This week has seen a glorious mixture of comedy journeys, new experiences and a little bit of pain...  We've moved down into the south of Laos and it's taken one overnight bus, two day buses, several breakdowns (transport and mental!) and a consecutively smaller set of tuk-tuks to get us here. The beginning of the week saw a return to Vientiane for a bit of capital city time.  The bus to get us there broke down twice with an alarming amount of black acrid smoke filling the cabin on both occasions.  Ah, the lovely aroma of burning rubber…  Very surreal to find myself sat on the tarmac of route 13 (main road through Laos) at 3.30am eating cucumber with a random selection of Europeans, Thai and Laotians, listening to a guy playing a guitar (band called Humble – anyone heard of it?!) and looking up at an array of stars.  Made it in one piece eventually and I promise not to bore you with any more bus journey stories… Moved south to Tha Khek to a beautiful limestone region where we intended to hire motorbikes and complete the 3-day loop as highlighted in the bible (aka Laos Lonely Planet).  After meeting up with a lass from Bolton who wanted to join us we set off…I managed to stay upright on the overgrown hairdryer for at least 2 hours before calamity struck.  Jenny skidded and completed a tricky somersault manoeuvre whilst trying to catch the water bottle that had just been propelled from the front basket.  I had two choices…… swerve in front of the large truck that was coming the other way or slow to a controlled stop so as not to hit her…  Obviously I did neither and went for a “bit of a wobble then fall sideways onto my leg whilst still sat on the bike” option.  Luckily Tim had sped off into the distance and so didn’t get the pleasure of seeing us lying across the road.  The truck didn’t stop either.  Git.  We continued for the rest of the day but passed on the 3 day idea.  Maybe next time?! Another awful bus “who needs treads on a tyre” journey has brought me to Pakse where I’m off to look at some coffee plantations tomorrow.  May even brave another motorbike….  Adios!