So, after many months we are at last leaving Thailand and it is simplicity in itself to get to Laos. The bus from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong leaves every 30 minutes and cost 53baht for the 2 hour 10 minute journey. The bus is nothing like yesterday being far more of a local bus than a long distance luxury sprinter. The leg room was so bad that my knees were up around my chin for much of the journey, but a cool breeze was blowing through the window and the twists and turns of the road unfolded in front of us as we started our new adventure.

We had refused all offers of help to get visa's, boats & guesthouses, disbelieving everything said to us about inflated visa prices at the border etc, which proved to be correct, but more of that later. Arriving in Chiang Khong, a bustling little border town, we had to take a Tuk Tuk each to Thai immigration as they are smaller here than in Chiang Mai or Bangkok and couldn't fit both of us in with our luggage.

At the border our Thai exit visa was stamped and I wished my overstay last time had been here and not Poipet on the Cambodian border, as the guard hardly glanced at my passport before stamping it and getting back to his lunch. I probably could have overstayed years and he would never have noticed.

A short walk took us to the riverside where we hopped in a longtail boat for the 2 minute journey across the river. As I write, sitting at a riverside bar in Huay Xai, I can see Thailand and even hear some dreaded Karaoke from across the river.

Arriving at Laos immigration we bought a visa on the spot for $30 and walked up a short hill where we checked into the BAP guesthouse. It is certainly cheaper than Thailand and Beer Lao (40baht for 640ML), the local beer is as good as the books all say. Apparently Carlsberg bought a 25% shareholding in Beer Lao and came over with plans to improve the brew. After holding some blind tastings they found that it consistently beat foreign brands and couldn't be improved upon, at least by them.

The 'town' is tiny and rather rural and run down compared to Thailand, more of a ribbon development than a town, but the food is slightly different and we are excited to be here. The lady who owns the guesthouse is very friendly and speaks quite good English which she learnt from the Americans in 1968, Vietnam is after all close by.

She juggles currencies like a master magician switching from Baht to Dollars to Kip to Sterling in one sentence, but I have put my mental arithmetic cap on and see through all her currency shenanigans, choosing with care the best one to use for any given purchase.

The sun is setting over the mountains and a huge 2cm long red ant has just walked across my table, but it's a great spot and tomorrow we will brave the speedboat to Luang Prabang which takes only 6 hours compared to the 2 days needed by the slow boat.

I promised a couple of days ago to let you know how we got on with going it alone rather than taking the 3200 baht option offered by the travel agent to get from Chang Mai to Luang Prabang, including Visa. The answer is we won by 400baht each, only an £11 difference, but we won none the less and we weren't herded around like sheep as is always the case on a package deal. 

The speedboat, I have read is a bit dodgy. They flip over on a regular basis due to their high speed and not being able to avoid obstacles in the river. This mostly happens in the rainy season, which it isn't, but the lonely planet books describe it as like being strapped to a giant chainsaw for 6 hours. At least we get life jackets and crash helmets, plus I have our waterproof bag for protecting essentials.

Even though I could swim from here to Thailand in about 2 minutes we are now supposedly in a malaria area, although I never quite understand how there is not supposed to be any Malaria in Thailand (or at least a low risk) which is 200metres away and there is here. Perhaps they have a separate mosquito immigration checkpoint with a big, halt if you are carrying Malaria, signpost on the Thai side. In any case we still have some tablets left over from our trip to Cambodia, which is just as well as the Boots chemist in Chiang Mai is the worst ever. It says, in English, for expert advice ask our pharmacist, yet he speaks almost no English, doesn't understand medical terminology and doesn't have any anti-malarials anyway, even though for this area it is just a standard dual purpose antibiotic.

Well early start tomorrow and probably quite hair raising so I'll sign off now.

Day 139 - 25th February 2006 - Sam's Account

What a day! It started with a 7am plastic watch alarm and then a tasty brekkie of delicious warm Laos baguettes with proper butter and strawberry jam. Our bus to the pier was waiting for us, as we finished our breakfast, so we hurriedly checked out as our land lady was having a screaming match with some aggressive American who wanted his money back for a boat he'd chartered. All sounded very over the top, so we happily left all 20 or so of them to it and shot off to the pier.

As we arrived we saw there were already 8 people wanting to board the speed boat which hadn't yet arrived.

The atmosphere was electric, there were 4 Laos girls travelling together with oodles and oodles of luggage and they were evidently extremely nervous about the trip which made both Colin and me wonder what we were about to get ourselves into. We knew that the boats had a tendency to flip during monsoon season when they ran into debris and that there had been a number of deaths on the river due to this but our trusty Lonely Planet hadn't said "don't do it, you'll die" and this is how the girls were acting. Very off putting I can tell you. My anxiety levels increased tenfold when I saw the actual boat and how many of us were going to be on it with all the girls oodles and oodles of luggage. "Don't panic I thought to myself it will be better if the boats heavier, less chance it will flip".

After much debate, arguing, shouting and generally milling around not doing anything, they eventually packed up the boat, strapped all our luggage to the front, handed out life jackets and ushered us into our tiny seats which were hard plastic covered cushions on the floor of the boat.

Then the engine started. Even though the driver was just revving up is sounded like a formula one racing car. Oh my god we're going to die! At 9.30am we finally pulled out of the pier (if it can be called a pier as it was just a plank of wood to a wooden hut).

We were very low in the water with 8 of us + the driver on board and then the throttle was released. WWHHOOOAAAHHH !!!!   Yeah baby yeah! We were flying, literally. The boat came out of the water and we were speeding along at at least 90KM / hour. Tears were streaming down my cheeks from the wind in my face and we went shooting past the slow boat with glee.

After half an hour we made a brief stop for the Laos passengers to register their departure (we had already done this previously) and we were all given huge crash helmets with plastic visors some of which were fairly battered already. Gulp!

It took at least an hour to settle into the journey as my adrenaline was pumping hard. The scenery was beautiful all day, very similar but beautiful. We had tree covered mountains and hills all around us with white sandy shores to the river. There were intermittent little villages along the rivers with people busying themselves with day to day chores like washing rice, cleaning clothes, starting a fire, fishing and the children swimming and playing along the shores of the river.

Even though the actual scenery did not change hugely throughout the day the river absolutely did. One minute we would be gliding along perfectly still waters as though the boat was skating on ice and then the next minute we would be in treacherous currents with huge whirlpools either side of us and large rocks dotted around the river to negotiate. The driver was excellent. At times I thought we were heading straight for a vast mass of rock, but no we swerve at the last minute to take us safely through the river channel. A few times today I've shut my eyes, held my breath and crossed my fingers!

We did see a few dead animals in the river which was a little disturbing as they swell up and float like buoys along the surface. The first dead animal was a large golden haired dog, the second a small water buffalo and the third a boar. The water washes away the hair on one side and it really isn't a pleasant sight. What I guess is worrying is to see the herds of water buffalo and the local villagers bathing in the river too.

By lunch time we felt as though we were "well 'ard" travellers and had totally relaxed into the trip. We stopped at a little wooden restaurant on stilts in the middle of nowhere. It was heaving. Boats and people everywhere. Interestingly Colin and I only saw one other westerner, all the others had taken the slow boats. Sissies!

Having politely declined a fairly insistent invitation to buy copious amount of Opium, we tucked into a lunch of stir fried pork and vegetables with boiled rice and having washed it down with a little Lao beer - which is excellent - we were waiting to hop back into the boat for the next leg of the trip.

We had to swap boats though as the drivers from Huay Xai went back with people going back down the river from Luang Prabang and the drivers from Luang Prabang went back there with people from Huay Xai. Clever! The only shame of this was that our new boat was rubbish, it didn't go nearly as fast and it was sooo much louder too.

Our evaluation of the boat was not far wrong as it broke down twice before we finally reached our destination. The first time was because we'd run out of petrol. Hello??! How often do they do this trip every week??! Thankfully we managed to get a little can from one of the riverside villages and the second time nobody knows why. Suffice to say our afternoon driver called the speedboat "base" on his mobile and asked for help then proceeded to paddle, yes paddle us to Luang Prabang with one paddle. Well it would have been laughable if he hadn't paddled us straight into a whirlpool and some rapids. 

Thankfully, after his second angry telephone call to "the base" we soon heard the familiar roar of another speed boat and we swapped boats yet again and then...left the other one there with the guys who had come to save us. I hope they've been picked up!

We whizzed past another slow boat, which was on it's final leg of the second day, and arrived about an hour before those who had set out yesterday morning! 

On arrival in Luang Prabang we had to take a Tuk Tuk into town and having dropped off the Laos girls at the bus station (their trip hadn't finished yet) we were taken to a few guesthouses. I say a few as they were all full. We eventually found a decent one for 100,000) Kip / night (10 US$) and dumped our bags to then head straight back out the door for a well deserved G&T.

We wandered around Luang Prabang and ate in a pizza restaurant (yes I know, not very authentic although we did try a glass of Laos rice wine) and then visited the night market to come back to our guesthouse, scrub up and collapse.

Luang Prabang seems to be a lovely place - what we've seen of it so far that is...

Day 140 - 26th February 2006 - Colin's Account

Hurrah, we are millionaires, well in kip anyway. We have just walked into the bank and asked for 3 million and they passed over a thick wedge of cash as their largest note is only 20,000, I can hardly shut my wallet. Regretfully it's only worth approximately 250 euros.

After yesterdays high speed river trip, today has been a bit tame. After the worst breakfast Sam has ever had, we hired some bikes and rode around the area. It's true that the old colonial French influence here is very strong with numerous building in the French style and even 'lock up' type shops have a selection of fine wines. Old and new, rich and poor are all jumbled together. Nestled next to impressive villa's we saw small wooden shacks with thatched roofs, one even had a plant growing out of the top. There is an excellent food market and a night market selling all types of silks, home furnishings and ornaments.

Down a tiny side street is a book exchange owned by a large Australian woman. The sign outside says, 'please enter, ignore barking dog'. My book that the snobs in Pai had turned down was accepted without question and as we were evidently in the lady's living room, I felt a bit guilty that she had made nothing out of the deal so bought a book as well. By the way the dog did bark, a lot and we did ignore it, much to its annoyance I'm sure.

Sam has run over our guide, well guide book anyway. After hiring some bikes, which we soon discovered weren't up to any sort of long distance, we went for a short ride around town. One section is cobblestone and our trusty guidebook bounced out of the basket and was then ridden over. Lonely Planet books are obviously made of stern stuff as apart from a tyre mark across southern Laos there is little damage.

There are numerous restaurants and bars along the riverside and sitting at one of them we watched the people (chicken's), who had elected for the slow boat from Huay Xai, instead of the speed boat, disembark; allowing us to smugly congratulate ourselves on making the right decision. We've been here more than a day and they left at the same time as us!

We found a little pub in the middle of the night market and as the evening progressed Sam felt sorrier and sorrier for a girl opposite us who hadn't made a singe sale by closing time. Then she had to pack up and wearily trudge off with all her stuff on a little cart. Looked a bit like the end of a French Property Exhibition to me, except for the sales bit, as we, of course, always sold loads!

Anywhere you go they always seem to have their little quirky regulations and here is no exception. All vehicles have a little round sign on the side stating the maximum number of passengers they are allowed to carry, of course it is completely ignored. I saw one tank like Tuk Tuk with a 12p (12 people) sign on the side and I'd counted 16 people before, with a final belch of black smoke it disappeared around the corner with the luggage swaying precariously on the roof rack.

On another occasion we saw a Tuk Tuk carrying Bamboo poles at least twenty metres long. They stuck out the back so far that if the driver had had to do a three point turn we would have had our legs chopped off at the knees, Queen Boadecia style.

Just like Cambodia, dollars are just as welcome as the local currency together with Thai Baht. Unfortunately this seems to lead to the same mentality as in Cambodia, where fleece the westerner is their favourite game. The food is cheaper and the begging is much more low key, although one old boy whose wardrobe fluctuates between army fatigues and a sarong tries to make up the gap. He walks up to you and waggles his hands at you - watch out girls - all the time maintaining a big toothy grin, complete with fag dangling from his mouth. He's obviously off his rocker and I haven't seen him score yet.

Day 141 - Monday 27th February 2006 - Sam's Account

With a hefty hangover, from the pub booze-up last night, we eventually surfaced around 11am and walked straight to the main high street for some brunch. Brunch lasted a few hours as we tucked into eggs, baguettes, tea, coffee and eventually a "hair of the dog" beer. Kill or cure!

We spent the majority of the day doing jobs; up-loaded the photo's to the web-site, organised our travel for the next couple of days and tried to send a fax. No one will accept to send faxes to Europe, not even at the post office.

We hired a couple of mountain bikes as we planned to go for a very long bike ride the next day to the local waterfall and back. The round trip would be a cool 60Km's over the hills and we wanted to make sure our bikes could handle it as we weren't sure that we could!

I have little to write about our day so I will tell you more about Luang Prabang and the Laos people.

As per my initial impressions Luang Prabang is lovely. Nothing to do here at all other than eat and have a massage but it is lovely nonetheless. It is situated on the Mekong River surrounded by distant mountains every which way you look.

The French influence here is very marked and the majority of the buildings depict this, with their high ceilings, large shuttered windows and steps leading up to the double door entrances; despite the fact that today they are somewhat faded in grandeur. One part of the town, evidently the posh part where all the wealthy retired tourists are kept, is especially beautiful. It is like walking along a residential street in Neuilly-La-Seine but with the mountainous Laos landscape as a backdrop.

And the people? Well, Laos people are very laid back and it is difficult to adjust to initially; especially after the dynamism of Thailand. However, after a couple of days you start to enjoy the peace and quiet and civilised Laos life-style. There is no yelling and shouting in the streets or markets, they just sit and wait for you to approach them which is a real treat! People are not in the least bit aggressive when trying to sell you something and there are no beggars whatsoever. Well, other than one guy who is constantly off his face on Opium no doubt but when you tell him "no" he just grins and goes away. The Laos people are really lovely, they appear so calm, relaxed and peaceful.

The produce the Laos sell in the markets is really excellent, both in terms of selling what you would be tempted to buy, and also the quality of the goods. The food is excellent; mountains of fresh baguettes of various shapes and sizes are for sale and they will also make them into any kind of sweet or savoury sandwich for you. Mountains of fresh fruit, some are cut into pieces and sold in bite sized chunks with a selection for you to try all the different varieties. Home made chunks of cake; carrot, chocolate, apple, banana, coconut, ginger to name but a few...

The other parts of the market sell silk, which is also sold elsewhere in Asia, but it has all been personalised. Every market vendor has made and embroidered a beautiful item from their fabric and there are gorgeous bedspreads and matching pillowcases hanging from the make-shift bamboo presentation hangars as well as bags of every shape and size, scarves, pachmina's and also beautiful wood work, carvings and light fittings. I must admit if we had a home to send things back to I would have definitely bought a shed load of stuff and shipped it back as all of it, yes all of it, was excellent quality. Well OK, I lie. I did see one person selling some machine printed T-shirts which were spelt wrong but that was all.

So all in all I really like it here. It is not "cheap as chips" as we had been told, but I honestly think that it is because we are in Luang Prabang which is much more expensive compared to the rest of Laos due to it's fervent tourist trade, which as I said before includes the wealthy retired variety of tourist, and that always bumps the prices up.

Day 142 - Tuesday 28th February 2006 - Colin's Account

Quite an eventful day today. Sam was feeling in the need for some serious exercise, so having hired some decent bikes we got up early and headed for the Kuang Si waterfall which is 30km away. That might not sound a great deal, but it is mountainous around here and 30+°C. After about 5km the tarmac road ran out and we were on a wide dirt track, which weaved its way up and over the mountains. Occasional trucks full of lazy, sorry read sensible, tourists sped past us on their way to the falls so we knew we were on the right route.

We passed several villages on the way all with signs saying three cleaned village next to their actual name? Dozens of school children were walking or on bikes and all wanted to say hello (pronounced sabadee in Lao) or held out their hand for a 'high five' as we rode by. They were all so friendly and helpful too, as we were to find out later.

Two and a half hours after setting out, we finally arrived. Very hot and quite tired we were looking forward to a swim. We are in the middle of nowhere and parking our bikes we started walking towards the ticket office at the entry to the waterfall area about 50 metres away, but not before a lady asks us to buy a parking ticket for our bikes! We are completely nonplussed at the ridiculousness of this suggestion, but she is insistent and has her official receipt book and tickets, we don't want to find our bikes gone later so with admittedly poor grace we pay up.

Before we reach the waterfall we stop at a large compound in the jungle, which is fenced in. Behind the fence are black bears some of whom are being raised there as their mother was killed and others who have been rescued. Some stand on their hind legs and two a sparring match as we watch.

The waterfall is magnificent. There are many different stages to it and you cannot see from one part to another very easily. We didn't realise this initially and thinking that that was it, we stopped for a swim. The water is a beautiful turquoise colour and very cold, but very refreshing. After our swim we ate our tuna and salad filled baguettes that we had bought and had freshly prepared in the market before setting off and we watched the local children splashing away in the water.

Walking further up the path on the possibility that there might be other things to see, we came across more falls, each more impressive than the last. Until finally we reached the top where there was a huge 100m fall surrounded by the same turquoise pools and occasional wooden water wheels.

Having drunk in all the sights, we walked back down the mountainside and stopped at another compound, this time containing a tiger. I was no more than three feet away from it, fortunately there is a chain link fence between us.

We see four other people in total who have cycled here, but none of them are cycling back. They have loaded themselves and bikes on to a Tuk Tuk for the 30km return journey to Luang Prabang. Sam and I are going to cycle back, mad that we are, but I find my back tyre is totally flat and of course we have no pump or repair kit. I glance suspiciously at the parking ticket lady and her cronies, they look sheepish to me and Sam is convinced that this is the result of their handiwork.

There is a tiny village close by and we wheel my bike there stopping to point to the wheel when we see a local. He directs us to a wooden hut where a few men are sitting around chatting. He jumps up as we arrive and disappears into his hut, returning moments later with a toolbox and repair kit. Ten minutes later it is fixed, with a motorbike repair patch and he asks for only 5000kip (about 28 pence). I double the amount with a tip and we are off. The first 4km is nearly all downhill and we make good time. After about 17km, disaster strikes again and Sam's back tyre goes flat. This time there is no village or hut and we are sandwiched between 2 mountains, it is deserted. As we crest a hill with the very last of the air in Sam's back tyre, I see a builders yard of some sort with a couple of lorries parked up. We walk in there in the hope of maybe getting a lift or to see if they would call a Tuk Tuk to come and get us. After pointing out the problem to them they immediately got to work and were soon busy repairing the puncture. This time with a lorry repair patch. They clamped a block of something onto the inner tube and then touched it with a lit cigarette. It immediately begin to fizz and smoke. Five minutes later they removed the clamp, pumped up the tyre and we were off again. They didn't want anything for their help, but Sam managed to get them to accept a token amount to buy a few beers.

The final ascent nearly finished us off and we walked for a bit before finally speeding down the other side. Arriving back at our guesthouse our legs feel like jelly and there is no hot bath to soak in, so a cold beer will have to do instead. Next time Sam wants to do some serious exercise, I think I'll hide.

We finished the evening off at Nazim Indian restaurant on the river and my mutton Vindaloo was among the best curries I have ever eaten. 

Day 143 - Wednesday 1st March 2006 - Sam's Account

Pinch, punch, first day of the month and bagsee no returns!

Well after an extremely good nights sleep we awoke to the trusty plastic watch alarm, which I am now going name "Buddy". So we got up at 7.30am to wash, pack, return the mountain bikes, pay our bill and leave for the bus station at 8.50am.

Our Tuk Tuk driver was ready and waiting for us before the agreed departure time. Let me explain :- Having cycled to the bus station 2 days previously to check out departure times and prices to Nong Khiaw we had subsequently been in a good bargaining position to book our bus tickets through one of the travel agencies on the high street and they include the Tuk Tuk trip from your guesthouse to the bus station in the price. We knew if we had organised our own Tuk Tuk we'd have paid far too much so this in fact worked out better. Do it alone = 28 000 Kip per person for the bus + $5 Tuk Tuk / Agency charged a total of 8$ for the both of us. Pas mal!

So, getting back to the story. Having loaded our heavy rucksacks onto the Tuk Tuk and waived a farewell to the owners of our guesthouse (they loved us, I can't think why?), we were off. Well kinda off, we were chogging along at a snails pace as our designated Tuk Tuk had definitely seen better days. Weaving in and out of the market, which never seems to close, we eventually got onto the main road and picked up a little speed. We went a different route to the one we had cycled a couple of days previously and were not too sure how much further we had to go when ... Clunk! Splurge! Ratatat! Squeely Pop!! ( OK I got a bit carried away!) the Tuk Tuk came to a sudden halt and our well planned bus trip seemed to be fairly questionable. Oh my Buddha! What to do? We offered giving the chap a push and he didn't think that would work and just as we were about to get our rucksacks on and walk the rest of the way another Tuk Tuk saw us in difficulty and performed an acrobatic U-turn in the road to help us. Phew! Especially as we didn't know how far we were from the bus station and the advice we had been given from everyone was "Make sure you're there early or you won't get a seat".

Well we transferred our luggage over to the other Tuk Tuk and our driver hopped in the front next to the new driver and he karate kicked his Tuk Tuk as we drove past it!

As luck would have it we weren't very far away at all, literally only a couple of minutes. We were at the bus stop before we could say "Jack Robinson" and having thanked both our drivers profusely we proceeded to quickly hand our luggage up to the bus driver on the roof so that we could hop in quickly to secure a seat.

We were the first ones, just.  Before we knew it there were 28 people trying to squeeze into a 20 seater bus. Some people were sat on little wooden children's school chairs which were placed on any free floor space whilst others (including a couple of monks) sat on the hard luggage shelf which separated the driver from the passengers. It was a real to do with lots of pushing and shoving. There were lots of different nationalities on the bus, some Italians started yelling at the locals to not sit on plants they had bought and were aggressively jostling for seats. Then an Australian guy, who initially set out in high spirits, offering to sit over the engine yelling "G'day mate!" to the golden robed monk sat next to him, soon lost his patience as his bum went numb and shouted at one of the Laos guys "well I'm pleased you think it's funny mate sellin' me a crook ticket. Yeah, it's f***in hilarious". What a mix, it was the best bit of people watching I had to feast my eyes on for some time.

Both Colin and I were very thankful we knew better than to arrive only a few minutes before the scheduled departure if you wanted a seat.

On arrival in Nong Khiaw we were all a bit non-plussed by the remote, rural, basic little village. I sat on our luggage whilst Colin darted off to find us accommodation before it was all taken by other Farang arriving. He soon returned successful and we checked into our little bamboo cabin which over looked the river. It was very cold and overcast in Nong Khiaw and we soon started piling on the clothing layers. Lunch was in a very basic little restaurant. Colin had pork and vegetable noodles which were in fact spaghetti but quite tasty and I had stir fried mixed veg and rice. The rice was stone cold! It is cooked in vast vats and then dished out as an when required but as they don't have any microwave's they just eat it cold. Lovely, not!

We then went back to our little hut to chill out as we were still quite tired after yesterday's  cycling and it was soon dark so we watched a film on the laptop (The day after Tomorrow with Dennis Quaid). There is nothing to do here at night and it is so incredibly dark you can't even see to get to the wash house which is a communal shack. Very basic and very cold but a fascinating experience and the locals seem to be lovely people.

Day 144 - Thursday 2nd March 2006 - Colin's Account

I found another branch of Nazim Curry restaurant last night, which was again excellent. A shack with plastic tables and chairs, neon lighting and concrete floors it was not very atmospheric, but fitted in well with the 'wild west' looking village we are in.

The village reminds me a little of some towns in Wales. It nestles in a valley surrounded by forbidding mountains and steep escarpments. There is no sunshine here and the wind has a definite chill to it. The tops of the mountains are shrouded in mist and the river flows past the little window of our bamboo hut.

Lunch was again at an Indian, but they only have cheese Nan in the evening, shame as it was superb last night.

Needing some exercise, there are some caves 2km away on the east side of the village which is actually two settlements. Nong Khiaw on the west side of the bridge and Muang Ngoi on the east. The caves themselves are set into a steep escarpment reached by a long wooden staircase. Originally it was a bamboo ladder and they were used as hideouts, in the late 60'S and early 70's, from the North Vietnamese and to escape the carpet bombing by America to counter them.

The cave is a maze of tunnels leading to such diverse areas as the hospital wing and cooking section. A 150m further along the cliff is the Bank Cave, which acted as the Bank of Luang Prabang during the same period. Imagine descending steeply through narrow corridors of stone, where there is no light except our torch and the silence is total. The air becomes oppressive, hot and humid and then suddenly the passage opens out into a cave that still sports a sign saying 'Accountants Office', 'Clerical Administration' or 'Bank Manager'.

Outside we see a local man stringing a net, on poles, across the mouth of the cave. We feel it is an odd place for a badminton net, but he explains that he is hoping to catch bats.

Back in our hut, I play the guitar on the balcony for a while. I am slowly getting back my ability, such as it ever was and a family staying in the hut next door kindly leave their door open and even appear to be enjoying it.

This place has somewhat of a 'Hotel California' feel to it and we are entirely unsure if we will ever be able to leave. There is a sort of bus station where we hope to try and catch a ride to Udomxai tomorrow.

Day 145 - Friday 3rd March 2006 - Sam's Account

"Buddy" woke us up at 8.45am and just getting out of all our covers and clothes to keep warm last night was a mission in itself. Sleeping bag, thick snow socks, a cashmere polo-neck and a thick fleece to name but a few.

Neither Colin or I could brave a freezing cold water wash this morning and settled for just washing our faces and brushing our teeth before packing our rucksacks and setting off on foot for the bus station which was only a 5 minute walk away.

Arriving an hour early we ensured our bags were safely strapped to the roof and that our places were reserved, we then had tea and fruit salad at the bus stop café whilst surveying our belongings. We soon struck up a conversation with a French couple from Croix near Lille believe it or not who were on a two week holiday in Laos. Our best mates Gilles & Ju Ju live in Croix so be couldn't believe it. Que le monde est vraiment petit!

It was odd speaking French again but we both fell back into the saddle quickly which was reassuring. Having exchanged names and numbers they were soon off on their boat and we were off on our bus.

The bus (28 000 kip per person) was an open-aired extended Tuk Tuk and so I hopped onto the roof to pull out a second jumper from my rucksack to ensure I didn't freeze in the wind on our 3 hour journey to Udomxai. The air was fairly biting and it would have probably been quite a boring and miserable journey if we hadn't immediately struck up conversation with our fellow Farang passengers; a couple of whom were from England, John and Richard.

We were soon exchanging travelling stories and tips as well as chewing the sociological fat of the various places we'd all visited in South East Asia. As usual we picked up and dropped off the locals en route who squished themselves into the bus with all their usual mountains of luggage which always seems to be fresh food produce. It seems that the Farang unknowingly subsidise free bus and boat travel for all locals in Laos. Anyhow, it was great to have a meaty chat with our fellow Farang passengers and before we knew it we had arrived in Udomxai.

Hooray, at last, the sun was shining. We worked out our orientation, peeled off our layers of clothing, donned our rucksacks and set off to find somewhere to sleep for the night. We easily found a very respectable guesthouse which was spotlessly clean, tidy, well equipped rooms with a TV (oooh!!) and most importantly a hot shower. Bliss.

Having showered and changed we realised how hungry we were, it was already 4.30pm and we hadn't eaten lunch so we walked through the town to find a nice restaurant for a chow down. We eventually found an absolute treasure of a place called Soupailin's Restaurant. The food and drinks were really excellent as were the prices. It was such a treat to find a place which offered excellent food at good value for money. Mrs Soupailin warmly welcomed us and sat us down with the menu's and her guest books to read. The guest books sang praises of her food and we were not disappointed in the least. This place is very basic as it had holes in the tables and only plastic stools to sit on in the wooden decked house but it is an absolute MUST if you ever find yourself in Udomxai. You never know!

As the sun went down the cold temperatures rapidly returned and so with our bellies full we hurried back to our guesthouse to snuggle up in front of CNN. It's amazing how the simple things in life, like having a sink, become so pleasurable when you've spent a few nights in a cold shack and not had any hot water.

Day 146 - Saturday 4th March 2006 - Colin's Account

We woke up to traffic sounds through the window, which made a change to the usual cockerels, I'm still undecided which is worse.

Having seen a notice board advertising a walk to the top of a nearby mountain where they have a communications tower, we decided to go for it. A tiny market is situated at a five way dirt crossroads near Udomxai and having bought a few provisions we set off.

The round trip is about 12km and climbs to an altitude of about 1250m above sea level. The ascent is up, up and always up. Along the way we met several local people from hill tribe villages, who were stripping the bark from saplings to make rope or thatch for their huts. All of them smiled, but not all answered our 'sabaidee' in the same way as around 30% of Lao people don't even speak Lao.

Evidently few if any tourists take this route and the reason is simple. Nearly everyone who arrives here immediately goes on to Luang Nam Tha or Boten on the Chinese border. The locals are fighting back with signs listing reasons to stay in Udomxai and in truth it's not a bad place. The guesthouses are clean, cheap and have all facilities. The people are friendly and although the town was extensively bombed, hence very little in the way of traditional buildings, the surrounding countryside is pretty.

We made it to the top surprisingly quickly, although admittedly we were very hot and sticky. There are hundreds of butterflies, gigantic bees and some insect that sounds like it's using a petrol driven chainsaw. We stopped for a picnic and admired the view, although many of the mountains were obscured by a thick haze.

The walk back was quickly accomplished, with the total trek time, including stop, of just over three hours instead of the four mentioned in the brochure. We must be fitter than we think.

For dinner we went back to Madame Soupailin's place and again the food was excellent, although the waiting time of two hours for our meal began to wear heavily on our nerves towards the end. Especially as we were tired and hungry after our long walk. Noting this, she didn't bring out the guestbook this time for us to record for our comments.

Day 147 - Sunday 5th March 2006 - Sam's Account

Phew, what a day! It started leisurely with Buddy waking us around 8am but we both had that Sunday feeling for the first time since we've been away and it was really hard getting going, especially as we were both still tired from yesterday's hike.

We made it to the bus station for 10am, an hour before our bus was due to depart and secured our seats as usual. There were already a fair few seats taken and the plastic chairs lay in wait for the overspill.

Having bought our provisions of fruit and baguettes for the 4 hour journey we ended up having to hang around until 11.45am until we were all packed into the bus like sardines, as usual, for the off. But, of course not yet, how could I have forgotten that we needed to go to the petrol station first to fill up and then pick up all the locals that can't be bothered to get to the bus station. The seats were very uncomfortable there was absolutely no leg room whatsoever and any one who wasn't a short arse i.e. the Farang had the blood cut off at the knees for the whole trip.

Once we'd made our first stop after a couple of hours for a pee break, the driver put some music on and we settled into the journey in a better spirit, uncomfortable though it was. The scenery  was beautiful, the sun came out, I was listening to Fleetwood Mac on my MP3  with the window open and the fresh air streaming into the overheated little bus. "You can go your own way, own waaayyy!" Yeah baby, life felt good even if it was cramped.

On arrival in Luang Nam Tha, at around 4.30pm the driver decided to take a few detours dropping a few people off before finally arriving at the bus station.

Oh my god, what a pit. Seriously this place is a complete and utter shit hole. Groaning with the thought of the unnecessary bus trip we heavy heartedly heaved our rucksacks onto our backs and trudged off to find somewhere to stay. The choice of accommodation for the night was the lesser of two evils. A very mouldy room with no windows which apparently had hot water (which looking at the shower was highly dubious) and a double bed OR, oh joy of all joys, a very mouldy room with windows, twin beds and an eventual honest declaration of no hot water. We went with the second having negotiated a 5000 Kip discount due to the lack of hot water. Total cost for the night's accommodation was 25 000 Kip (2.5$).  The beds themselves were hand made ply wood with nails which had a couple of duvet's on the wooden bases as a make-shift mattresses. Thankfully the sheets were clean and we were impressed to see they had supplied a clean small towel (oohh, oooh!!). The disturbing thing was that the rooms reminded us of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge torture rooms in the concentration camp in Phnom Penh. Cringe.

We sat on the ends of our beds dejected and disgusted with the situation.

"Come on, it's only for one night" I said trying to sound cheery, "Let's go and have a look around".

So off we trudged off to check out the town. Having sorted out our orientation we made our way through this vastly spread out town to what seemed to be the centre, although it all looks like all the other roads to be honest. Having spied a money changer to convert our remaining kip into RMB (Yuan) we decided to have a blow out meal with a bottle of wine to lift our spirits and use up some of our remaining Laos currency before entering China.

We had a bottle of Bordeaux Superior with mountains of various dishes, stir fried mixed veg, rice, beef and mushrooms, chips, spring rolls, mixed salad. You name it we ate it! The wine went down a treat and we resisted the temptation and extravagant indulgence of buying another bottle. With our tummies pulling at the sides we went to do our last few jobs before going back to the dreaded mouldy room. The internet shop had no one in it at all and the owner warmly greeted us as we went in to download and up load e-mails. It didn't work. Great. So we shrugged our shoulders and left the owner all on his own again to change our left over baht and kip into RMB.

Back in the room we decided you couldn't see the filth on the walls nearly as badly in candle light instead of their strip fluorescent lighting. So we huddled up on one of the twin beds in the candle light and drifted off to somewhere much nicer than the room in our dreams.

In all honestly our visit to Luang Nam Tha wasn't such a waste of time after all. The town isn't really as absolutely awful as we initially thought. Yes, it's bad and rough and rugged but it is strangely interesting because it is so rudimentary. The real attraction for visitors to this place lies in the surrounding hills as many treks are available to see hill tribes. Neither of us were tempted to stay here any longer than needed and the treks didn't really interest us either as apparently they are far too commercial, over sold and the hill tribes are now very fed up with the number of visitors they have.

The terrain and landscapes are not dissimilar to Northern Thailand and we had already had our fair share of trekking there and of course discovering the mountains on our trusty Honda dream. The best thing to do if you want to see some of Laos on foot is to put down your guide books, buy a map and look out for local notice boards suggesting walks and then go it alone. That's what we did yesterday and the hill tribe people we met en route couldn't have been lovelier. They were fascinated with us as much as we were with them and much nodding, smiling and waiving was done all day. They don't speak Laos so our "Sabadee's" were not answered but they were very surprised to see us and genuinely friendly and pleased.

Tomorrow we hit China again so this is our last day in Laos and indeed South East Asia for some time to come. I have already described the people and the places in Laos so if you have read our previous entries you won't need me to reiterate this. However, one extremely good piece of advice we can give you when travelling around South East Asia (or possibly anywhere for that matter) is don't always follow the guide books. Our Lonely Planet guide book, which covers the whole of S.E. Asia,  has been great for working out boarder crossings and bus/train/boat/plane routes. BUT, if a certain place is recommended in the guides EVERYONE and their mothers are already there. Evidently this is often times for a good reason, but the guides have been a victim of their own success in spoiling towns and villages due to the vast increase in tourism. It is difficult to find anywhere in S.E. Asia which is off the beaten track as there are so many younger people who come here as an easy introduction to travelling which isn't too risky. This is a good idea, I did it myself when I was backpacking on my own 6 years ago. However, I have to say that the popularity of this area is also it's big downfall from a travellers point of view as opposed to a tourist's point of view. If I were to come here on an actual holiday my opinion wouldn't be the same and I'd no doubt love it all the more.

The Laos Journal is now finished and moves to the Southern China journal