Zelma’s Trip

So I eventually arrived in Phnom Penh on the bus in the evening. I headed to the lakeside area of the city on the recommendation of someone at the guesthouse in Siem Reap. When I arrived and checked into the guesthouse the room I was shown seemed very small but I can cope with that kind of thing and arguably this was due to my room being mahusive at the guesthouse in Siem Reap. I then realised that there was no water and when I asked a member of staff he turned a stopcock on at the wall. I thought nothing of this (learn girl learn) and went to have dinner. I decided to opt for the traditionally Cambodian dish of vegetarian pizza which was lovely! While I was eating I asked the waitress where I could buy shampoo (whilst doing the obligatory gestures), she looked slightly confused but suggested I go to the Russian market in the morning. I thought this was a bit strange especially when I asked if there were any shops closer and she said no. Later she asked a friend who came to talk to me. He said, "So you want to buy hair?" I was like, "No, shampoo!". He proceeded to call his friend a stupid idiot and we all burst into fits of giggles.

When I returned to the guesthouse I got cleaned up and went to bed. The bathroom appeared to be making far too many dripping noises and, when it finally got to the stage that I couldn’t stand it any more, I went and asked at reception. Firstly they didn’t really understand and went and played with something downstairs. I asked what they had done and they said that they always needed to do "that" to get the water to the third floor. Then when I repeated that my bathroom was flooding they got annoyed and asked why I didn’t tell them. When the man came upstairs he scratched his head for a while and made annoyed noises. Then he came up with the brilliant solution of turning the main stopcock off and only turning the water on when I wanted to use it. I pointed out that this would not solve the problem of none of the water draining and he scratched his head again. He then suggested that if I did as he had said and only used a small amount of water then this would not fill up enough to leak into the bedroom. I enquired what would happen when I showered the following morning and he again looked puzzled. I eventually negotiated that they move me.

When I was moved I was in a much larger room with an extra bed. I think I was destined to have a rubbish night’s sleep though and tossed and turned all night due to not being able to get cold enough with the badly positioned fan!

In all fairness they did change my room to a far nicer one free of charge and the rooms were fine. I think my irritability may have been slightly hormonal which also often means sleeping is a pain. Anyway, enough of those kind of details!

So in my last entry I vowed that I would visit the temples at Angkor and I did so on the Sunday.  I had originally planned to cycle to the temples but as I only had the one day (as I am allegedly in a hurry) and with the temperatures at the time, I decided to take a tuk tuk.  I shared this with an Australian guy called Dane who was staying at the same guesthouse as me.

The first temple we went to was Angkor Wat, the most famous temple at Angkor and the first of the complex from the town.  Angkor Wat was built in the twelfth century and you approach it across a sandstone moat crossing a broad causeway.  The view was truly awesome as you saw the conical-shaped towers reaching upwards.  There were plenty of internal walkways to explore, many with intricately carved murals.

The second place we visited was Angkor Thom, a collection of various Wats in a walled compound.  I actually found this slightly more interesting, partly due to the greater diversity but also as there were a number of wats and buildings in a greater state of disrepair.  I’ve decided that I am far less excited by buildings which have been renovated and actually quite like places which resemble more crumbly ruins.  Well not completely, there were pile of brick type structures too, but when you see a temple with blocks falling off and roots poking through crevices there’s something rather evocative about it.

After Angkor Thom we went to Preah Khan which was not on the "mini-tour" but Dane had read about it and it being in the middle of the forest appealed to us.  I was less excited when we arrived and another group’s guide spent a long time telling them that landmines were safe as long as you didn’t put too much weight on them…..hmmm!  The temple was amazing with various routes and doorways completely blocked with fallen walls and rubble.  Courtyards were a mixture of ornate carvings and carnage and the place instantly appealed to me.  Dane was equally impressed with my constant referral to the place as Praga Khan and seemed (un)equally amused by my other comedic inserts which he began to refer to as my "hip-hop references".  I think I was just in one of those moods, for example he would say, "Do you want to go around the outside?" and I’d say, "Round the outside, round the outside".  Sorry if I’ve completely lost you here.  The other habit I seemed to adopt for the day which must have been insanely annoying was asking him loads of questions which he would have no idea of the answer to.  I’m not quite sure why part of my brain had decided that he was my own personal tour guide and why I thought he would know answers to things like, "What year do you think this was built?" and "Do you think this was the King’s wife’s residence?".  I told him that he should simply take to furnishing me with rubbish such as, "the inner temple was built in 1132 with the outer built at a later date to house the King’s monkeys" and that I would not only probably not question him but would be very impressed.  Needless to say he didn’t start answering me with nonsense but I did carry on asking ridiculous questions!

So after Praga Khan we carried on and visited three other temples.  My favourites were definitely those engulfed by trees with the trees battling against the temples for space.  I have some amazing photos of roots pretruding through walls and the like which I shall endeavour to upload as soon as possible.

After a day at the temples I felt it necessary to spend a night enjoying the more cultural aspects of the town so we spent another night at the guesthouse bar before heading to Temple Bar and then X-Bar.  One of the bar staff at X-Bar was practising for the flairing championships (think Tom Cruise in cocktail, not on Oprah) and was pretty amazing.  I then (with some encouragement) decided that it was a good time to juggle limes and promptly decided it wasn’t such a good time when one flew into Dane’s beer spilling half of it everywhere.

The Monday was going to be my last day in Siem Reap as I booked my bus ticket for the Tuesday.  I spent the Monday going around the town, trying (unsuccessfully) to find a sketchbook and looking around shops.  On the Tuesday I woke up with chronic period pains and decided that the last thing I wanted to do was spend 6 hours on a bus so I changed the ticket and then spent the majority of the day in bed, reading, sleeping and feeling sorry for myself.

On the Wednesday I packed up my things, said my Goodbyes to people at the hostel, staff and Siem Reap and headed to Phnom Penh on a much nicer bus than the minibuses that brought me to Siem Reap.  Having said that I did have a very interesting trip to the toilet on the bus.  It wasn’t actually tall enough for you to stand up and every time you thought you had sussed it the driver hit the brakes as hard as he could, probably due to more cows walking into the road.  Actually I found it quite uncomfortable traveling on a double-decker bus.  Not literally, it was very comfortable (other than the Cambodian Karaoke they insisted on playing for the entire journey) but in terms of the comparison between the coach and the other vehicles and places we were traveling through.  A lot of the roads here are simply not designed and are not wide enough for such a vehicle and, with the South East Asian rule that the bigger you are the greater your right of way, the coach spent the whole journey beeping aggressively at villagers pulling small carts with buffalo and other people going about their daily business.

Other than the awkward attempt to use the Oompah Loompah toilet and the Cambodian Karaoke, the journey was not too painful and we arrived in Phnom Penh.

On the Wednesday I explored the town and went to the local market.  As soon as I walked in I realised that this could be another place that I get stuck and end up spending too much money.  I bought some awesome jewellery, bags, trousers and earrings and then decided that I really needed to get out of the market.  All of my purchases only came to ten dollars so I guess it won’t technically break that bank!

I headed over the river to try and find a butterfly bar that I had read about.  Apparently they pay local village children to collect butterflies and then release them in the garden.  Ever the cynic my first thought was, should you really be encouraging children to catch butterflies and shouldn’t they be at school?!  I then read on and realised that was what the money was for.  Ho hum.  I managed to completely miss the butterfly bar and went on a mammoth walk in the hottest part of the day up a dirt track.  After a considerable amount of time I succumbed to one of the guys trying to get me to take a motorbike.  I showed him the name of the place and a map.  He then proceeded to drop me off at a completely different bar which was only about 200 metres up the road.  I walked in and they had a swimming pool which was soooo tempting but I didn’t have any swimming gear.  The man who owned the bar (John) was English and told me that I was miles from the butterfly bar.  So I walked back, found a better motorbike and eventually arrived at the butterfly bar.  The place was lovely but I couldn’t help thinking that they needed to pay the children more, or train them in butterfly catching as the numbers were slightly low.  There was also building work going on nextdoor which interrupted the tranquility somewhat.  They were using creosote nextdoor which I looooove.  I ordered a watermelon shake which was so what the Doctor would have ordered if they were there.

My walk in the heat has since turned out to be a profitable one as I went back to the bar with the pool with one of the people I met at the guesthouse and it was a lovely place to chill out and have a drink and a swim.

So far I haven’t actually managed to go to any of the temples.  My best intentions have been marred by the ever present markets, shops to wander round and, okay some rather fun and funny bars and clubs.  Last night we went to a club which was a combination of a bar, nightclub, strip joint and brothel.  I still have no tolerance for hideous old Western men picking up stunning local prostitutes so we didn’t stay very long.

I have vowed that I will visit the temples tomorrow as I really need to speed up my journey through Cambodia and into Thailand if I’m to get there for the next full-moon party which is around the 20th May.

In the morning I woke up feeling decidedly achey but couldn’t really decided what was ascribeable to the terrible bus journey and what was the result of a literal night on the tiles.  Our “pick-up” was actually a random motorbike that you had to pay for.  I apparently had a strange ticket and was taken to a coach company office where they made various suggestions ranging from the ticket being fake to me having to pay again.  I wasn’t in the most tolerant mood and sat there giving them death stares until they sorted it out.  I was then taken to a proper bus with aircon.  The only problem with this bus was that the woman sat next to me didn’t strictly fit on her seat and occupied half of mine.  That and the girl behind me throwing up so that it stank of sick – well until I put tiger balm under my nose.  I’m not entirely sure if I prefer having a cold and no sense of smell or not.

When we arrived in Siem Reap I sat down on my bag to have a cigarette and was truly mobbed by motorbike drivers.  I shared a tuk-tuk with the Spanish couple (who apparently had a more legitimate ticket than me) and we checked into a lovely guesthouse.  My room at the guesthouse is huge and they have a bar with good views which sells fifty cent beer.  Unfortunately Angkor Beer does not seem to be quite such a good brew as Beer Lao, although you can buy that as well ;o)  I had a few drinks and played a local guy at pool.  About three shots prior to when the game probably should have ended he had a bit of a tantrum as he was losing and stormed off down the stairs.  I wasn’t quite sure if he was coming back so continued only to completely miss the black.  He didn’t come back….if only he had have known!  A couple of people from the guesthouse invited me to go out with them for dinner and we had a pleasant Mexican meal.

I always have mixed feelings when I leave a place and it’s even weirder when you’re leaving a country.  I absolutely loved Laos which is perhaps why I spent longer there than I had planned.  Well that and not being able to get out of Luang Phabang!  The Laos people were generally very friendly and welcoming and the country is beautiful.  It’s very unspoilt perhaps due to the fact that it was closed to foreign visitors until relatively recently.  It’s also not a dense country at all in terms of the tiny population.  Laos also appears to be relatively rich in comparison to surrounding countries with very expensive trucks everywhere and not a lot of people apparently in poverty.  I guess that may be due to the amount of land area compared to the population density and therefore enough resources to go around.

My journey out of Laos and into Cambodia was not a pleasant one to say the least.  We had all purchased tickets on the islands for a supposed “VIP bus” to Cambodia.  When the dodgy looking minibus arrved we presumed that this was a transit but to a bigger bus.  As we were herded into numerous other shoddy minibuses it became apparent that we were not in fact on our way to a beautiful, mechanical dream with aircon, toilet and seats which actually had backs but stuck in scummy buses for a VERY long time.  The border itself was hassle free and we got back on another, equally dodgy looking bus.  I think this was the worst one.  I actually commented that it looked like pigs had been slaughtered in it as it had those lovely brown streaks which only dried blood can make.  I was squashed in the back seat unable to put my legs out properly.  We stopped to pick a local guy up and they kept trying to ram the boot shut with his parcel inside.  After a few miles it becae apparent that the package that they had rammed into the boot was actually the guy’s dinner as my feet and bag began swimming in a combination of a kind of soup like liquid and sticky rice!  Having left first thing in the morning we eventually arrive in Kompong Cham in Cambodia at around 10pm.  A Spanish couple from the bus got off and the rest of the group went on to Phnom Penh.  The Spanish woman looked at one guesthouse but said that the rooms were really hot.  We then found a different guesthouse but they only had one room.  I said that I would look for another and then spent some time walking around like an idiot only to be told that everywhere was full.  I decided that standing on a street corner and dispairing was the way forward until fortunately the Spanish lady noticed me and said that I could sleep on the floor in their room.  I was amazingly grateful, it was really kind of them but after my rubbish, uncomfortable journey a night on two yoga mats on a concrete floor being eaten alive by mosquitos was not at the top of my wish list!  I endured it though, although my back wasn’t my best friend the following morning!

On the Saturday I headed back over the river.  This time I wasn’t the only Westerner.  There was a sweet American girl called Nora who was working in India and an American guy called Dan.  I, perhaps somewhat unfairly, named Dan, “Dan, ADHD American man” in my head.  I’m sure he was lovely but Oh my God the guy didn’t pause for breath for the entire journey.  I could even hear him over my Ipod when it was at full volume.

We eventually arrived at the crossing to the four-thousand islands.  The area is at the Southern end of Laos at a point where the river Mekong splits into hundreds of tributaries, hence creating a plethora of islands which give the place its name.  I shared a small boat with Dan and Nora and was not mortally upset when it transpired that Dan was going to a different island to us.  Although it did cross my mind as to whether I would still be able ot hear his booming voice bouncing across the water.  Okay, I’m going to shut up about it now I feel a bit guilty.  I think I may have been in a bit of a tired and tetchy mood.

The two main islands at the far South are called Don Det and Don Khon, Nora and I stayed on the latter.  Having eaten lunch we went to find a guesthouse which proved slightly more problematic than I was expecting.  Apparently several coachloads of local students had arrived the previous day and everywhere was full.  We managed to find one room with a double bed and I later bumped into a couple who were staying at the same guesthouse as me in Champasak who recommended somewhere at the end of the strip.  The place turned out to be beautiful, right on the river with a large terrace.  The only thing about it that was a tad strange was that the proprietor was a full blown alcoholic and lounged around all day drinking Lao Lao and Beer Lao while his obscenely pregnant wife did absolutely everything.  It’s not that unusual for women in Laos to do the lion’s share of the work (well that’s how it seems) but it was a bit harsh when she was so clearly about to pop and her other half was sat there downing shots.

In the evening Nora came over to my guesthouse and we ate (although I was already having guilt pangs about ordering anything from the very pregnant wife).  I had fish in ginger and it was delicious.  In the islands there is only power between around 6 and 10pm so we had a relatively early night.  The electricity thing didn’t bother me until I noticed that I was sharing a bathroom with a collection of leeches.  From this point whenever I used the bathroom in the dark I got back into bed convinced that I had a leech attached to my buttocks.  Needless to say I didn’t!

The following day I hired a bike from the guesthouse.  The other bikes had been hired out and the drunken proprietor (who apparently you had to call Papa) spent about 10 minutes pumping one of the tyres up.  I really should have noticed this as a bad sign but in my defense I was so amazed to actually see him using his arms to do something other than move a drink towards his lips I wasn’t really focusing on why a tyre would need pumping up for so long.  It soon transpired (right after I had paid for the toll on the bridge) that the tyre was as flat as a pancake.  I hissed, swore and cursed Papa and then saw one of the American girls in a cafe so joined her for a drink.  Nora then arrived (having already circumnavigated the entire area by bike) and walked me and my sorry excuse for a bike back to my guesthouse.  When I got back to the guesthouse, did a sad look and gestured towards the tyre Papa errupted in fits of giggles and found the entire thing hilarious.  Much to my amusement, no honestly!  He did offer me another bike though.  Nora and I then cycled to dolphin beach which was beautiful.  It was strange that the town ended so quickly and it was then completely empty countryside, other than the occasional pig or water buffalo.  You also occasionally bumped into the elephant bus.  I probably need to explain that don’t I?  It wasn’t a bus for elephants but a bus that looked like an elephant to take tourists to the waterfall/ beach etc.  Think of the crappy buses and trains they have at zoos and you won’t be far off.  Other than the extreme weirdness of it being in a place like this.

In the evening I joined Nora in “town”and we had dinner.  I had fish steamed in a banana leaf with coconut.  It took them an eon to cook but it was soooooo worth the wait.  I walked back to my guesthouse in the pitch black and then had more leech concerns!

I’ve just realised that I published the last page in different colours.  I’ll try not to do that with this one but you never know!

So, back in Champasak.  I woke up and went and had breakfast at a lovely restaurant overlooking the river.  I was planning on cycling to the temple (the main reason anyone visits Champasak) but somehow managed to find myself being measured up for a traditional Laos skirt.  The woman said that I should come back at 4pm to collect it.  I went to a restuarant to buy the obligatory lemon juice and bumped into a group of American girls who I had seen in Vang Vieng.  They asked if I wanted to cycle to the temple with them and I declined thinking that I didn’t have enough time.  I then realised that I didn’t really want to stay for an extra day so really needed to go to the temple.  So I hired a bike and pedalled like a woman possessed.  I was overtaking all the locals and at one point nearly overtook a motorbike, then I realised that they were stopping so it wasn’t quite as impressive!  Finally I arrived at the temple with a lovely layer of sweat.  As I arrived the heavens opened and the American girls decided it was a good time to have lunch.  We sat in a cafe, ate (I drank more lemon juice) and then decided that the rain was not going to desist.  The ride to the temple was very short, although it is disconcerting when you can’t actually differentiate between sweat wetness and rain wetness.  Okay, that’s pretty grim actually, I’ll move on..

The temple itself was amazing.  It’s called Wat Phou and is described as “easily the most evocative Khmer ruin outside Cambodian borders”.  The site itself is on a mountainside and consists of a complex of pre-Angkorian temples dating from the sixth to twelfth centuries.  Having looked around for a while I realised I needed to get back to collect my skirt and said my goodbyes to the girls.  It’s long and the most exquisite material.  In the evening I wandered down to the American girls guesthouse and had some food and a few Beer Laos to the sound of a guy playing his guitar. 

I absolutely loved Luang Phabang.  It was such a quaint riverside town with an amazing combination of architecture from very French colonial style buildings to traditional Laos Wats.  I was also quite keen to leave so was relatively less worried about using Laos airlines than I perhaps should have been.  It was the smallest plane I have been on with around 20 passengers.  I was also surprised (hmm, that may be putting it slightly mildly) how much more small planes get affected by turbulence.  A European woman was sitting next to me and as the plane dropped what felt like a very long way on more than one occasion and then bumped about she shrieked and yelped.  They did serve a damn good meal though even if your chocolate cake did keep threatening to lollop onto your lap.  The flight actually arrived in Pakse about half an hour earlier than was scheduled.  When I got out of the airport I bumped into an Australian woman, who I have now met in far too many places, and we managed to get a shared tuk tuk into town and then I shared another to the bus station.  When I say bus station I mean sawngthaews station.  Like a large shared truck.  As per usual my camera had run out of batteries at the opportune moment.  There were also numerous stalls including one with a guy who was obsessed with trying to sell me a rather large knife.  I wouldn’t have minded too much but he kept demonstrating how quickly the blade sprung out about two inches from my chest!

The journey turned out to be an experience.  I was the only Westerner and the focus of all conversation.  My Ipod proved most amusing and I have now deduced that Laos men dislike Mozart but love Pink!  In order to get to Champasak you have to cross the Mekong River and we drove onto the craziezt Roll On Roll Off type ferry I have ever seen.  The women in the truck kept shrieking as the driver tried to get as close to the edge as possible and kept nearly reversing off the side and into the river.

When we arrived in Champasak I was surprised just how small it was.  I wasn’t expecting a sprawling metropolis but it is tiny and quiet. My guide book described it as “An up-and-coming backpacker resort”.  All I can say is that by my reckoning it never came!

I checked into a guesthouse and then wondered around the town (village/ hamlet).  There were very few people around but a lot of animals which I found myself talking to in order to try to get better pictures.  I’m actually starting to worry about how entertaining I find my own company when I’m traveling.  It’s sooo good when you can tell a joke and know that you’re going to find it hilariously funny!

Anyway so I checked into a very friendly family guesthouse and was in an ensuite bungalow for the princely sum of 30,000 Kip (around $4 US). 

Louang Phabang was a beautiful town which was designated a World Heritage site in 1995. When we ventured into the town on our first evening there was a fair surrounding a donation ceremony to Buddha. The fair was very entertaining with games such as throwing darts at balloons and an array of strange gambling type games for children. We then headed into town, ate and watched the football.

On the Sunday we walked through the town and looked at the various Wats (temples) including Wat Pa Khe and Wat Pha Phoutthabat from where you had an awesome vantage point over the town. We headed down to a local cafe, had drinks and went for a paddle in the river. I was talking to some local boys who were fishing by throwing big nets into the water and then quickly gathering them up. On one occasion I asked if they had caught anything and, when they pulled the net up they discovered with glee that they had. The boy then looked upset, tossed the fish back into the river and said, “unhappy fish”!

Whilst in Louang Phabang we had an amazing meal at a restaurant where you cooked your own food. You ordered plates of meat, seafood etc and then the centre of your table was turned into a kind of stove come barbeque and you put things on to cook. We also went on a tour to the caves along the river. Unfortunately Matt was too ill so Alf and I went to the caves and he joined us for the latter trip to the waterfall. The river trip to the caves was good and the caves were most odd with hundreds of buddha statues inside. Unfortunately the upper cave had an intolerable smell which made you want to throw up so we didn’t spend too long inside that one. Rory, an American guy staying at out guesthouse, joined us for the waterfall trip. Prior to leaving there was torrential rain but thankfully this cleared by the time we arrived at the waterfall. The waterfall itself was 60m high and stunning and there were several smaller waterfalls and pools below. We had a swim in one of the pools which was labelled “swimming area”. Much to my amusement the areas where you shouldn’t swim were labelled “don’t swimming area”. I also managed to lose yet another earring. I lost one in Hanoi, bought a new pair then found the original, then I lost one tubing so decided to throw the other one in for good measure and finally I lost one when diving to see how deep it was at the bottom of the waterfall. Note to self, hoop earrings and watersports/ swimming do not mix!

On the Monday Alf, Matt and Rory left for the airport bound for Hanoi. I was planning on heading North up the river however the boats left in the morning. I asked about a speedboat (please don’t look too hard into this as they are notoriously dangerous in the dry season) but there were none available. Perhaps they had all crashed! I got a tuk tuk to the bus station and was informed that I could not go to where I wanted to directly. The round trip looked ridiculous. I got talking to a Scottish guy at the bus station who must have thought I was a complete plumb. Not only had I bought a Beer Lao to console myself having been deserted, I was in about 300 minds as to where I actually wanted to go and how. I then decided that the best plan was to head to the airport to try and get a flight South. When I arrived at the airport I found Rory who had not been let onto his flight due to visa problems. We decided to drown our sorrows over a Beer Lao and then headed to find a guesthouse.

One slightly odd thing about the peaceful town of Louang Phabang was the “bowling”. This wasn’t mentioned in any of our combined guidebooks and when tuk tuk drivers had been offering to take us there at night we had wondered if it was some cover up for a brothel. The previous night we had ventured there and discovered it was a fully functional electronic bowling alley with a late bar. Rory and I decided this was a good plan again, however it was somewhat less fun than the previous night as we were overwhelmed by Europeans. I was also starting to feel slightly off colour (I blame my dinner) and spent the entire night therein throwing up. Apparently Rory didn’t hear a thing though and slept in his bed (right next to the bathroom) like a baby!

The following day Rory left and I spent a lot of the day in bed feeling sorry for myself. I managed to post a parcel home, do a bit of shopping and buy my flight ticket for the following day. I also went into town to get money out and got so many electric shocks off the cash machine that I had to give up and go to another. This despite my ever recommended advice of wearing flip-flops!

Having moved to a more pleasant riverside abode I settled in, chatted to a guy from Australia who had emigrated to Vang Viang and went and got some food. That evening I met my next-door neighbour who took me over to the bars on the other side of the river. After a shared bucket or two (cocktails are served in buckets – nothing more sinister) we headed back to the bungalows where, when getting pancakes we bumped into a group of people. I decided it was a good plan to stay and chat to them. Okay, maybe to rib them slightly about their somewhat odd conversation about “sandwich parties”.

The remainder of my time in Vang Viang comprised of hanging out with the two Australian guys I had taunted (Matt and Alf) who turned out to be really sound. We chilled out and arguably spent too much time in bars. On one of the latter days we took a tuk tuk to a local cave which we didn’t venture that far into as Matt and I had both wisely worn flip-flops and were sliding about everywhere. At the same place as the cave was the “blue lagoon” which lived up to its namesake, to the extent that questions were asked regarding food colouring! It made for a great place to swim after walking up the mountainside to the cave though.

We also indulged in tubing, Matt for his third time, Alf for his second and me for my first. Alf had cut his foot on his last tubing outing and we discussed if he would be able to partake the night before. In his wisdom he decided that the best way to keep the said toe dry was by putting a condom on it. This had me in fits of giggles but the Aussies seemed to think this a very practical solution. So the next day, condom on toe, we set off on the tuk tuk to the tubing launch site. It was around 2-3pm and we floated down the river stopping off at the riverside bars for the obligatory drinks. When we got to the final bar it was dark and we considered getting a tuk-tuk back. Alf thought that the best plan was to carry on. When you disembark at bars you leave your tubes at the riverside. This meant that, as we were some of the last people to leave, one of the tubes that had been left behind was punctured. There was another group at the last bar but they were very worse for wear so I volunteered to take the flat tube. I thought this would be okay and Matt and I did a kind of tandem figure of eight thing. Ever the gentleman, Matt didn’t paddle at all and I ended up paddling basically all the way back to the town. We eventually got back around 10-11pm!

On the Saturday we got a bus and left Van Viang for Louang Phabang a town further North. When we arrived there was a great suggestion that Alf and Matt remain at a bar whilst I suss out the accommodation so that we didn’t have to lug our stuff all around the town. I willingly obliged and we finally checked into a riverside guesthouse.