Alison: The bus to Muang Sing was a lot more bearable than the last journey though like last time every hitch hiker was picked up. It seems pretty much the norm in Laos. Nigel had to sit next to a farmer and a live chicken. Muang Sing is a very small place which is close to the border with Burma. There is one main road with a few restaurants and shops. If you go beyond the main road, you can see all the locals homes which are very basic wooden shacks. We managed ...

Nigel: Its been a while and there are going to be a few entries all at once but least you will have something to read over Xmas. The journey to Luang Nantha was one of the worst and longest we have had to encounter on our travels. We set off at 8am with an anticipated time of arrival being 4pm, however, as we decided to pick up every hitch hiker along the way and stop to pull a bus out of a ditch we didn't get there till 6:30pm. When I say pull a bus out I me...

Nigel: So we left Vang Vieng to go to our next port of call, a place named Luang Prabang. We had read that this place has the greatest amount of remaining French influences in Laos and we had also heard from other travellers that it is a really nice town, so we were hoping for a good time. When you walk around the town you notice a lot of cafe's and restaurants. The most interesting one that we came across was a place on the other side of the river. We got gi...

Nigel: Vang Vieng has a feel of the Spanish beach resort with its bars & restaurants but has that little bit of class about it that reminds you that you're still in Laos. The main purpose of stopping in Vang Vieng is to carry out the recreational sport which is commonly known as "tubing". In layman's terms it means floating down the river in an inner tube from a tractors wheel and stopping at several of the bars along the way. You are taken 3km up stream ...