So here's whats been happening with some choice photos:
Monday 3rd Feb
Breakfast over looking the Meekong, 35000K + 5000 - £3.00
Put laundry in 25000K for 2.5Kg - £1.90
Walked through local market and some more of the town just soaking up what's going on, etc.
Eventually found a small riverside bar, and I'm having a couple of small Beerlao but the Dark version, 20000K while I write up these notes...
More Temples:
A Beerlao at a local store 10000K. Then out for dinner at a more expensive place, the Bakery, where the free WiFi wouldn't work where I was sitting 😒. Chicken spring rolls (4) and a Beerlao for 80000K. Walk the street market, including the food part which looked good but you need to be a group, really! Bought some peanuts 10000K, unsalted but there's a packet of salt in the bag. Back to guesthouse and a nightcap Beerlao for 10000K before bed! So I spent 195000K today i.e. £14.80 it felt like a lot more...
Tuesday 4th Feb
Breakfast - The Full Monty! beans served cold! 60000K
Basic push bike + map 40000K had to deposit my drivers license.
Two hours cycling around, time for lunch! Sticking to favourites sweet and sour chicken, together with a large Beerlao 45000K.
Some more cycling but it was hot and my legs were aching, so checked the bike back in! And headed for a bar to sit down, chill and snap some street shots.
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| The Coconut Man |
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| Colourful front of a Tuk Tuk... |
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| Room for at least one more, maybe! |
Two more Beerlao's, 24000K.
Picked laundry up, all in tack. Out for dinner, back to bar above, The Garden Restaurant, for some chicken with cashews and rice 55000K. Must try something other than chicken!
224000K today about £17
Wednesday 5th Feb
Walked up Phu Si, I am so unfit!! But made it and took some photos from the top and on the way down the other side.
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| Top of Phu Si |
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| View to the River |
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| Local women make offerings that you buy and put near your Buddha |
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| All different Buddha's |
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| The Tuesday Buddha |
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| A white hair and bearded Buddha - will this be me in the future? |
Then cross the Bamboo bridge 5000K to a place for breakfast. America with a twist, scrambled eggs and crispy bacon with fresh fruit salad on the same plate and a coffee 42000K.
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| Is this really safe? |
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| It really is just Bamboo! |
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| Should have given them those old TV's! |
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| Drying out their tomatoes |
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| Local silk weaver |
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| Here coe the Monks |
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| And they're Happy too... |
Took a Tuk Tuk (4 wheel version) to Kiang Si waterfalls for 200000 + 20000 tip a 3/4 hour trip.
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| There were lots of wooden bridges on route |
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| A four wheel Tuk Tuk! |
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| Not what you'd expect to see at a waterfall, there was a bear rescue centre here! |
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| Phu Si in the distance |
Back to a French bar Tangor for drinks and spring rolls, yes I like these! This is where I met Salador, from Provence en France. He introduced me to his friend Marie Therese, who recently widowed lives near him en Provence.
They invited me to join them for dinner, a Lao style BBQ. It was a good evening speaking mainly English but also having to speak a little French - not what I'd imagine I'd be doing in Laos, although there is a big French influence.
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| Meat including the pork fat for cooking |
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| Cooking time, this was a great way to spend the evening! |
Thursday 6th Feb
Met Salvador and Marie for breakfast as both Sakvador and me were on the same flight #6 to Vientiane, so we shared his guesthouse's minivan to the airport for 40000K+4000K tip. At the airport he had trouble with some liquid in his carry on and had to check it in the hold. We sat together and conversed in French/English. On arrival his second bag never made it and he had to sort out with the baggage handlers, he invited me with his friend in Vientiane to join them for lunch but I could see this would cause issues with me getting back to the airport, so I declined and we said Au Revoir - I have his email and mobile number if I ever go to Provence!
Off I went to the International part of the airport, much better than the domestic!!
Since travellers seem to unite, I met an American, Budlee Green, who's been living in and around Bangkok for a couple of years and a Swiss girl, Fanny L***, who had gone to Australia to learn English and had taken a month to take in Thailand and Laos.
Budlee was off home to Bangkok and Fanny also but then on to Brisbane. We were all on different flights and the way they check in you can't go through to departures until the plane is boarding. So we chatted for a while and then Budlee went for his flight, I would be next. We turns to watch each other's bags while we went to the toilet or outside for a smoke, etc.
Fanny related their Laos adventure, she and her boyfriend and three other Swiss friends decided once they'd crossed the Thailand border, via one of the "Friendship" bridges that they would buy an old fishing boat and cruise down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, a little eccentric and very bold. They paid 7,000,000K - £535 which between five seemed reasonable, I suppose.
They had all the fishing gear and slept on the boat at night. They were a little unsure of what was in he water at night, Fanny said she could see snake like shapes! a little spooky. Taking on the Mekong was possibly more than they bargained for as it's a very big expanse of water and very unpredictable, to the point that they crashed the boat on some rocks! And that was after a day when the engine stopped working! So they ended up abandoning the boat and wading ashore then walking to a village and going to the place where they caught the slow boat to Luang Prabang. An adventure that was potentially more dangerous than they'd thought, it was a good thing that they crashed the boat so soon, especially after they'd taken the slow boat and realised the danger they could have been in further down the river!!
I said my goodbyes and went to catch my flight #7 to Hanoi.
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