Caught a 24 hour bus from Vietnam to Laos.
A mini bus picked up about 16 of us from the centre of Hanoi and took us to the bus station. As we got off the fellow said go over there and pointed towards another bus. We all walked that way and some one said this bus goes to Laos and so we all piled on. As the bus took off a fellow asked where we were going and I immediatley asked.. ´´are we on the wrong bus?´´ It took another 25 minutes to find out we were on the wrong bus so we all got off in the middle of no where and waited to catch a bus back.Here we all are on the side of the road in the dark..
We all got onto another bus to go back to the station...
We were all hoping that the real bus was waiting for us and when we finally got back to the station about 45 minutes late we found the bus was still there... suppose they were not going to go anywhere with only a few people on the bus.Crossed the border at about 7am.
The Vietnamese fellows stamped the Passport and asked for $1.. I asked Why.. they couldn't tell me.. so I kept asking.. they ended up ignoring me and calling the next fellow.The next fellow asked Why and then they ignored him.
Being so early in the morning I just paid the $1 and got my passport.. I was sure they should not have been asking for this money.. just another rip off my a corrupt bunch of people.
Here is the laos border crossing...
The trip in the bus was nice down through the mountains and rivers.
Met a good group on the bus and we all ended up going out for dinner and to the markets and the guys ate some pretty strange and sometime bad bad food.
Vientiane is a fairly nice town on the river.
They have a big concrete thing in the city... apparently the US givernment gave them a heap of stuff to build an airport runway but they buit this thing...
Not sure exactly what it is.Vang Vieng
When I got off the bus at this place I looked out and thought.. what am I doing here on the side of the road.. just looked like a birt road in the middle of nowhere with a few shops here and there. The bus driver pointed West and said the town is thay way.. another fellow (Stefan) and I walked that way and found the real town... very nicely surrounded by moutains and a river that looked cleaner then most I have seen in South East Asia. We found a nice clean guest house and went for a walk around the town. Bought some spring rolls and then some fruit and then some soup and later on more soup.. was pretty good and cheap. Went back for a sleep mmmm nice comfortable bed....zzzzzzzzz
Bon Non Oon
This is a stop on the top of the mountain that a couple of bicycle riders told us about. We didn't know the name of the place at the time but knew it was about 20ks north of Kasi... we bought more spring rolls and waved down a bus passing through town.. we tried to explain to the driver
that we were looking for a hot water spring and some how he knew what we were talking about and we were dropped off at the right place for a very reasonable price.
There were two restaurants and some bungalows...
Thermal pool with mountain views...
It was nice lazing around here for the afternoon. Had a nice fried rice for dinner and a beer... Nice relaxing place.We found a small pickup which gave us a lift to Phu Phong where we had some breakfast. Just as we finished a fellow offered us a ride in a minivan.. After negotiating a good price we were off and ended up in Luang Pubang a few hours later (about 2:30). The drive was amazing.. beautiful scenery and stopping at one place to get a big salad bagette... yummm.
Luang Pubang
This is a real tourist town with heaps of souvenirs and crafts, but lots of really nice food ... I am starting to really like this country.
Had a good walk around town through some rice paddies and around some hills...Came to a temple where they were playing music and praying...
Walked over some bridges and around finding foods etc.
Luang Ma Tha
Interesting town. Hired a good mountain bike for a day with another fellow and went for a ride through some mountains...
Went to some villages...
Saw a lot of huts in the hills...
Aparently used during the season when the crops are being planted and harvestd etc.Lots of little pigs running around too.
This one was shorter then the chickens...
Some of the old ladies here come and say do you want to buy a braclet? And while they show you they slide the other hand out from under the bag and show you some opium.Moung Sing
and to the markets early in the morning...
Lots of the tribe people come and sell their produce here...
including rats, owls and other birds.Caught a bus back to Luang Ma Tha and it stopped a couple of times and the driver bought a big rat/mole thing from one place 
and then bought a big cat/dog (Omoh) thing from another couple of fellows on the side of the road.
