In Laos...

Hello!

Our 20 hour bus journey into Laos turned out to be more 23 hours and *what* a journey it was! There were 7 other travellers onboard and they were all squished at the back of the coach, wedged in between boxes and luggage of all sorts. For some reason, unkown to any of us, I had to sit next to an elderly Vietnamese gentleman halfway down the coach. My seat was angled forwards and the seat in front was 2 inches from my face the whole way. Dave got soaked due to a leaking roof and ended up having to sit in the aisle to avoid being drenched before we'd even reached the border. There were stools, engines and boxes all the way down the aisle with people sitting and sleeping on top, and (the best...) a HAMMOCK strung up halfway down the coach!

We arrived at the border at about 5am, to a deserted, cold and misty no-man's land. If it wasn't for one of the Australian lady's speaking a small amount of Vietnamese, I don't know how we would have got on, but the actual process of getting a visa was relatively painless!

Laos itself is stunningly beautiful, and the rest of the drive through mountains, forests and past flowing rivers would have been lovely to see, but by that time I was so exhausted from lack of sleep that I dropped off almost as soon as we got back on the coach! Typical!

The only other biggie was losing my wallet last night. Thankfully, due I think to a lot of praying and keeping fingers crossed, it turned up this morning at the place we ate at last night. It was a small place under a tarpaulin, and we all sat on little cushions on the floor in a circle, with the other travellers. The man who gave my wallet back looked amazed at how happy I was to get it back, but I'd been envisaging trying to find a payphone, ringing the banks and not having any cards for months... I gave him a couple of thousand Kip to say thankyou (before realising he'd already helped himself, but nevermind), and now I can travel happily on to Vang Vieng, up North, with more than two quid in my pocket!

Write soon,
Rach x