shorts in our daybag, and used the trousers to wipe the worst of the offence off her feet.... quite an experience that we hope wont be repeated!

Around 3-4 hours later, we arrived in Vang Vieng, and were dropped off at the side of the road, in the pitch black without a map. Ended up having to pay for a tuk-tuk to take us to a guesthouse, and then had to wake somebody up to check us in as it was gone midnight! Very grateful to find a room at that time of night, we got straight into the shower, and then bed (without dinner). We woke up the next day to find we had not picked the nicest place to stay as there were ants and mozzy's everywhere and when we stepped outside the door were greeted by the biggest spiders we have ever seen! They were so huge it was horrible. Ahhhh! We had some brekkie, checked out and then found a much nicer place. Very clean, sealed bungalow with tv, a/c and a proper hot shower (by proper, we mean that you dont have to stand over the toilet whilst washing lol). We thought we would treat ourselves after the mud and poo covered day we had!!!

Vang Vieng was surrounded by the most amazing mountains and karsts, sitting on a river bank. We mostly showered alot and sat around in a 'Friends' bar. They play Friends constantly, it was amazing (how sad are we? lol). The main attraction in Vang Vieng is to go tubing (floating down a river in a rubber ring), but after seeing the price we decided against it.... super duper expensive. Instead, we thought we would chill out for free and watch the world go by, quite a nice relaxed day!

The next day, having decided there wasn't a great deal to do without spending 500,000 kip a day (which really isn't as much as it sounds but is still alot to us), we decided to move on to Vientiane.

We have now arrived, and will tell you all about it soon, and upload some photo's =)!

TTFN

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