We were all up early. Stepan, Koen, Dave and I to get our minivan. Mark waiting for his to the same place. And Dirk who was joining us the following evening.

A minivan pulled up and the driver said 'One' and so Mark got on, and we waited. About 10 minutes later the minivan came back with Mark on it. 'Wouldn't it be funny if the minivan were here to pick us up' to us it was funny. 20 minutes later the minivan with Mark pulled up and the driver got out and said 'Four'. We couldn't stop laughing (you had to be there!)

The first part of the journey was through the mountains and valleys of Northern Laos. We travelled on narrow roads up one side of a valley and then down the other. The roads were winding with plenty of blind corners and and alot of landslides which allowed you to have a glimpse of the very bottom of the valleys at very close quarters. It was a hair raising journey!

The second part of the journey was along the valley floor. The roads here were terrible (even though they were tarmac'd), potholes were deep and stretched right across the road. It took us 6 hours to get to Vang Vieng.

The Laos version of Kwikfit, must not only change tyres and exhausts, but horns as well. Every blind corner, village, child by the road, bike in front of us, cow in the road got a beep of the horn.