On our way to Hoi An

My lovely romantic husband booked us a night in a beautiful wooden chalet overlooking jungle and a stunning waterfall in the middle of the Bolaven plateau; it was a bit over our usual budget of $9 a night but was worth it! This is the view from our balcony.

Over the course of the evening (and a few beer Laos later) we decided to ditch our original plan of going north through Laos and decided we would go east to Vietnam, so as not to miss out seeing Hoi an. We had a 'jumbo' driver pre arranged to pick us up at 7am to take us to the South bus station to go to Laos, so when he arrived we explained our change of plans and asked for the North bus station saying we now wanted to go to Vietnam. Hmmm.... I am not so keen on tuk-tuk, jumbo or songthaew drivers, they are always the ones who seem to rip us off the most; we finally ended up at the south bus station $20 lighter after a tour of all the private VIP bus stations in the area. The good news was we had a 3 hour wait! Stash and me filled the time well by having an 80p manicure, which included rubbing our fingers with lemons, clicking our joints and cutting dead skin off our fingers with what looked like a pair of wire cutters.




We finally set off on our 9 hour bus journey passing our original hotel 5 1/2hrs since we had left it, Bob and me were not talking to each other by this time. We were on our way to a border that had only recently been open to tourists and was well and truly off the banana pancake trail. Luckily we are all good travellers, Bob has a love of afternoon naps and the kids are able to play on their D.S's for 5hrs at a time (these are easily the best items along with the pirate '156 games in 1' that we have brought on this trip) and I'm pretty happy as long as I have a window seat and my beloved iPad. We arrive in Attapeu and taking a lonely Spanish vet from Sheffield under our wing, set off to find a place that sells pizza- yea, right boys, that's not gonna happen! After asking one of the only English speakers in the town where we can get pizza, and being laughed at, we end up in a little restaurant with our usual fare of vegetables, rice and egg. We had the choice of more adventurous options but decided against them - I have no idea what the thing with the hair is?

Another day of squished travel along the Ho Chi Minh trail through beautiful mountains and a complicated border crossing, we arrive in a rainy Hoi An; I am so glad we came. It is a magical place set on the Thu Bon river, filled with ancient buildings and streets hung with silk lanterns. It is the number one place go to for tailors and cobblers (and there is an amazing pizza place). Bob and the kids are very excited as they are getting clothes made and Oskar and me are off to do a vietnamese cooking course tonight - not sure he'll like the food, but it should be fun anyway.

Location:Laos to Vietnam