Nong Khiaw to Sam Neua

Well that was the plan anyway, was told by a few people in town I could hop through a few villages by truck to get to Sam Neua. Nong khiaw -> Vieng kham -> Nam Noen -> Sam Neua. The only truck heading to Muang Vieng Kham left at 11am and when the time came I was told it would only leave if enough people showed, a few did so we left. About 1 1/2 hours of windy roads in the back of a ute with bench seats we made it to Vieng Kham which turned out to be a very small village with one guest house a very small restaurant and no bus stion and no onward travel during the day. But there was a bus coming from Vientiane, yes Vientiane at 1 am or so, so we got rooms at the guesthouse. A British photographer, who spoke fluent Lao, myself and Two brissy girls who I had met on the Four Thousand Islands. Lucky the Chris the Brit was there made things alot easier. Managed to get lunch asked for noodle soup but they were out of meat so next thing you know just outside the shop window they haul up a couple of chickens and kill them, the girls were not impressed. But we had fresh soup at least :D. Guess what was for dinner.... boiled chicken, the girls passed. managed to get a bit of sleep fully clothed and ready to go as there was no lights so had packed in the day time, got woken up at about 11pm and chucked onto the bus, which of course was packed with people and packages. I got put on a plastic chair in the isle, was fun.... for about 10 mins from which my arms and legs started hurting as every corner of the mountain one lane road seemed to be an s shaped bend. The girls were in the same boat but the brit had managed to snap up a seat. We all had seats after a few hours. I took a Valium and managed to catch a few zzz's. The girls got dropped off in Nam Noen as they wanted to go down to phonsavan where some big stone jars are and we carried on to Sam Neua, got there about 7:30 am, so was a long night. Got some kip from the bank and headed out to Vieng Xai and the Phathet Lao caves.