A lazy day.

We had a lie in and checked out of our room at 11am, then found a little restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast we wandered to another restaurant which overlooks the Mekong river, where Vix and I had an iced coffee and Vicky had a Beerlao (the Laos beer). We sat there for three hours in the sunshine just reading and writing and relaxing.

We then found yet another restaurant where we had some lunch, I had stir fried green veg and rice, it was actually one of my nicest meals yet.

On the way to get the bus we stopped to buy some snacks, and the shop sold snake whisky - a bottle of whisky with a real dead snake inside, which according to the label cures rheumatism and aching limbs. There is no way I could drink that though!

We went to get the bus, but had to get a transfer to the bus station about 7km away in a truck.

The coach for the journey to Luang Prabang was supposed to be VIP but it wasn't as nice as the one we got to Chiang Mai last week. I thought I was going to get two seats to myself until we started moving, and then some Laos guy appeared from nowhere and sat next to me. He had an unusually long thumbnail which was weird, and he seemed to think it was ok to completely invade my personal space, even putting his leg over me at some point. He also kept his nose completely buried in his jacket all the time as if I smelt really bad. When his jacket kept falling off his face he put a tissue over his nose to shield him from the germs I was clearly emitting.

After a few minutes travelling, we stopped again and picked up another 7 Laos people, along with loads of their boxes and a small tree. The bus was already full so by this point there was not actually any room for anyone to move, it was pretty bad!

The journey was through the windiest, bumpy roads ever. Apparently on straight roads it would take 5 hours but it takes 12!

I hurt my coccyx last February and it still hurts on long journeys, so the pain of that coupled with thumb man meant I didn't get much sleep.

When we arrived in Luang Prabang it was 5.50am, and still dark. Everyone was tired and confused so we all got overcharged for trucks into town. In town, we saw an other truck which had fallen onto its side in the middle of the road so I'm glad that wasn't us!

All of the guesthouses we tried were full, so we're in a coffee house passing the time until late morning when we might be able to find a room. It is 7.30am now so I suppose I've overlapped onto the entry for the 31st Jan, but I'll pick up where I left off tonight!

xxx