Happy New Year and welcome twenty eleven!

Twenty - ten has matured to become twenty- eleven. Still in Laos in the capital Vientiane. From Luang Prabang to Vientiane is 420 kilometers. Normally not that much of a distance, but here in Laos, where the infra structure still is very basic, it is. 12 hours and about 4257 curves later you find yourself at the Nothers Bus Station in Vientiane. A bit groggy from a night of turning and turning around in the bus seat to try to find the most, or the least uncomfortable way to sit, or what ever you will call the attempts of wretching the long european legs in between your own seat, and the seat infront,where the passenger there, had bend it as long back as possible, in her attempt to be comfortable, and sleep so the hours would go faster. Not.
The space between those seats in the V.I.P special Airconditioned bus was for sure not designed to suit tall people, but they were kind of not suitable to smaller people either, so there I was with both legs stretched out in the aisle, with my upper body dangeling around in the beat of the movements on the road A 13 up and down the curves on the mountain sides in nothern Laos.
Enough of complaining. All in all it was worth it, the bus ride I mean. But now I know that the next time we visit Laos, I will try to find smaller distances to travel by bus, to break up the journey. It is a place worth visiting. It is rual and overgrown with jungle through the mountanious landscape. The roads are mainly in very poor condition and the few of them which is considered as the mainroads. can be compared with the single track roads in the scottish highlands, with the exception, that on these roads in Scotland, you will meet no heavy trucks or hourly tourists busses, running in both directions.
At this moment we are just killing time at our last destination on this Christmas trip.
We will fly out at 3 Pm to Hanoi, wait there for 4 hours, before the last leg back home, to Hong Kong.