The capital city of Vientiane is around 24km from the border and we realized right away how much poorer Laos is than Thailand - our taxi was a late 1970s Toyota - when I sat in the front seat it tipped forward so that my knees were keeping the glove box closed. The road into town was "paved" most of the way but full of massive potholes - the side streets were all dirt and once we were in the capital city it wasn't much different there. The sewers run along the side of the streets in trenches and you have to step over them to reach the stores. Anyway, we stayed in a great guesthouse and left on Thursday for Vang Vieng. Woah. 3 hours to go 140km becuase the road is windy and rough. However, Vang Vieng was spectacular! Huge limestone cliffs rising up over the village and a brilliant blue river. We rented a small bungalow for the night there and will be heading back that way for a few days of cave exploring, tube riding, and snorkeling once we're done in Luang Prabang. Paul and Jisca decided at that point that they wanted to stay in Vang Vieng for Christmas, so Mo and I came up to Luang Prabang on our own Friday. That was easily the toughest bus trip ever for us. 7 hours to go 200km. There was no straight stretch of road until we were 2km from Luang Prabang. The whole trip was over, up and around huge mountains...I was again popping Gravol like candy so I was pretty groggy throughout the trip but it was impossible to sleep becuase you had to hang on for dear life around every corner so that you wouldn't get thrown from your seat. It was also a little unnerving at times, with there being no barriers between the narrow road and a steep plunge down the mountainside. The other thing that was a bit scary was twice when we came around a corner and face to face with a teenager with an AK-47 rifle. As there were some hijackings on that road back in 2003 it made us jump a bit, but we just drove on past without any trouble. So now here we are in Luang Prabang, United Nations World Heritage Sight. It's a beautiful town and we're loving it here. It was a pretty major scramble to find a place to stay, but we found a room last night and for tonight (Christmas Eve) we're staying in a great bungalow overlooking a river. Tomorrow...who knows, but hey, that's part of the journey :-) Merry Christmas!