I decided I needed to head back to the sun and left the next day on another local bus back down to Luang Prabang. The bus was made to seat about 30 people but they managed to squeeze about 70 on there. When I arrived the bus was full but I was sneaky and managed to get myself a seat at the front. There were three other tourists on there and unfortunately for them they had to stand or sit on the floor for the 10-hour bus journey. It was ridiculous how many people, chickens, frogs, pigs, and sacks of rice was on that bus! It was made worse by the Thai/Laos music that sounded like drowning cats! I made friends with a lovely Laotian girl that was sat next to me – we didn’t really talk that much but somehow communicated anyway, sharing fruit and eating together whenever we stopped. She was going to Vientiane and when we were nearly at Luang Prabang I bit the bullet and bought a ticket all the way to Vientiane, which was another 10 hours! I wanted to get down south ASAP. We finally arrived in Vientiane at 6am after 22hours on the bus!