The end

Well, we got back to Vientiane with 10 days to sell the tuk tuk and the bikes, to work out transport to Corbett in India to meet Farah and family and to pack up our stuff for shipping to Costa Rica and to take travelling.

First to go were the bikes—to the director of Save the Children Laos and family—they’ll be transport for 4 people now. Then a Scandinavian couple , Jonas and Ida-Mae, took a liking for the tuk tuk. They had just arrived and thought they’d like to get a tuk tuk and saw our ad.. They bought it the day we left— I’m glad it’s got a new home but it was kind of sad to see it disappearing down the street. They even named it Pippi after Pippi Longstocking. Have fun, you two and I hope you stay safe.

We booked train to Bangkok and flight to Delhi, went to get Indian visas, found they needed a week, changed the flights and the train tickets applied for the visas and they said they could do it in 4 days, changed the flights and the train again. All expensive.

The bit we didn’t work out was sending our stuff on to Costa Rica. I found out that you can’t post parcels into costa rica because they get held by customs and the charges are prohibitive. So, we left for India with about 80kg of stuff stored in sacks in Vientiane.

Well, Laos is one of the great,undiscovered road trips. Distances are short, roads are mostly good, little traffic, stunning scenery, lots to see, affordable, worth it even if you've only got a couple of weeks. Though not by tuk tuk, for that a less hurried pace is necessary.