As I had already spent a few days in Bangkok during my organised trip in northern Thailand the days waiting for my Vietnam visa and getting the bus to Laos were basically spent being lazy and catching up with my blog, although it doesn't seem like it now as while writing this, I am currently just over two weeks behind and trying desperately to catch up.

I had booked a VIP air conditioned coach to take me to Vientiene (the capital) in Laos and was met at the hostel and told that only 10 people were booked on the bus. Great I thought as I would be able to take up a couple of seats and get a good night sleep. I was taken along to meet up with the other people travelling to Laos on the same bus and we waited around at what looked more like a car park than a bus station. Anyway, when the "coach" turned up is had been replaced with a 10 seat mini van and as you can imagine 10 people all with big rucksacks and most had an smaller day pack. There were bags everywhere in this mini van and with only 9 seats in the back and 1 up front with the driver it was a little cramped. Everyone was fuming, especially some American travellers, but no point moaning to the driver as it wasn’t his fault and he didn’t really understand anyhow.

The next 16 hours were spent with my knees tucked up under my chin and the only time that I did manage to fall asleep I was woken up along with the whole van to the sound of mud and gravel flying up under the wheels arches of the van as the driver must have strayed off the road a little bit. Then for the next hour or two I couldn’t help but watch the driver quite closely to see if he was nodding off. He wasn’t and maybe it was due to the M-150 (type of red bull) that he was drinking all the time.