Saturday 14th January 2006 We decided to get up early this morning to go for a walk to a nearby cave before catching the bus north to Luang Prabang. Kind of wished we hadn't as we decided to stop for a "quick" breakfast on the way which took over an hour. So, in the end, we only managed a quick walk to the river to see the bamboo bridge. Still, it was nice to see a bit more of the town. We headed to the bus station for our 10.15 bus. Unfortunately t...

Friday the 13th Jan (aaarrrrgghh) We are up early for the bus to Vang Vieng which leaves at 0930hrs. Our hotel charges us an extra dorrar for breaking the ashtray. Scummers. (no mums, we weren't using it!) Stu enjoys the American breakfast which, so far as he can work out, is basically the English breakfast without the beans or black pudding. So next on this trip I am looking forward to tasting traditional American apple crumble and traditional American Li...

Wednesday 11th January We get up at a reasonably decent time and go sightseeing in the ridiculously small capital that is Vientiane. The weather definitely has taken a turn for the better and it's a glorious day. There is hardly any traffic on the roads which is a welcome change from Hanoi and the peace and quiet is almost freaky. We walk around to cries of sab-a-dee from the locals which in our excellent Lao means hello. It seems these people really are g...