Vientiane - Tha Kheak After indulging in another buffet breakfast, we grudgingly checked out and began playing the haggling game with numerous Tuk-Tuk, jumbo and sawngthaew drivers. We'd had a tip off from a local guy so we knew the fair price to pay much to the disappointment of the drivers who were looking to make a day's wage out of the white folk with heavy loads. After being whistled and heckled, pulled over, bartering and walking away repeatedly we fi...

Vientiane Pop 203,000 We travelled to Vientiane in the same mini van but this time every seat was full and we were squashed in with lots of other travelers. Luckily it was not a bad journey and after meandering down through the remaining mountain ranges we opened out onto a Plateau and spent the final three hours speeding through red clay dust roads. These were not the best to travel on and after we hit the roof a few times bouncing in and out of what th...

Vang Vieng Pop 25,000 The next morning we loaded our bags and climbed into the mini bus for our four hour journey to Vang Vieng. We were lucky as we had ten seats for six of us so we spread out and settled down for the drive. It turned out to be one of the worst trips yet as the roads were extremely winding and the driver wasn't great at steering around them or going slow. The saving grace was again the scenery as we weaved down, around and through the m...

Luang Prabang Pop 52,466 As we already knew the drill we found our bags with ease and balancing precariously we walked the plank onto the shore. The riverbank was awash with passengers as three boats had arrived within minutes of each other. This was a blessing as we didn't get harassed at all and were left to get our bearings and have a wander, it was also a curse as we were following a trail of people in search of a guesthouse and every one we seemed to t...

Huay Xai - Pak Beng - Luang Prabang After a short walk we had found a nice guest house in Huay Xai and thanks to a tip off from another traveler we managed to bargain the price down although we were surprised by how much more it was than Thailand. We went out to explore the town and try and get a feel for the place even though we were only staying overnight. The focus was on one fairly quiet main street that ran 1Km from the immigration Jetty to the depart...