We flew to the capital, Vientiane with Lao airlines. The thought of this filled Stephen with dread. He is not the best of flyers in the first place and Lao airlines have had a pretty poor reputation for years. Foriegn embassies have tried to dissuade their employees from using them, but recently they have raised their game and now lease more modern aircraft from Vietnam. The flight was still in a small turbo prop plane but only lasted 40 minutes. The trip was go...

Luang Prabang is simply wonderful. After finding a room and catching our breath we went out to explore. The night market was so refined and relaxed after our experiences in Thailand, no hard sell, no "missy, missy, you buy!" It was beautifully lit and had great local clothing and textiles, carvings, paintings and produce. We wandered around hassle free. The following day we explored the town properly. This didn't take too long as it is only a small p...

Pak Beng is a one horse town. We docked (if you can call it that) at dusk, our boat muscling its way in between other boats to the sounds of tortured timbers and local shouts and cheers! Then we had a mad race to find a room before all the best ones had gone. There was a precarious walk across the gangplank to the shore and then an arduous scramble up the steep sand dune that was the riverbank. Sharon made it all the way to the top before tripping on the very la...