In Luang Prabang now.

After leaving Vientiane we took a 10 hour bus to Phonsavan – the nearest town to the Plain of Jars. The bus route was very scenic, winding over what felt like a million hills and mountains, past stunning Karst landscapes with giant Limestone spike sticking out of the ground!! Did feel a bit sick toward the end of the 9th hour.

The road we took was quite dangerous, but it’s the only route there. Phonsavan is in the most heavily bombed province during the Vietnam War. It was also the base for the CIA and near a route for the Ho Chi Minh trail. There are still lots of Humong tribes there who are anti communist (Laos government is Communist) and sometime they hijack buses and kill people – including tourists, just to make a point. As such, all public buses we’ve been on, including the one to Phonsavan, has had a gunman on it.

It’s quite funny because they’re always very badly disguised; with a huge machine gum strapped across their back, under their coats. (Quite frankly I’d rather it was out on show so they could shoot the b******s as soon as the got near the bus! Rather than having to fiddle around, getting the coat off, getting the gun and then finding the safety catch!! I’m sure we’d all be dead by that point and the Humong would be grinning at the thought of the lovely stew they could make out of mine and Claire’s well fed Western bodies!) Anyway, we made it with no problems.

Phonsavan is a small town on the top of a very high hill and very cold – sooooo cold. I think I might die when I get home to the cold UK winter!! We saw the Plain of Jars (they’re not sure what they are – there are lots of theories – its similar to the mystery of Stone Henge) and also did a walk around some of the countryside and saw rice terraces and rice thrashing. Laos is in its dry season – it’s the first country I’ve been to in the dry season – and the landscapes are quite different – a real contrast from the lush landscapes elsewhere. They’re currently harvesting their rice (see photo of rice thrashing).

The next day we left for Luang Prabang and took a 9 hour bus, along the same windy stretch of road – lots of locals were sick. I kept my window closed since I was near the back and the thought of having someone’s sick splash in my face as they threw up out of a forward window didn’t fill me with excitement!

We arrived in Luang Prabang yesterday. It’s another small town (national heritage site – but not as nice as Hoi An in Vietnam) there are lots of markets, so Claire and I have decided that tomorrow we’ll do our Christmas shopping here. Today we did a walking tour around town – saw lots of stuff and climbed a hill. The day after tomorrow we’ve booked a tour to trek to a Humong village (hopefully these will be nice Humong) and see a waterfall and Claire wants to feed a tiger - Which they’ve said we could do.

We’ll then leave that night on a VIP (overpriced but more comfortable than the public bus) overnight bus to Vientiane and then continue on to Bangkok. Not sure if the VIP buses have gunmen either – Claire was originally disturbed by the gunmen, but I’m quite comforted by them – I think I’ve persuaded her that in a hijack situation it might be useful to have one.

I’m so sick of long distant buses – I can’t wait to be rich enough to never have to spend more than 4 hours on a bus – it’s not right to spend so long on them! If we had more money we’d fly to Bangkok!! Buses are gay!! And you can’t get up to walk around and you can only go to the loo when they say you can and in Laos you might even get shot!! And you have to share your seat with bags of rice! Stupid rice!! I find it really hard to understand why so many people in the world are starving when everywhere I look here there’s a rice field or a bag of rice! There’s so much of the stuff!! Surely the Laos asians can’t eat it all – they’re only tiny!