Monday 22nd October - Vang Vieng

We left Phonsavanh towards Vang Vieng down what seemed like the wiggliest road in the world. We had been warned by the guidebook, but none of us were prepared for how bad it would be on this part of Route 13 - I had to stop to say hello to my breakfast again, and we were all quiet during the torturous 140 km journey, concentrating hard on the road ahead out of the front window, although at least we weren't on a public bus.

We arrived with much relief in Vang Vieng and checked into the Kamphone guesthouse, which had enormous rooms (they could have slept at least 10!), even if the beds were pretty much stuffed with straw. We recovered with some food in one of the many tv bars where Friends is playing everywhere - we picked a bar playing series 6 and settled in for three episodes, refusing again the 'special' menu...

I've managed to pick up Dave's cold (we seem to be catching everything going, probably while our systems get used to travelling), so we got some breakfast and watched CNN, about the fires in California, and caught up with news and a bit of reading for the rest of the day.

After another day pottering about in Vang Vieng, we caught an ancient, rickety, slow bus to Vientiane, a trip of about four hours. We also managed to realise an ambition of being on a bus with some form of livestock - as well as bags and bags of rice and bananas, there was a basket of live crabs under the back seat... we're working up to chickens and goats.

Next stop, Vientiane...