We caught a 6 hour bus from Sayaboury with Anick and Ettiene, arriving in Vang Vieng around 9pm. We actually had a nights accommodation booked but had no idea where or what it was called, as the email confirmation had not come through. So I fluttered my eyelids in a restaurant to get their wifi password, and luckily we had an email waiting for us. It was just a 10 minute walk towards the main area in Vang Vieng to our guesthouse, 'Maylay'. Unfortunately i...

We took a local bus from Luang Prabang at 9am, having got there at 7:30am to ensure we got a seat. We arrived at Sayaboury bus station, and were collected by the centre's tuk tuk which took us to our lunch spot - a stunning place, with a few little floating huts overlooking a peaceful lake. There were nine of us in total, two Canadian couples - Étienne and Anick plus Kathia and Frederick, a couple from Germany, and our guide Mr Ken. After, what has to be sai...

The nightbus from Luang Namtha was THE worst journey we have experienced, and we have encountered some bad roads. This was like being on a vibrating plate at the gym for the whole journey! And it wasn't a sleeper bus, so we were sat upright and being shaken around for 8 hours! We arrived in Luang Prabang (a UNESCO world heritage site) at 3am...supposed to be 5am, so the driver must have been going stupidly fast, as Asian countries don't do arriving early,...

We left Dien Bien Phu for another long day on the bus. It took over three hours just to get to the Laos border, which was only 37km away! For once it wasn't because of bad roads or a broken bus, but a massive lack of organisation, stopping for cargo (buses are used as couriers too), stopping for extra passengers to sit in the aisle, pulling over for the police, and getting off the bus for the luggage and cargo (which had occupied some seats) to be strapped to...

Having bought our ticket from the train station ourselves, and being told it was for the 'locals' cabin and not for the 'tourists' cabin, we weren't entirely sure what we had let ourselves in for. However, it seemed to turn out pretty good for us. We had opted for soft beds, in a four bed cabin, but it was just the two of us, and in fact, the whole carriage was empty, so we even had our own toilet. It was a ten hour train to Lao Cai, and then ...