Bus journey from hell, but worth it

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Well, before i start i would just like to announce that right now if you google my name you'll find i'm the second entry with a link to this very blog!

So...we were keen to get to Louang Prabang. with not much time we decided to cut out Vang Viang and head straight there. well, if we knew what was in store for us on the bus ride up we might have thought twice about embracing the 9 hour journey in one go!

It was indeed the journey from hell, i guess it doesn't rate as bad as some journies i've heard about to Siem Reap and the like but when you've got a girl either side of you vomitting into small (clear!) plastic bags (and yes one of them was Katie!) it makes the already horrendous twisty mountain ride that bit rougher. I appealed to the bus driver to stop and couldn't believe we were only a couple of hours in!

Many, many hours later and feeling like my stomach was being transported in a washing machine we arrived to a deficit of available accomodation but found somewhere eventually.

Louang Prabang is good for taking a long boat on the mekong; we went up to a place where a guy took us to see the waterfalls (name escapes me). they were really good to see as the water flows really fast not just at the falls but flows through different areas of the park and forms swimming areas where the water is so clear. the food was good and we got the chance to get in some more quality French/Italian food while we could.

Visited the night market along Louang Prabang's main street and negociated ourselves some little pressies/souvenirs.

Spared ourselves from taking the same bus/train 24 hour trek back to Bangkok by flying from Louang Prabang's international airport and took ourselves back to Khao San road where we spent what seemed like the entire next day DHL-ing 16kilos back to the UK! what were we thinking when we packed?! yes...we did hear you at the time! was good to be able to do this as the packs feel so light now but let me give you some advice - if you ever do it, make a descriptive list of EVERYTHING you've packed in the box and be prepared to repeat yourself approximitely 1 million times!

all packed up and we're ready for Tokyo! Looking forward to being a bit cooler!

James

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Comments

[Alkesh Patel]

On the hunt for San Pellegrino!
Hi JdS and Katie M! Hope you two are well. Great pics from Laos, I will definitely have to visit it sometime. Laos reminds me of south India, Kerala, Goa etc. Hows the consultancy water hunt? Have you found any local brand that beats San Pel yet? I am sure you have heard IA news, Bartek leaving and your replacement joining another team. Better get to work. Ciao, .net