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...

So we got back from Vang Viene yesterday afternoon. We decided to have Traditional Laos Herbal massages (since they're only $5 for 1 and a half hours!), which was a very pleasant experience. It involved stretching and massaging and then being massaged with a hot pillow filled with steaming herb - felt like I was being seasoned - half expected to be plopped in a giant cooking pot at the end! Also managed to drop my gasses on the floor at the beginning so Clair...

survived the caving and kayaking today and also went in a cave in a tube - very amusing!! and quite cold. Didn't get far with the caving - they have a very strange perception of what a flat walkway means!! I checked a number of times before booking the caving that it was a show cave and did not involve any climbing (obviously a broken arm makes climbing very difficult) anyway - the cave was definitely not a show cave and after about 15mins i refused to go ...

Yesterday we went tubing down the river, which was great and we liked it so much we did it again today!! Yesterday we hired 2 tractor tyre inner tubes and got a tuk tuk up the river a few km. Armed with my plastic bag for my arm, we then floated down the river, back to Vang viene town!! It was really great. It takes about 2 hrs if you don't stop, but yesterday we decided to stop at almost every bar. very scenic journey. The whole river bank is dotted wi...

We spent our last day in Hanoi looking at Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and house, the ethnology, museum and changing money. We arrived in Vientiene yesterday evening after an eventful 26 hour journey. The words I would use to describe this journey would be: frustrating, long, astonishing, ridiculous, and really just unnecessarily stupid! We had dinner in Hanoi and got to our guest house for 6:30 on Saturday night. we were supposed to be [picked up from t...