After all that travelling we are ready to chill out and luckily the weather knows it too and starts to rain. I find an awesome Brass Monkey type joint owned by an elderly French couple (there are so many French people in Laos! [Due to the historical connection- the French colonised Laos at the end of the 19th century]). The place shows films day and night, has a fully stocked library, friendly open atmosphere and sells relatively expensive but tasty food. When I ...

We take a local bus from Phongsali to Laung Prabang. Of course it's the obligatory 50minutes late and as it rocks up I just start laughing. This bus looks like a hand-me-down from rural India. The entire back window is missing and has been boarded up with MFD attached by ropes leaving large gaps all the way around the sides. Our bags are lifted and tide onto the roof and we hop on board. Speeding along a dirt track cut out of the mountain in a mining region, in t...

Our initial experience of Phongsali was not a great - the tuk tuk drivers drops us off in a random place outside the city - literally within 30 seconds of stopping the tuk tuk, they hop on a motorbike and driving away before we can ask them anything. We resisted paying the additional tuk tuk that was conveniently waiting for us and walked the few kilometres into town with our big packs. After checking into a hotel, I ate one of the worst meals I have had since ...

We head north to Phongsali which takes longer than expected, 3 days to be exact! We take a small and fragile looking wooden motor boat up the Nam Ou River. The Nam Ou is beautifully untouched, no roads, signposts or even fences are to be seen. It's easy to spent hours in the boat watching the scenery whiz by and just when I'm thinking how isolated it is here, we pass a family throwing nets into the river and gathering up their catch with use of a hand-held net (h...

On the bus from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw, we meet a quintessential Canadian who worked for the Canadian foreign office and has travelled the world over, literally to every country in the world bar 3! He marvels us with his knowledge and stories. We hire a tube for around 80 pence and spend a relaxing day tubing down the Nam Ou River, gazing out at the towering forested limestone karst sprawling over us. We meet a local restaurant owner called Ken and his fath...