Have been in Vang Vieng since the 27th. It's certainly different to anywhere else in Laos with stunning scenery, huge mountains, cave systems and of course the chance to go tubing down the river. We spent yesterday on a trip that took us to some of the caves, tubing (floating on a huge inner tube) inside some of the caves and then an afternoon of kayaking on the river. Today we did the tubing down the river. I don't think you could come to Vang Vieng without doi...

Got to Vientiane early yesterday after getting the night bus. Have enjoyed this chilled out and relaxed city since then. With the temperature at 30+C it's hard to think about it being Christmas Day but a lot of staff in the various restaurants are wearing Santa hats so that keeps reminding us. Everything is open as usual so we got our 60 day visas for Thailand sorted today as we will need longer than the usual 30 days you get on arrival. Had a lovely Christmas ...

Well, we managed to pull ourselves from our hammocks in order to leave the island and head into mainland Laos. We are now in Savannakhet having travelled up via Champasak and Pakse. The journey was by local style bus and a bit of a magical mystery tour. You had to change buses for different locations along the way and passengers were literally sold on to differenrt companies as you went. The longest journey was from Pakse to Savannakhet, about 6 hours. I didn't t...

Had a really quite straightforward crossing into Laos yesterday morning, with only a small amount of additional payment for stamping our visas. We opted to stay at one of the the Four Thousand Islands, Don Det and about as far South as you can get in Laos. We are staying in a bamboo hut that overlooks the Mekong River and the whole place is completely chilled and works at a romantically slow pace. Having walked right the way round the island yesterday afternoon (...

Had another early start yesterday to get the bus from Phnom Penh to Kratie in the North East Of Cambodia. The bus stops are amusing as you get to use the Asian style toilets (thank goodness they are badly lit normally) and to buy some fruit, water etc. The stalls have a range of stuff for sale but we have not felt the inclination to try the roasted crickets or giant spiders fried with garlic! Kratie is a really quiet place made up of basically three streets, one...