Laos Laos

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Our bus trip in to Laos from Sapa was very interesting. We started with a long trip in a mini van to the Laos border where we stayed for a night. The trip was all in the mountains slipping and sliding around in the mud. We also got trapped for a while after there had been a landslide, the digger was using its claw to push the cars over all the mud. After we got to the border and found a room, we went on search of some nice food but could only find noodle soup. How surprising. The next day our bus was at 5.30 and the trip, including getting our visas and getting over the border, was fairly easy. That was until we got to the river, which was too high for our mini bus to go through so they made us get off and walk over the bridge to another bus which we then had to pay for even though we had already paid for the other one. It was cheaper to get a local bus so everyone piled on. I think the bus was a 20 seater but there were at least 40 of us on the bus sitting on laps and sacks of rice for the remaining two hours of the journey. We eventually arrived in a small town. We had no money on us, it got sucked up by the bad exchange rate and there was also no cash machine. There were no buses for the rest of the day and the next cash machine was a three hour drive away. We had just about enough money to get a room. Luckily we met a lovely Scottish guy who offered to get us some dinner and pay for our buses to the next place. He was officially our knight in shining armour. We arrived in Luang Prabang and decided we were not getting on a bus for at least three or four days. I very much enjoyed my stay there. Especially going to the Children's centre for a couple of days to help the kids with their English. We also visited the Mekong English Centre to help out in some of their lessons. Inbetween this we say around at the market eating the cheap buffet, exploring the nightmarket and going for drinks. We also did an Elephant trek. For my first time on an Elephant it was a very enjoyable experience. After our few days of relaxation we decided to go to Vang Viene for some tubing. Its pretty much just a town of tourists getting drunk in all the crazy bars along the river. All the bars play friends on big screens during the day and the drinks are very cheap. We have spent the last two days getting involved with the tubing without the tubes and now it may be time for a little rest.

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