I arrived - just!

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Well my didn't start in the most ideal of ways - being put on standby for your first flight, however the 400 pounds that would have been on offer would have been very tempting but as it happenned they managed to squeeze me on and I even managed to get an aisle seat so the flight went quite pleasantly (apart from the static on the headsets to watch the films!)

All was going well with my onward travel plans (Bangkok airport - the new one seems very nice - to Hualamphong Train Station, overnight to Non Khai and then crossing the border into Laos) until I arrived in Vientiane to pay for my flight up to the north of the country. My flight had been cancelled and all flights were full until the end of the month! Great! However they suggested that I head to the airport anyway and try and get a seat on standby and as luck would have it I managed to (after about 6 hours waiting in the very small and uninspiring airport still in the same clothes that I had left the UK in).

Night one in Laos was spent in Oudomxai, a fairly small town of no particular interest for the tourist apart from as a stop off on your way to somewhere else. I managed to get the last room in the hotel i picked from the LP, surprisingly for a town with not a lot of interest all the hotel rooms are full. My bathroom had no hot water so kindly this older guy (french i think) from a few doors down offered me the use of his shower and he even negotiated me a price decrease too which was quite nice. Dinner was at the only place that looked vaguely welcoming where I met Rex and Marianne - an older couple who were doing a tour round Laos and they happenned to have some spare seats in their mini bus so after I quizzed their guide on how to get the local bus they offered me a lift - very kind of them. It was quite nice too because I not only got picked up from my hotel but we also stopped off at a couple of villages en route and had a really nice lunch at a random restaurant at the turn off town for going into China.

6 hours (and a little nap) after leaving Oudomxai we arrived in Luang Nam Tha where I was dropped off at the Palanh Guest House to start my travels proper!

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