Luang prabang to Phonsevan (but really to vang vieng)

An 7am wakeup was the start to a bad, but insane day. Took a tuktuck to the bus station, bought a ticket and got pointed towards the most rough and scratty bus in the station.the first hour went smoothly, but then the bus stopped. I thought we were waiting for people to eat at a services, but we were there for two hours, then another bus pulled up behind us and i was pointed in the direction of that bus.I checked my pockets to make sure I still had everything ande i did. another 2 hours passed where I was half asleep. I woke to find the bus wasnt moving, we were in a huge line of lorries and minivans. The bus sat there with everyone on it for about 5 hours.
After waiting for a while I got up to get off the bus and try to see what was happening, checked my pockets, and my wallet was gone. I expect that it fell out my pocket and through the seat as there was a big gap, but when i looked on the floor it was gone.I expect someone just took it from the floor, but everyone I asked either didnt speak english or chose not to. They must have all aware that I was looking for something though. There wasnt much, I could do about it, its not like i could strip search them all and I couldnt know who it was becauser everybody was walking up and down the bus to try and see what was going on. meh...
anyway, afterv a long time waiting at the landslide I was told by the driver (and the help of two girls trying to translate) that there was a bus wating on the other side of the landslide. I was given the bus number and I took a walk with a few others through the landslide.Most of the people stayed on the old bus though, I assumed it was because we were closer to luang prabang.
The landslide itself was huge, about 600 meters across. It was safe to walk across as the diggers had arived and leveld out most of the surface so it was stable, but the mud was thick. one 4x4 tried to cross the slide but got stuck. It took about 30 guys to push it out of the mud back onto the real road.
After walking through the landslide and finding the bus after walking right to the end of the line and then walking back on myself, I tried to get on. I showed them the ticket for the previous bus, but they asked for 50,000 kip. I assumed that The bus the driver told me to get would be part of the same service.I didnt expect to have to pay the whole fair again. I didnt have any cash as all my cash was in my wallet. I steped down off the bus and walked back to find the origional bus in the hope it wasnt able to turn around. The roads were so thin that i think the odds were in my favour. However, I walked past three western looking guys who were walking onto a busand told them my money was stolen and if I could pay them back at the town they get off at with my ATM card. Luckily for me one of the guys agreed and I got on. It wasnt to the destination I wanted (phonsevan) but I was happy to go anywhere. It was starting to get dark and If I went to the origional bus I expect i would have slept on it for the night.