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After paying our stamp fees on the Cambodian side of the border ($1 each) we walked the 50 metres to the Laos side. Once we had filled in our arrival cards and paid more stamp fees ($2 each this time) we got on the last bus of the day. Another short drive got us to the little village where we boarded a boat to Don Det in Si Phan Don (400 Islands). We got into the laid back spirit of the island and spent the afternoon drinking beer and reading our books in hammocks. That night we were amused by the restaurant pretty much going out every time a meal was ordered to buy the ingredients from the little shop while we all waited for our dinner. We met a nice couple, Ali and Scott, who were travelling in the opposite direction and heard some funny stories of their time in Laos over a few beers. There was no late night as the bar staff wanted to go home and turned off all the lights by 11 (this seemed to happen at all of the bars). The next day we hired bikes and rode around the two islands of Don Det and Don Khone (joined by an old French railway bridge), seeing impressive waterfalls and eating lunch in a tiny village (the waitress/cook again went off to buy some of the ingredients). The paths were all very bumpy and the bikes were very bad so we both ached and had sore bums by the end of the day! The following day we headed for Vientiane, by boat and bus to Pakse where we had a few hours to look around, and then by overnight sleeper bus. What a tiny bed! Neither of us slept, me mostly because once I was asleep I nearly fell out of the bed (I don't know why we asked for a top bunk)!
We arrived in Vientiane at 6 in the morning and got dropped into the centre of town by tuk tuk. Luck was on our side as we found a brand new and affordable hotel! One room change later and we even had working aircon! We spent a couple of slow days in Vientiane, visiting the Cope Centre (a little charity that helps the victims of landmines and other bombs - it was very sad but the people there are very positive and work hard to help) and a couple of temples. My highlight was eating on the waterfront in what looked like a building site! After picking up our Thai visas we were off to Vang Vieng.
This was the first bus we had used where there were only westerners. We arrived in Vang Vien and found it exactly as everyone had told us - lots of bars selling western food and showing Friends or Family Guy on the big TVs. For those who don't already know, the main pull for Vang Vien is tubing (you get driven up river in a tuk tuk, are given a big inner tube, and you float downriver stopping for beers along the way) and that's why we were there! So the day after arriving we got up for a big lunch and off we went… and with the average age of about 20 we felt ancient!!! It was good fun though and we did our bit by getting very drunk in just a few bars before it started raining. Hard. We bobbed along to the end with Lois showing no concern as I fell out of my tube (I told her I could have drowned) and luckily there was a little boy to pull me out of my tyre (best dollar spent that day)! Luckily we hadn't booked the bus for the next day, so it was wasted nursing hangovers in the numerous bars!
Fully recovered the following day, we got on a crappy minibus to Luang Prabang. We spent a few days here visiting the tourist sights - lots of temples and the palace museum (it is actually the old palace used before the revolution), having hired bikes to see the town. Like everywhere in Laos the place wasn't very big! We visited a place that prints books for Lao children to encourage literacy and bought some books to be given to a school. As usual, my favourite part was the food!
After three relaxing days here we had the bus ride from hell back to Vientiane - 14 hours instead of the promised 10! Lois had to move seats because the ac was dripping on her, there was a girl behind me being repeatedly sick (she eventually spilled the contents of her sick bag on the floor) and the bus then broke down twice! We waited on the side of the road for an hour and another smaller bus arrived. Lois managed to pick another leaky seat and some people had to sit in the aisle - including the sick girl who was right next to me! We were so pleased to be back in Vientiane even though our hotel of choice was full!
We spent one last day mooching around Vientiane before heading to the Thai border and an overnight bus to Bangkok. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in laid back Laos and were more than a little apprehensive of arriving in Bangkok - it had been ages since we'd been in a city with more than a million people!
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