On a bus to ????

Now that Lisa and Chris had left me alone and..well, alone. I thought it was about time to extract myself from Luang Prabang and move Northwards towards China. My next destination. I ended up deciding on a town called....Um...Nong Kwiew or something like that. Not at all pronounced like that and a name which eludes me. Anyway, unharmed I arrived in Nninhsderytrtertqwgfd (or whatever) and found myself road side with Oliver, a very enthusiastic "mature" French backpacker.
He and I scoured the very little and very rustic village, for some where decent to lay our heads. Over the bridge, down a long road, round a corner, and down a mud track we came apon Sunset (or maybe Sunrise) Guest house. A shabby but clean, bamboo thatch roof shack.This was our home for the following night or so. I met up with a very tall (6ft 5") giant of a boy called..Um...lets say for good measure...Laurence. We spent the afternoon recalling our joyous, or not so joyous memories of Vietnam and hegding bets on the currency conversion in China. He did give me a great name for all the Asian currency's though. Pling-Plong. So now it's Chinese Pling-plong or Thai Pling-plong, instead of trying to remember all these bloody currency names. Back at "The Hutt" we ran into Mike who could settle our bet. Me losing naturally. Mike had been living in China and happened to speak fluent Mandarin. Unbeknown to him he just became my offical tour guide and Chinese consultant. Luck had it that he was heading to China the very same day as me..Yeeharr. I wasn't going to have to cross the border alone! I also had the advantage of someone who could speak the lingo too. So after a little consultaion I had my travel plan for China worked out and a border buddy to boot. Ah, what a day of pure luck!