Hello Everyone!

We originally planned to leave Vientiane on Monday evening but, having paid for the bus already, Sophie fell ill and we had to change our tickets and plans! After walking Vientiane for what felt like hours, we managed to find a guesthouse that wasn't full!! Youth Inn 2. We finally left for Savannakhet last night and arrived in the early hours this morning.

The bus we travelled on, in comparison to the VIP bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, was amazing. Changing our tickets worked out well in the end as we had ticket numbers 3 and 4 which turned out to be right at the front of the bus upstairs. This meant we had a ridiculous amount of leg room, and Kie was able to stretch right out! The chairs reclined right back into sleeping position, without effecting the person behind. We were provided with blankets, water and sweets for the journey and even a freshen up wipe as we arrived!!!

We needed to find a guesthouse, but being 5am and dark, all of them had their gates closed. We walked the town for a couple of hours (literally), we even saw the monks doing their rounds and collecting gifts from the locals at sunrise - the locals line the streets on their stools or mats and present the offerings for Buddha. We eventually found quite a nice guesthouse, featured in the Lonely Planet - Souannavong Guesthouse, and after a little rest we showered, changed and hired two bikes to explore the town. We had seen that there was a Dinosaur Museum and we were keen to visit, unlike a museum in England the building was not grand and could easily be mistaken for a large house! The museum itself was one room which was only about 8m x 8m but the contents were pretty amazing, most of which had been discovered in Savannakhet Province itself - and the pride of the region clearly showed.

As we'd exhausted the towns sights by roughly midday, we started to get a bit bored and frustrated that we'd stopped in Savannakhet instead of heading straight to Si Phan Don. We've found out that there is a direct bus leaving and, knowing we couldn't spend another day here doing nothing, we've decided to set off tonight. This does mean we'll lose the money we've already paid for the guesthouse but it also means we won't waste money on another day passing the time in Savannakhet.

We're looking forward to Si Phan Don - Four Thousand Islands, as we've heard so many good things about it and it'll be our last stop in Laos before heading to Cambodia. We'll be updating you on our whereabouts soon!

Lots of love Sophie and Kie xx