We made it to Hanoi!!!! How simple it was to write those words and yet how different it was to actually do! Simon said he fancied 'some adventure' and we were both tired of seeing the same people everywhere we went, so rather than retrace our tracks from Luang Prabang back to Ventiane and take a bus to Hanoi from there - the route every other (sensible) traveller takes - we decided to take our chances on the relatively new and unexplored border crossing in the north East of Laos at Na Maew, near Sam Neua. It was a route that ended up involving flagging down buses in the middle of the night, trying to find edible food on menus that served 'fried rat', 'roasted squirrel' and 'steamed wasp', having my underwear and dirty washing inspected
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