Angkor Wat

We got up at 4.30am to make it for the sunrise at Angkor Wat - boy we were so tired as we had been out the night before and it was so cold! We got there and waited around for quite a while until the sky slowly started to change and the sun came up.

Angkor Wat is just spectacular - ringed by a big wall and surrounded by a big moat-like lake, the towers just reach up into the sky and you can see the ancient carvings and boulders just lying about. It's very beautiful when the sun hits it and awe inspiring all around. We spent 4 hours at Angkor Wat alone!

Then on to Bayon, with it's many faces of deities looking in all directions and through the Victory Gate full of elaborate carvings. On to the Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper King and lots and lots of more temples and ruins I can't remember the names of. It was great though! There are seriously steep steps running to the top of all these temples and you can clamber up if you're brave enough! On some of them you have to climb on your hands and knees because it is so steep and you mustn't look down because if you do, your knees shake!

You are so high up with nothing holding you which I think is what makes it so scary. For our last temple, we went to Ta Prohm, which is where they filmed Tomb Raider. It is a very magical temple, all in ruins with big blocks fallen down and overgrown by gigantic trees with their roots burrowing deep into the stonework. It looks beautiful and the whole place is very romantic in its decay. In all the other temples, there are various restoration works going on in order to rebuild broken bits, but apparently this temple has gone beyond repair and now they are just working on trying to make it fall down less.

Phil's favourite temple was Angkor Wat and mine was Ta Prohm. But really, they are all stunning in their own way and it's nuts to think that a thousand years ago, these people got up and went walked over the same steps and built these great structures. Many of the temples also have great carvings all around the walls and that alone must have taken absolute ages because it's so intricate and delicate.

There are hordes of tourists about, but if you time it well, you will be able to take some nice shots and have peace. For instance, there were lots of people there to watch the sunrise, but then they left straight after which meant that we had the place to ourselves for the rest of the morning.

At every temple though, you will be confronted by hordes of children trying to sell you drinks, postcards, bracelets, t-shirts, paintings and rubbish. Some of them are very clever and they will make you laugh. For instance one girl was shouting at me from across the square 'Miss, buy my drink, miss, buy a cold drink from me!" I pointed at my 1.5l bottle of cold water and told her I didn't need a drink as I had one already. So she shouts "You only have water, but you don't have Coke!" How clever is that?! I had to laugh at that.

There are a lot of people begging on the streets and people are very poor here. It's hard to see all the little kids going around begging, but on the other hand you can't give money to all of them - there are just too many - and if you give to one, they will all come running and demand that you give them something too. You just can't. Just in the town they are running around and selling books like Lonely Planets and bracelets and postcards, but again, you can't buy from all and they won't be allowed to keep the money anyway, because I think they are organised into a group and will have to pay 'commission' to whoever supplies them with the merchandise in the first place.

Anyway, we had a great day at the temples and got back thoroughly exhausted! Tomorrow will be a relaxing day and we'll move to another guesthouse - Yay! Our Christmas present to each other is hot water for our showers - hooray!

Siem Reap

Our flight to SR was very good - we flew by Lao Airlines and although we were a bit apprehensive because we had heard so many horror stories about them, it was absolutely fine! WE left on time, our luggage was taken care of and we got a sandwich and a drink during the flight. Very nice and pleasant!

We landed on time, too and after making our way through immigration (consisting of a row of about 20 people in uniform - you hand them your money, forms and passport on the left and go pick it all up on the right. So it passes through every single person along the row - don't know what they are all doing to be honest...) and got picked up by Savuth from our Guesthouse. Unfortunately, he thought it was just me, so he came on a bike, but then had to call a friend to pick up Phil as well. Not too impressed with our guesthouse though, they are really pushy on the sales for the temples and are not service oriented at all. They are in the guidebooks, so I think they have just stopped trying and don't care because they know lots of tourists will come to them anyway.

Went to then have a look around the city which is nice and pretty french and had a few beers and some food, then back to the guesthouse for some rest. Tomorrow morning, we will have to go to the clinic to get Phil's rabies shot and then we will buy our temple ticket and go see the sunset at Angkor Wat.

Bolaven Plateau

We had an amazing day today going to the Bolaven Plateau near Pakxe. We went on a tour and though we were meant to be at least 4 people on it, the morning of the trip, everyone else cancelled so Phil and I got a private tour for a fraction of its normal price – how lucky!

We were very excited! Set off from Pakxe with Jack, the driver and Ta, our guide for the day. Both were really friendly and good fun and both of them spoke English very well, which meant we got to ask lots of questions!

First off, we went to a tea plantation and saw the trees, where they pick the Green Tea leaves from. The trees look really cute, they are quite small and you only pick the very young light green leaves for the tea. We watched the farmer there and his family at work and they are so fast! You have to pick it all by hand and of course you need to know which leaves are good for picking and which aren’t and their eyes are so trained, they are super fast at it. It’s hard work and their farm measured about 4 hectares which they worked as a family of about five or six people. We were told that every tree gets its leaves picked every 14 days and in between you have to maintain them of course and do the weeding and everything else that goes with it. Hard work!

We also saw how they then dry the leaves and roast them to develop the flavour and we got to try some of their freshly brewed tea – it was very nice! We also saw coffee plantations and you basically get two types grown in this region – arabica and robusta. Of the two, arabica fetches a better price and the trees are different to the robusta coffee trees. They are much smaller and the leaves are smaller too, but the coffee berries are much much bigger.

You can see this big old leafy tree and then when you look closer, you can see these massive big red berries hanging off them. These will be picked by hand, then put through a machine in order to get the seed out of each berry, which is then dried in the sun, then roasted and then becomes the coffee as we know it! Most of the coffee that Laos produces is for its own use, but also they export a lot to France. The coffee itself is very nice and it’s definitely worth trying if you ever get the chance.

After seeing the tea and coffee plantations, we made our way to see one of the famous waterfalls in the area. It’s called Tad Fane and it consists of two parallel streams thundering into a canyon some 200 metres below. The area is surrounded by jungle, cliffs and mountains and is absolutely spectacular! We spent a long time on the viewing platform across the gorge when Ta announced that we were going to take a short drive and then we would get to walk to the actual falls! We were very excited and began our trek through some really thick and dense undergrowth downhill. At times we couldn’t really see the track but we kept following Ta, swinging off some tree trunks and holding on to anything that would come in handy as the going was tough. We were then rewarded by arriving at the first of the two parallel waterfall streams, right at the top of it. We balanced over some stones and skipped across and then were standing right at the edge of the drop. It was truly high and scary and the water was just gushing along and then tumbling down the abyss! We peeked over the edge and you could see the ground so far down and it was so scary, I had to get down on my hands and knees to look, otherwise, I don’t think I would have been able to stand up and not fall in! It’s a great big gorge or like a canyon, I don’t really know the right word for it, but it’s amazingly beautiful.

We clambered on to get to the second stream and of the two, it looked a much bigger stream and was more thundery on its way down. After some more fighting through undergrowth, we finally made it. WOW! What amazes me is how the water so casually flows along like a little river and then all of a sudden you have this massive bit of nothing. That’s it. Wheeeeeee and you’re down… it’s crazy really. Phil took some pictures over the edge and I was so scared for him and was grabbing his top and holding on to him, because I was convinced he’d trip or something similar and then that would be it. Thank God all went well.

After some more hard work, we made it out of the jungle and saw another waterfall – I forgot the name now, which was really lovely too but more of a tourist spot. As it wasn’t too hot, we decided we’d leave the swimming in ice cold water for another day! Ta looked relieved when we said we weren’t too fussed about going swimming, the poor man was shivering and was wearing a vest, a long sleeve thick flannel shirt and a jacket! Phil and I were in our shorts and t-shirts…

On to lunch, which was so delicious! We had some rice and an omelet with stir fried vegetables and we munched it all up followed by lovely fresh pineapple and banana. YumYum! We then went on the road again and this time, went a bit further afield in order to get to another beauty spot deep in the forest. En route, we picked up Ta’s cousin, who was local to the area there, so he could show us the way.

We first went to a great big rock, where we prayed at the shrine and saw the place where a monk has been living for 5 years. It’s the world’s smallest room with a mat and a pot in it by the side of the rock. That’s it. Man, it must be so cold!! We also met some people from the village there and they were very friendly and surprised to see us, because that’s not a place where tourists go or know about.

We climbed up the rock and then began going very steeply downhill through the jungle on a barely visible track. As neither Ta nor Jack had been there before, we all relied on Ta’s cousin and we walked on through the thicket. It was really tough going! Sometimes it was rocky, sometimes it was overgrown and sometimes just slippery mud and all the way really steeply down. I was hanging on to trees and vines and trying not to loose my balance while going over rocks and logs and roots. I tell you, you do work up a sweat doing that!

Finally, we got to a lovely waterfall, consisting of seven levels cascading down. It was beautiful. In the distance, you could see the Mekong shining in the sunlight and we were surrounded by trees and hilltops. We spent a long time there soaking up the athmosphere and enjoying the fresh clean air of the waterfall. We went down it further along some more big rocks to the bottom and then just sat and stared at the water - beautiful.

It then was time to go and when you go downhill, you inevitably will have to go uphill to get back home again... wow, it was hard! Not just becaue it was steep but also because the ground was quite diffiult to negotiate. I was very pleased when we made it and got to sit back down in the car to get back to Pakxe. It was quite late by then and we were all quite tired, so we spent the way listening to Lao pop music which was fun and then went for a beer! What a great conclusion to our time in Laos, as tomorrow morning, we will have to go to the airport early in the morning to catch our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Si Pha Don

We made our way from Pakxe down the Route 13 to Ban Nakasang from where we caught a little boat to drop us off at Don Khon island.

Don Khon is part of the Si Pha Don or 4000 Islands, so called because in the south of Laos, the Mekong River divides into little rivulets exposing many sandbanks and islands during the dry season.

Once there, the place is pretty amazing. You only have electricity for about 3 hours a day. Accommodation are bamboo huts and you can have a cold shower there. Everything comes straight from the Mekong river - the shower water, the sink and everything goes straight back into the Mekong as well! We made sure we didn't use the water for brushing teeth or washing our faces and stayed well away from any kind of raw food to avoid a bad stomach!

The people there are very friendly and the place is so chilled out - everyone kind of hangs about most of the day, though they do lots of fishing and rice farming. Everyting they can't produce themselves, they have to cart over by boat from the main land.

We rented some bikes and had a good look around the island, which is famous for its dolphins (we didn't see any) and two waterfalls. It was also used as a transport hub by the French during colonial times, so you can still view the old pier and the only railway line they built during the occupation. It connects Don Khon with Don Det and is about 60 metres long. Basically, it's a bit crap. It's also not in use anymore, because everyone uses their boats to get to the other side or just walks over the track.

We also managed to find the big waterfall, Khon Pa Soi, which is SE Asias biggest waterfall by volume. It doesn't look like your typical waterfall, but it's still very nice and you can climb all around it and at the bottom too. You can also go and watch the fishermen there balancing on some logs to get over the tricky bits. Phil walked across some of them and he had to crawl across, but the fishermen were just walking normally and balancing on them while pulling in fish!

There are only dirt tracks around the island and they are in a pretty bad state, so it was funny being on a bike, my hands hurt and my bum really hurts! They only have some really basic bikes, no gears, no brakes and really what you would want is a proper mountain bike! Mind you, it all adds to the fun. Don Det island is a bit more developed in that there are more guesthouses and restaurants there but the pace is still the same. More people stay there than on Don Khon, which we didn't really understand, because you don't go there for the party scene, but for the quietness and Don Khon is much more prettier and relaxing. But hey, we don't mind, it just meant more space for us!

The food on the islands was pretty interesting, too. Because everything has to be brought across from the mainland, the selection on offer can be eclectic and everything takes a very long time to prepare, because everything is cooked on charcoal and of course there is no refrigeration either. This morning, we ordered bread and eggs for breakfast and the eggs weren't a problem, but they sent one girl off on her bike to get some bread from God knows where. Then they realised that we had ordered two, so she had to get on her bike again to fetch another one!

Also got to watch some pretty amazing sunsets and spent the evenings lying in the hammock on our little porch. Very relaxing! We could have easily spent more time there, but we came back to Pakxe after two nights there in order to be able to go to the Bolaven Plateau before flying out to Siem Reap.

We're excited about Cambodia, but also a bit sad to be leaving Laos behind... can't believe it's almost Christmas! Merry Christmas everybody!

Pakxe

Right, we survived the night bus from Vientiane to Pakxe! It was actually a surprisingly comfortable journey - a proper big double decker bus and the road was great too, no trouble with a quick stop about half way through the journey.

After all the stories you hear about travel in Laos, we had braced ourselves for a rough night, especially after our trip from Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai in Thailand. But, it all went super smooth! Got picked up from our guest house by a truck, then driven down to the bus station, shuffled onto our VIP Bus and off we went.

We all got given ice cold water, some rice and chicken and sweeties. We also had a telly which showed the DVD of Live8 in Hyde Park. It was very enjoyable! My seat was not broken, the toilet was not broken and the air con was working but I could turn it off - perfect.

Arrived in Pakxe and then made our way to find somewhere to stay. It was fine, but we got there so early in the morning, we had to hang around for a few hours until we could check in to our room. That was exhausting. But after a quick nap, we were ready to explore the city.

Hooray! We found a post office, a couple of banks, the 'shopping centre' and the bus stop. Yeah, well and that was it. That's the excitement of Pakxe... it's a transport hub really so not much is going on. There is no night life. At all.

Lao people get up really really early but this also means that they are knackered by the time it gets to 7pm. So it's no surprise Pakxe is not rocking. But we sorted ourselves out and we are off to the 4000 islands tomorrow.

By the way, had a Korean BBQ for dinner which was yum!

Vientiane

Goodbye to Matt, Tom and Pete, while we stay on. We like Vientiane and have managed to see a lot of it's sights. It's the capital city, but still feels very small and town-like.

We've been to see the Patuxai monument, which is basically a bit like the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and made from concrete that was donated by the US in order to build a new runway at the airport. Hahahah! It's to commemorate the Laos people who died in the wars, so in a way, it is a bit of a two-finger salute to the US.

We've been to the most famous temple, too which has got a great golden stupa and saw the morning market and other bits of town. Hired some bikes to have a look around and treated ourselves by lounging by the pool side of Vientiane's poshest hotel. Also managed to find the lido, built in the 50s by the French and just generally had a good look around.

After our last injection tomorrow, we have a week until getting to Siem Reap, so we decided to jump on the night bus to Pakxe and visit the Bolaven Plateau and the 4000 Islands. Hopefully we'll manage to fit it all in until we fly to Siem Reap on the 20th. The plateau is the main coffee growing region in Laos and the 4000 Islands is where the Mekong River divides into many rivulets until it joins together again to flow into Cambodia and then Vietnam. If we are lucky, we will be able to see the rare Irrywady Dolphins (the only freshwater dolphins in the world) around the islands and maybe top up our tans on the beaches around there.

It all sounds great, and we're excited to be able to move on. Hopefully, we'll be in Siem Reap for Christmas and meet up with Tom, which should be a laugh! Can't believe it's this time of year already...

Getting ready for Vientiane

As I'm better now, Phil and I have decided to get to Vientiane. But excitement struck again and this time it was in the shape of a cat.

Phil got clawed by it for no reason (it's still young and just wanted to play) and it also nipped my wrist. So now we had to worry about rabies - AARRRGGGHH!

Once in Vientiane, we decided to get it checked out at the embassy clinic, where we fully expected the doctor to laugh at us and say 'Dont' be silly'. Unfortunately, he didn't. Guess you can get rabies from even a lick so in theory, both of us could have it. What to do now? Neither of us had the vaccination done (it would have made everything a whole lot easier) so now we had to decide whether we were going to have the emergency immunoglobin injections!

They told us they only had enough for one person and they were the only facility in Laos that had it available, so we had to decide. In the end, Phil had the immunoglobin (big injection - poor Phil, it hurt lots) and we are both getting the vaccinations done. To be honest, I still worry about having it, but there's nothing I can do about it now.

This also means that we have to stay in Vientiane for at least a week in order to get as many of the injections done as possible before moving on, because there just aren't enough facilities available in Laos. The next clinic that will be able to give us our injections is in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Vang Vieng Vice

I'm ill again - I think the river was not too healthy for my 'ecosystem'. I've managed to be poorly for a good few days now and feel like a proper party pooper, while the others are enjoying the night life and other delights that VV has to offer.

I'm eating dry baguette and sleep a lot. Boooooooring.

Vang Vieng

Hooray, we got to Vang Vieng! On the road to Vang Vieng, we had stopped for yet another wee break, when we saw a group of guys with big guns walking up the road - boy did we hustle back in our car! Yowz, we were scared because we had read about bandits, but luckily, they paid no attention to us, phew!

So when we got to Vang Vieng, we managed to find a little gem of a place to stay - it is right by the river and has a great wooden verandah that opens straight out to the river and the most stunning mountain view. We were all very excited by the view and settled into our dirt cheap rooms - aaaah, bliss.

Vang Vieng is a party town. The main strip is a bit like Bangkok's Khao San road - not a compliment - full of cafe's and restaurants showing 'Friends' on a loop. But the main activity there is the tubing. Tubing is basically sitting in a big donut shaped inflate tube and floating down the river. When you feel thirsty, the bars along the river bank throw you a rope and you pull yourself in. When you pass under a bridge, people pass you a beer. It's great. The bars along the river vary in size and are sometimes just floating platforms, but who cares?

One of the main attractions of one of the bars is the Flying Fox. Basically, a big trapeze that you can swing yourself off from a platform and then splash into the river. It's great fun if you like that sort of thing - I was too scared to do it. That platform was high, man! Also, I saw some people get it very very wrong and it looked just too painful. Most people though are high on something or other, so maybe they don't really feel it. Phil and the other guys had a go though and did very well as you can see from the pics! Very brave!

After this exhausting day, we managed to get back to the Guest house, clean ourselves up and hit the town for some more action!

Phonsavan

After spending a lovely few days in Louang Prabang, it was time for us to move on... it was hard to say goodbye to Mama and Papa and we all felt that we could have stayed there a bit longer.

But Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars was calling! So we hired a minivan to take us from Louang Prabang to Phonsavan and then on to Vang Vieng. We shopped around for ages and managed to get a great price on the car and driver. It was going to be six of us: Phil, Matt, Tom, Pete, Olivier and me. Our driver was called Dhebt. I'm not sure about the spelling... never mind.

The plan was to leave at 8am, but as some of us had been out on the beers the night before - you know who you are! - we didn't leave the guesthouse until about 9am. Then, we had to pay, but none had their money ready, then someone realised they forgot their shoes so we had to go back and someone else forgot their laundry so we had to go back again. By the time we hit the road, it was nigh 11am and everyone got hungry. Poor Dhebt was very patient with us.

On the road finally and we started the snaking mountain route to Phonsavan - it's only about 200km away, but it took us about 6 hours to get there. The roads are narrow and windy. Very windy. I felt ill for a lot of the time. But not as ill as Tom. Tom felt very very ill... We did make a couple of stops and it was funny trying to find a place for a wee, as you're not really meant to go in the bush because of mines and then again, I really didn't feel like showing my bum to the whole of Laos and the boys, who would have wet themselves laughing.

After yet another enforced stop - Dhebt really didn't want to stop - we got back in the car only to screech to a halt after a couple of metres. Olivier had managed to step in some poo - God knows where, none of us had seen any - and had then managed to get it all over himself, the car and the seats! Oh my God, I nearly died laughing! After some serious cleaning, we finally managed to be on our way again and then only stopped once more for some food - I think Dhebt gave up when he realised we wouldn't stop complaining about being hungry - we had a really yummy hot noodle soup in this random roadside village with lots of naked kids running about. Really interesting, because everyone stared at us, and probably thought we were crazy.

We finally reached Phonsavan and went off in search of Site 1 of the Plain of Jars. The jars are a mystery. They have been there for thousands of years and no one knows what they are there for or what they've been used for. Theories go that they were used for funeral urns but lots more theories abound. They are jars carved out of rock scattered about this wide open space in different sizes and shapes. They are really amazing and you can walk around and touch them. The area where they are found was one of the most heavily bombed areas during the Secret War and even today there are still tons of mines to be found there. Fortunately though, you are able to walk around in the cleared bits though you have to be careful of course.

We had a really good look around at all of the jars and then tried to find a place to stay for the night. If you ever get to Phonsavan, book somewhere. You will have a much nicer time this way. We couldn't find anything! And everything was very expensive. But the town itself was very strange, there was absolutely nothing going on! Dead quiet... we finally found a hotel that had the most enormous carved wooden staircase, but not much else. Our room was fine, but the boys had really strange ones with brick walls in all sorts of different places popping up... a bit eerie.

Next day, we took in Site 2 and Site 3 of more jars and then went off in the van, heading for Vang Vieng. Another long journey...

Lots to do in Louang Prabang

There are some outstanding waterfalls in the area around LP and the scenery is also amazing with mountains and rivers carving their way through. It's prime trekking area, so the Phil and the boys decided on having a 'GRRRRR' kind of day and do some mountain biking, kayaking and swimming at Tad Sae Waterfall.

Us girls decided that we didn't feel quite so energetic so instead decided to take a tuk tuk out to the waterfall and meet up with the boys there. We had a non eventful journey there, really, until we got to the river and realised we had to pay some random fisher men to get the boat across to the waterfall. As we were negotiating the price, a massive group of people came along and they all wanted to also get into our boat. My God, what a kerfuffle! That group didn't want to pay the price we had negotiated - honestly, it was 30p! - and instead launched into this massive thing that took about 20 minutes to resolve. We were properly miffed by the time it came to leaving!

But oh wow, how the mood lifted when we came to the waterfall! It was beautiful! It's set amongst trees and spills straight into the Nam Ou river over several steps. At each step you have pools and the water is turquoise and very clean and beautiful. It was so relaxing! We sunbathed, had a picnic and generally just enjoyed life. The boys loved it there too and they ended up not really looking forward to the 3 hour upstream kayak to get them back to our Guesthouse - heheheh.

On another day, we went to another waterfall, Kuang Sae which was about 30km away from town. We went there by sawngthaew, which is basically an open truck with two wooden benches. It was very funny riding in it, but only for a while, because your bum hurts and then you get very dusty on the dirt roads. By the time we got to the waterfall, we looked like we had rolled in dirt. But this waterfall was amazing too! It is very tall and then breaks up into smaller pools, but it's less open than Tad Sae and there are a lot of trees and rocks in the water. It's still great though.

We were swimming in this one waterhole, when Phil was being very brave and jumped off the waterfall there into the pool below. It doesn't look so high, but when you do it, wow, it takes so long to hit the water! After Phil did it, we all gave it a go and felt very brave afterwards. We also swam underneath the smaller fall (it was really hard, I almost didn't make it) and it was great!

On our way back to town, we managed to get super dusty yet again and we also saw this elephant walking along the road! What a great day!

Louang Prabang

Oh God, I really am super duper behind on the blogging front, but that's because so much has happened and I didn't really have a lot of time to sort it all out... yes I know, excuses, excuses...

Like I said the in the last entry, Louang Prabang is lovely. It's a UNESCO Heritage listed town and you can see the French influence everywhere you turn. It's got a great main 'High Street' with shops and restaurants all along it and at night, it turns into a pedestrian zone with a lovely night market. The stuff they sell is really lovely, mostly handicrafts and stuff made out of silk and silver. The region is famous for its silversmiths and it also has a tradition of silk weaving. We were sorely tempted to buy lots of things, but unfortunately we wouldn't be able to carry them... sob sob!

There are numerous temples to visit and a couple of museums, but one of the main temples is called Phou Si, which is located on top of a hill. You are meant to go there to watch the sun set over the Mekong. So we did! We were almost a little bit too late, but also managed to share the view with approximately 100 other tourists! It was so busy and I didn't enjoy it at all really... but the pics came out wonderfully. After the sunset, Tom, Phil and I set off in search of the Buddha caves and Buddha's footprint which could also be found on the hill. We searched for a long time and found lots of great statues, we found the caves (shut) and after some more investigating, we finally found Buddha's footprint.

To be honest, it wasn't what we expected. There's a little hut made out of stone with the tiniest hole to crawl through. Then you stand at the edge of an abyss, which is the footprint (the size of a giant). It looked a bit strange and we weren't entirely convinced Buddha actually went and made that footprint. It was really dark in that hut, too so we had to go in one by one and hold a lighter up...

We also went to a Temple Party on our first night! It was temple party season and basically people congregate at their local temple and get drunk. We heard lots of good stuff about it and our Guesthouse Mama recommended us to go, so we did.

Hmmm. Interesting. It wasn't the mad rave we expected, but basically a few people getting drunk while a guy was doing bad karaoke. Kind of like your average english pub scene only in a temple. The poor monks were walking around and clearing up. The entertainment on offer was petanque or 'Pop the Balloon' with a dart. All the boys had a go and none managed to burst three in a row, so we missed out on the main prize - a jar of pickled eggs. Yum yum...

We did have a good few beers though - Beer Lao!!!! Very cheap! And tasty! Only 30p for a big bottle! Yay!

During the course of the evening, Phil also got checked out by a couple of Lady boys. Well, not just visually if you catch my drift. All he wanted was to buy a round, but instead he got whisked away by some very determined Lao 'Ladies'. It was very funny, because at the end of the night, Matt got a ride on a scooter back to our place and he told us he too got 'checked out' by the driver! So the boys did really well, while us girls had a quiet night, heheheh.