Vientaine 24/10/07 - TodayWe arrived into Vientiane at about 4ish in the afternoon and again avoided the tuk tuk drivers and strode off confidently bags on backs. All seemed pretty normal until we reached the river front and then we hit the stalls. The book had been going on about this quite relaxed city with a slow pace of life and all we could see was a long line of market stalls selling everything from flip flops to nappies. This is the capital city of Laos an...

Monday 22nd October - Vang ViengWe 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 arrive...

Sunday 21st October - PhonsavanWe caught our minibus at 7am and waved goodbye to Luang Prabang, and headed out on the winding roads to the Plain of Jars at Phonsavanh. We stopped on the way at a Buddha Cave for lunch, where they put the generator on especially for us. We were guided around the caves and took in the various buddhas, even the stalagmites that were used as 'buddha gongs' as they had good pitch when tapped. I did a good job at scaring everyone by scr...

Tuesday 16th October - Luang PrabangThe slow boat arrived at Luang Prabang at around 5pm, and by already deciding on a guesthouse before we disembarked, we managed to sidestep the waiting tuk tuk hordes (I'm sure they're getting bigger), and walked for about five minutes to the View Khom Khong Guest House, overlooking the river.Luang Prabang is a small city with around 26,000 residents, and the whole place is a UNESCO heritage site. This means that the mix of tra...

Monday 15th October - Huay Xai & Pak Beng - LaosSabaidee! After being identified by our green stickers upon our arrival in Laos (pronounced like the 'lou' bit in woodlouse, silent 's'), we were whisked through immigration to collect more pretty passport stamps, and sent to wait in a concrete bunker-like travel agents for further instructions. From there, we were herded onto a jumbo (like a pickup truck with a higher roof on the back and wooden benches down ea...