Today has been all about getting organized for Laos, stocking up on odds and ends and sorting bits and pieces.

We have washed everything in our packs including our jackets. We don’t expect to be using any cold weather gear until we hit the mountains in New Zealand. I’m also chucking my old thick blue fleece away as I really don’t need it anymore (have not used it since Russia).

We went to the Southern bus station and bought our bus tickets for the first leg of getting to Laos. If we had known it would take us 2 hours to get to the station by city buses we would have taken a taxi. It only took us 20 minutes by taxi to get back.

The plan so far is to take a sleeper bus to Mengla. We should arrive in the early hours of Monday morning. From there we think (from what we have read on the Internet) that there are direct buses to various towns in Laos. We are hoping to get one to Luang Nam Tha. Failing that, there are apparently regular buses that go to the border town of Mohan. By all accounts the border crossing should be easy as they issue visas on arrival. Once in Luang Nam Tha we will try to organise maybe a 2 day hiking trip before moving SW either by bus or by boat to Houayxay near the Thai border to try get on the gibbon experience thing. Then SE to Luang Prabang by boat.

Across the road from the bus station was a humoungus shopping mall. We went in to look for an ATM and see if we could find some of the items on our shopping list. There were thousands upon thousands of really small shops inside the mall (no really at least 5000) and we eventually gave up and left as we were tired and hungry and the layout was confusing.

The rest of the afternoon was taken up with a trip to Wallmart (we don’t think we will find the 3 in 1 Lipton tea sachets in Laos) and messing around on the internet when it was working.

Sim has been trying to sort out the graphs for our expenses. Though Tibet has put us over our original budget plan we still think we will be fine. SE Asia is expected to be cheaper than China and even with trekking and gibbon type excursions (which will be preicey) we will be ok.

Although we have not realy seen much of Kunming despite visiting it twice, we like it. It’s not too hot and not too cold and we feel like regulars at the local KFC. Walking home last night we noticed yet again that lots of people were out walking their dogs. We spotted a great Dane carrying his own leash and huge white dog that looked like he had been blow dried he was so fluffy. Pets seem to be common here and always look very well looked after. In Tibet, mangy packs of strays seemed to be everywhere. Maybe strays don’t last as long in Chinese cities.

[Pictures: Another very fancy looking bus station. The southern one in Kunming]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi