I'm interested in your experience because I am considering a similar 10-12 day trip in late December/early Jan. with my family (wife, two young adult sons). I live in Hong Kong, love Kunming, but have not travelled in Southern Yunnan or Northern Laos. My main questions are these: 1) if I am not bold enough to drive, do you recommend we hire a car, and if so, will we need to change drivers/cars at the border? 2) since we don't like to be on the move daily, what are the main places in Yunnan and Northern Laos, ending in Luang Prabang, that you would advise as a base for multi-day exploration? And if we have 10-12 days total, how much of this would you allocate to LP? Thanks. Ted