After spending an uneventful day exploring the incredibly boring town of Pakse we borded our "sleeper" bus for what would be our most enjoyable overnight bus experience yet. The "sleeper" bus was kitted out with 2 rows of incredibly narrow bunk beds instead of seats. The 2 of us didn't have a problem as we are both relatively small but we decided it could be a very awkward night if you had to share a bunk with a random stranger! In usual South...

We arrived aty Vientiene after a long but funny bus journey involving an incredibly overcrowded bus where two canadians were given plastic stools and told to sit in the aisle for an overnight journey! At the end of the night, we think they actually had the best deal though as they got to lie on the floor whereas we were cramped up on our seats. We wanted to get a bus straight to Pakse (in the South) so that we could get to Si Phan Don and so we set of in search f...

On arrival in Luang Prabang we discovered a sleepy town full of cafe's, bakeries and juice bars. It was a really beautiful town full of old French Colonial buildings and Guesthouses overlooking the Mekong River. Although the French influence was evident e.g. fresh baguette sellers lined the streets, there was also a distinctly Laos feel about the town, with numerous golden Wats (Temples). Perhaps our favourite thing about Luang Prabang was the night market, which...

The Journey of epic proportions began in Pai at 8pm on Thursday night. We did not arrive at our destination, Luang Prabang in Laos, until 6pm on Saturday. It all began with a horrendously windy minibus trip through the night to the border of Thailand and Laos at Chiang Khong. We were dropped off at 5am at a suspect looking guesthouse named "Boom House" where we were quickly acquainted with Mr Boom himself (or Ting Tong Two as he said his nickname was). ...

When we asked people in Chiang Mai what Pai was like everyone responded with the same "it's a hippy village" and that is exactly what we found (and what we needed after 4 hours of uphill bumpy and windy mountain roads!). The way of life in the town was incredibly laid back- the main street was lined with juice/coffee bars where you could easily while away an afternoon. We were lucky enough to find the nicest guesthouse right away (although pippa and Kat...