Wow! What a trip. It took just on 7 hours to get here (and that's 230km). The minibus was a standard one with hardly any leg room, and they packed in 13 of us. We came in a convoy of 5 minibuses, and there was just ours and one other that were standard (with 4 rows of seats), the others were deluxe models (with only 3 rows of seats), much more leg room and only 8 people on board. Can't say I can recommend the minibuses over the VIP buses for this trip, but if you get lucky then it would probably have been a much better journey.

On a more positive note, the road is just incredible . It winds its way up to almost 1500m before coming back down to Luang Prabang at 300m, following the mountain ridge the whole way. Awesome views and plenty of small villages where they seemed to be gathering and drying grass for hut building. Didn't get many photos I'm afraid.

Arrived in Luang Prabang much later than we'd thought, so after tuk tuking into town from the bus station (2km south of town, 10,000kip each) I stayed with the backpacks while Kristina traipsed around town looking for a place to stay.

After trying at least 20 different places she finally got us a room at a beaten up place on the waterfront (Soumphonpakdy Guesthouse US$5, fan, the dirtiest shared hot water bathroom I've ever had the misfortune to see). Still, we'd counted on taking whatever was going for the first night and it was a roof over our heads at least.

We moved this morning to a much better place (Jaliya Guesthouse US$15 a/c, tv, hot water bathroom, cosy inner courtyard promising a quiet nights sleep), down on the back side of the hill.

Tonight it's New Year so we're out looking for a place to eat and party the night away :)

More about Luang Prabang later, for now Happy New Years everyone!