The first leg of the trip to laos was pretty cool, we met four other travellers heading the same way and we all sat together on the bus while the locals gawped at us. It was our first real experience of that and at times it was a little unsettling . But things changed when we hit the Vietnam boarder. We woke up after a pretty restless night and were rushed off the bus by the guy kind of in charge. Me and Rob were the last two to get off the bus, we made to take our day bags but this guy in charge told us "bus locked-come come" so we were rushed off the bus and into the boarder crossing and for the first time we didn't think anything of leaving our bags behind. As we passed from the Vietnamese side to Laos we had to run back to the bus to get passport photos for our application. The bus guy didn't seem to want to let us back on the bus but we ignored him, jumped on the bus and grabbed our bags. We thought he was acting a bit odd but thought he was under pressure to get us all through the crossing. It was only when we were all back on the bus that we realised Robs camera had been stolen. He was putting our passports away when he noticed his camera was gone!! Mayhem ensued which ended up in the driver who conveniently didn't speak English giving us a note that told us if we caused trouble we'd be thrown off the bus and left at the boarder. The camera missing was bad enough but we had five memory cards in the camera case - all of our jungle photos, Peru, Chile all gone! It was sickening no one would help us, the locals on the bus were just laughing at us and the worst bit of all we had to sit for another 12 hours on the same bus with the thieving f@!ker who stole our camera. Low point!
We got to our guesthouse in Luang Prabang but couldn't shake how awful the day had been add to the theft, very little sleep, a 30hr drive, a diet of Pringles and Oreos, no toilet- it was just a horrible start to a place that we had really looked forward to going to since we got to Asia.
The following day we decided to try as hard as we could to not let "cameragate" ruin the last few weeks of our trip. It was hard work to put it to one side but Luang Prabang helped us forget it (in the short term anyway). LP is the most beautiful spot, it's a small town full of hard working people who seem to work most hours of the day but their so friendly it reminded us of Peru, they kind of lure you in to look at their stalls and buy from them. Everything is a haggling bargain though from fruitshakes to presents it can get a bit tiring after a while to be fair. "just tell me an actual price for the love of all things!". We spent 10 days in LP and managed to achieve our task of chilling out. We walked the Mekong river and caught some stunning sunsets. We also found a nice little spot along the main road opposite a beautiful temple and would often sit and watch the world go by. The market would set up around 5pm every day. Both of us would sit watching the locals set up their stalls and then go to the food market where you could have a buffet meal for the price of wait for it.....a dollar. Our plates would be piled high, although by the end of our time there we got a little sick of the same food. One night at dinner we met two really cool guys from Switzerland JD & Simon. Most nights we would meet up with them for dinner and swop stories of the day unfortunately we didn't get a chance to say goodbye to them before they left which was a pity because we would definitely have stayed in touch with them. At the end of our time in LP we booked a bus to take us to Vientiane - the Laos capital. It's not nearly as pretty or welcoming as LP but we were only there three days before we were to make tracks for home. On our last day we were sitting at the market watching the stalls be set up while having a nice chilled drink (a total luxury in the heat) and who comes over to say hello..... JD followed by Simon! It was great to see them again and we headed off to dinner to catch up on each others adventures.
We had a few days of dodgy tummies in Vientiane but thankfully they had settled again by the day we took our flight to KL.
We set off on the Wednesday of our final week for our flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Its hard to believe that now we have just a few days left before we fly home. From KL, we head to Singapore before we fly to the UK on Saturday 29th of September. Roll on our last few days of mayhem! Food Sensations: Coffee and Banana Fruit shake, Passionfruit and Orange fruit shake, Water spinach, Morning Glory salad and a selection of noodle and rice salads served up for dinner in Luang Prabang. Lychees, Jack fruit, Mangusteens. Any type of cold drink available from any vendor!