It's taken us a week to get from Sapa to Luang Prabang in Northern Laos by bus and boat...

We started with a 8 hr bus trip through the mountains to the nowhere town of Dien Bien Phu. Beautiful room (above) and stunning landscape of rice terraces, minority villages, and soon to be flooded valleys. Most of it was on unsurfaced roads and we celebrated our sore arses with the worst meal since we left home...deep fried tinned peas anyone?

We left early the next day to cross the border. 120kms, 10 hours on unsurfaced roads, surrounded by cement bags, asbestos roofing and bags and bags of carrots. The stops were regular, the scenery stunning. It's one of the more remote borders in SE Asia and was a hard day on terrible roads.