Dien Bien Phu is the last town in Vietnam as you head towards Laos using the most northerly crossing! Lonely planet doesn't recommend it but after considering my options, It was possibly faster, I got to spend the nights in beds instead of on the bus and it was significantly cheaper so I decided to take a chance and head for the border this way. The mini-bus from Sapa was pretty uncomfortable and packed but it was fine! After a couple of hours we did have to stop for about 40 minutes to wait for a rock to be cleared from the road! Here I met Sophie who was also trying to make the same journey. The rest of the bus journey to Dien Bien Phu was uneventful except that the scenery was fantastic! It was really beautiful, mountains, rice paddies, little villages and banana trees lining the road! Also it was warm again - I'd definitely left the cold weather of Sapa behind! Dien Bien Phu was a real pleasant surprise; the bus station was at the edge of town, where the town meets green rice paddies with beautiful mountains in the background. We just grabbed a hotel by the bus station as we were leaving at 5am and went for a wander around the town. There were a lot less tourists around the people were a lot friendlier (I'm not sure if there is a link between these two things)!

The following day we started another epic journey, at 5 we got on a minibus headed for Muang Khua in Laos - this wasn't a particularly long distance but it took a long time. Our first stop was at the Vietnamese border where it took probably ¾ of an hour to get stamps to leave the country.

The next stop was at the Laos border where it took a lot longer to get Laos visas. As well the $35 visa charge there was a $1 stamp fee (or bribe) and then when you wanted your passport back there was a 5000kip charge (about 70c). When I paid for my visa I was given $4 in change and when I had to give the second "fee" I handed back one of the dollars I'd been given in change. However the young man behind the counter was not very happy because it was ripped. When I explained that I had been given it as change by his colleague he was still unhappy. I was in a slightly better position because I had my passport in my hand - so I repeated (quite a few times with an incredulous look on my face) that I had just received it as change from them and slowly moved away - eventually he gave in!

We continued on the journey to Muan Khua - very slowly and eventually got there at about 1 in the afternoon. To get into town you have to cross a river by boat which was fun if not a little nerve wrecking as there were about 10 of us in a tiny boat and it didn't feel very stable! We survived and found out we could catch a bus to Udomxai at 3pm so headed for the bus station. We were going to walk but it was quite hot and when a tuktuk stopped we jumped on. At the bus station we had some time to kill so enjoyed our first Beer Lao in Laos!

We then got on another uncomfortable minibus for the 3 ½ hour bus trip to Udomxai. The scenery along the trip was absolutely stunning and as a little treat, to keep things interesting the bus ran out of petrol as we rounded a corner while climbing a hill - luckily we had just passed a village so the driver took off and got some petrol and we were back on the road! We reached Udomxai at about 6.30 and there was a bus leaving for Luang Prabang immediately so we just hopped on - may as well keep up the momentum. We arrived in LP at around midnight and hopped in a tuktuk to a hostel. The journey was finally over, it had taken about 19hours, 3 busses, 2 tuk tuks and a boat but we'd made it in a day and we were in Laos so all was good with the world!