Day 14 - My Dream Pool Day
Yesterday in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Following the exertions of the previous day, we planned on having a leisurely day around our hotel pool. We went down to breakfast at 9am and I am pleased to announce that the coffee was much much better. Jackie had spicy rice with a fried egg on top and I settled for baguette with cheese, tomatoes and marmalade.
During breakfast, the manager came over to make sure we were happy with everything. He confirmed that our stay had been extended and he pointed out the room we would be moving to for the last 3 days. The staff at the hotel are exceptionally polite.
After breakfast we rushed down to the pool to reserve two prime sun beds that I had mathematically calculated to receive the optimum amount of sun throughout the day.
Today was also laundry day. The hotel offered a laundry service, but they wanted a $1 dollar for each pair of shorts, t-shirt or shirt. Jackie was happy to pay it, but I took charge. I bagged up my shorts, 3 shirts, 5 t-shirts, about 12 of Jackie’s tops, numerous pants and socks. I walked our dirty washing a couple of doors up from our hotel to a little laundry service.
The weight of our washing was just under 3 kilograms and I was charged 75,000 Kip (£2.50). It will be ready for collection the following day, hopefully not ruined.
We spent the morning by the pool which we had to ourselves and we took a stroll through the hotel gardens down to the river.
At lunchtime, we adjourned to the hotel restaurant for a couple of beers and we ordered a portion of french fries. They weren’t particularly nice and we have come to the conclusion the hotel food is definitely not the best.
We returned to the pool for the remainder of the afternoon, then packed up around 4.30pm, vowing to ensure we bagsy the same sun beds early tomorrow morning.
At 7pm, we caught the shuttle bus into town. Jackie had expressed a desire for French cuisine that evening. We fought our way along Sisavangvong Road, the location of Luang Prabang’s night market. It was exceptionally busy, so we didn’t stop other than to take a few photos. We will return, hopefully on a quieter night, because there were a few mementos on sale that took our fancy.
At the end of the market, the road opened up into a series of beautifully lit restaurants, cafes and bars set in colonial buildings. It was absolutely stunning and again so atmospheric.
Annoyingly we didn’t stop because we were on a mission to call in at Tamarind Cooking School, which was highly rated and they did Lao taster set menus. A table was available, but we didn’t like the position of it, so we booked a table for Wednesday night.
We then went off in search of a couple of French restaurants in the vicinity. Both looked too formal and poncy, so we abandoned that idea. It was then that I suggested the alcohol-free Fathima Indian and Malaysian restaurant that we had walked out of two nights ago. Jackie agreed as long as we could have a few beers first.
We had a few beers at a riverside bar, served by a stroppy 10 year old girl, then we walked along to Fathima’s restaurant. I ordered a chicken tikka masala and Jackie ordered the ‘spicy’ rogan josh together with steamed rice, two parathas and two bottles of sparkling water.
It was delicious, although Jackie’s was probably too spicy even for her, but she would never admit it. After tasting it, she even asked for raita or yoghurt to accompany it. The whole meal cost £9.
We were too late to catch the last shuttle bus, so we walked back to the hotel which took us just 20 minutes.
Song of the Day - Atmosphere by Joy Division.Read more
Day 13 - We Love Luang Prabang
March 5 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 25 °C
My alarm went off 3.10am and I sat up in bed to watch the Newcastle v Man United match. It was quite an entertaining game, but it was a disappointing result with Man United losing 2-1 despite playing against 10 men for over half the match.
I got back to sleep straight after and we got up at 8.45am and we were soon down at breakfast. Breakfast was a nicely presented spread, but I must say the coffee was still disappointing.
Jackie seemed to have a bit of everything, whilst I had just an omelette followed by baguette with topped with cheese, marmalade and honey, but not all at the same time. The best bit about breakfast was the peaceful location and view overlooking the pool and gardens beyond.
I was on my 2nd baguette, when Jackie deserted me, heading for reception on a mission to extend our stay here at the hotel. Ultimately, Jackie negotiated with the lovely receptionist to extend our stay for another 6 days. Our room was fully booked beyond our stay, but with the permission of the manager, she was able to shuffle the incoming guests around to allow us to keep our same deluxe room for an additional 3 nights.
They would then have to move us to a 1st floor classic double room for the remaining 3 days of our stay, because our room was then booked as a pair with the adjoining room. Our continued stay was costing us just £41 per night which we both considered to be a bargain AND cheaper than Booking.com.
At 11am, we caught the shuttle bus back into the old town to commence one of my (in)famous walking tours. From the Old Post Office we walked up to TAEC (Traditional Arts & Ethnology Centre).
Their website describes the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) as an engaging, culturally rich learning centre located in the heart of Luang Prabang, Lao PDR.
Since 2006, TAEC has inspired visitors by exploring, celebrating, and preserving the diverse ethnic cultures and peoples of Laos through professionally curated permanent and special exhibitions, events, and craft workshops. To date, TAEC has welcomed over 200,000 visitors to its exhibitions.
We paid our 35,000 Kip entry fee and entered the small museum mainly displaying traditional costumes made by ethnic Lao tribes and hillside villagers. We entered a side exhibition of traditional clothing and also fashion magazines on display.
The museum curator, Ton, explained to us that in 2019, some Italians visited the museum took photos of the clothing designs and patterns then reproduced them as their own designs for a big fashion company called Max Mara. The Max Mara reproduced clothing was then advertised in numerous fashion magazines.
This plagiarism caused offence to the ethnic Lao groups, particularly because they considered the headwear and designs to be sacred. TAEC on their behalf waged a social media campaign against Max Mara calling out the plagiarism and putting pressure on them to pull their clothing line.
It was an interesting chat with Ton, but probably not unexpectedly he slightly ruined it by trying to convince us to go on a trip to visit some of the hill tribes where tourists don’t usually go. We told him we would think about it, we did and we won’t, but thank you for the offer!
Our next stop was to scale the 100 metre high Mount Phou Si (Phousi Hill), climbing the 355 steps, whilst taking in the numerous significant cultural sites. These included a reclining Buddha, a multi-headed serpent, a few seated Buddha images calling for rain, meditating or holding alms bowls and a footprint of Buddha.
Young Buddhist monks live on the hill and it felt strange to walk past their huts with the orange robes hanging out to dry. At the top sits the 20 metre high Wat Chomsi stupa and Phousi Temple. It also afforded an excellent, albeit hazy 360 degree view of the whole city.
The haze is caused by farmers burning their crop residue after harvesting. Apparently it gets really chokingly bad at the end of March and beginning of April, particularly in northern Laos.
On the way down the hill we stopped at the Temple of Buddha’s Footprint and the Imprint of Buddha’s Foot, before walking along the bank of the Nam Khan. We stopped at a little shack overlooking the river for a pitstop beer.
Suitably refreshed we continued along the river bank until the Nam Khan met the Mekong. The other side of the road was lined with attractive old French colonial style buildings. It was so clean and tranquil. It felt like we had gone back in time. We both unanimously agreed we absolutely love the vibe of Luang Prabang.
We strolled along the Mekong promenade reading the signs advertising a variety of cruises. We have decided we will probably just take a short sunset cruise with a beer and snacks. There is a lot of competition for custom and the advertised sunset cruise prices were as low as 120,000 Kip (£4).
We stopped for another beer and a plate of delicious healthy fresh spring rolls with pork, before walking them off walking back to our hotel via the Old Bridge. It was 4pm when we arrived back in our hotel room with my phone showing that we had walked 5.5 miles. We had a well earned lie down in the air conditioning.
That evening we had dinner in the hotel restaurant. Jackie ordered a dry yellow curry and I ordered a Pad Thai. Both were nice, but not exceptional.
We finished the evening with a nightcap, then I brought a comfy terrace chair into our room and plonked in front of the television to watch the cricket World Cup semi final. Sadly England lost by 7 runs chasing India’s total of 253-7, despite a valiant 105 run innings by Jacob Bethell before being run out.
Song of the Day - The Place I Love by The Jam.Read more
Day 12 - Heading North to Luang Prabang
March 4 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
I woke up at 7.50am, jumped in the shower and as promised marched into town to get Jackie and I an iced cold coffee with milk. Whilst our drinks were being made, I noticed a basket of freshly baked baguettes. I couldn’t help myself and I ordered a cheese baguette (to share) costing the equivalent of £1.
I returned to the hotel, a round trip of exactly 1 mile, with my purchases to savour on the balcony. The coffee was delicious and the baguette was nice, the filling was grated cheese, tomato and lettuce, together with tomato sauce and mustard that it could have done without for my taste.
Over our coffee and baguette breakfast, we saw an Above Laos van drop two guests off at our hotel. A quick google search revealed that Above Laos, a more reputable (and expensive) ballooning company may have been given official permission to resume operations again. We discussed the possibility of returning to Vang Vieng for a couple of days at the end of our trip to take a balloon flight.
We completed our packing and at 9.30am we boarded the Tuk-tuk that arrived to transport us to the train station. It cost us 80,000 Kip each, whereas our full shared Tuk-tuk from the station had only cost 40,000. It seems that they cost more if organised by a hotel.
At Vang Vieng train station, it was the same airport-like security check procedure. We had anticipated this and had both placed a half empty can of mosquito spray in each of our rucksacks. Unfortunately they were more efficient (or job’s worths) than at Vientiane. I was forced to hand over my mossie spray and deodorant. Jackie had to surrender 4 aerosols, including mossie spray, dry shampoo and 2 suntan lotions. We effectively gave away about £40’s worth of sprays. Great.
The check-in and boarding procedures were utterly fuss free and efficient. 10-15 minutes before our train arrived the couple of hundred or so of us passengers were ushered out to the platform and instructed to stand behind a yellow line in our allocated carriage area. We were carriage 11, seats 7A&B. The 10.46am train arrived on time and within minutes we were seated and smoothly gathering speed out of the station.
The train reached speeds of 159km per hour as it raced through tunnel after tunnel through the mountainous region of Laos. As a result there wasn’t a huge amount to see.
An hour later we arrived at Luang Prabang. We disembarked and made our way to the pick-up area where Jackie had arranged for a car to transfer us to take us to the hotel. We were bombarded with taxi offers which I noted were cheaper than the transfer Jackie had arranged.
10 minutes later, Noy, our driver appeared and drove us the 22km to our next hotel, My Dream Boutique Resort. Now I should point out at this point that Jackie took full responsibility for booking this hotel and unsurprisingly it cost us £43 per night with breakfast. Almost double what I paid per night for the previous hotel.
The welcome reception was exceptional. We handed over a passports and our rucksacks, then we were presented with a tray with 2 cold towels, a plate of mango and 2 glasses of hibiscus juice. We were provided with useful information, then the manager came over to formally welcome us, before we were escorted to our room.
Jackie was in her element and within 5 minutes of our arrival, she was declaring we would be staying at this hotel for the remainder of our trip. Apparently the idea of a balloon ride in Vang Vieng is now history!!
We unpacked our rucksacks in presumption that we would be staying indefinitely, because Jackie loved the room. I had to agree that it was particularly lovely on the first floor, with a balcony overlooking a pool.
We toured the grounds of our My Dream Boutique Resort which we discovered had two pools and the gardens that continued all the way down to the Nam Khan River. We were more and more impressed with our tranquil hotel, which totally exceeded our expectations. Jackie was quick to remind me at every given opportunity that you get what you pay for.
We walked out of the hotel to find a cold beer and a spot of lunch. After a couple of quick right hand turns, we crossed the ‘Old Bridge’ high above the Nam Khan. The Old Bridge is for motorcycles and pedestrians only. The pedestrian footpaths were either side of the busy motorcycle carriageways on a metal sheet floor. Some of the metal sheets had bowed in the middle and made a hell of a racket when we stepped on the them.
Jackie admitted she was slightly frightened that the pedestrian path would collapse sending us falling to our death. I was more concerned that I might accidentally drop my phone sending it falling to its death.
Literally the other side of the Old Bridge, a restaurant, Khua Kao, screamed out for us to enter. It had a terrace in a lofty position overlooking the Nam Khan, where we enjoyed a lovely lunch. Jackie had tom yum soup with seafood and I had a pork omelette with rice.
Halfway through the meal we were asked if we didn’t mind being filmed by a drone for a promotion video. We obviously didn’t and the drone flew around and through the restaurant terrace. Hollywood here we come!!
After lunch we bought some drinks including a cheap bottle of Vietnamese vodka, then returned to My Dream and sat around what felt like our own private secluded pool. We sunbathed and I tried to read my book, but Jackie was constantly nattering in my ear about extending our stay here, what type of room, what floor, how much would we be prepared to pay, what if this, what if that, etc, etc, etc. I didn’t get much reading done!
At 7pm we returned to reception to catch the free hotel shuttle bus into the old town. We had time to read the restaurant menu which looked exceptional, reasonably priced and the atmosphere was made by a musician playing his guzheng.
The shuttle bus dropped us off at the Old Post Office and we walked down to the Mekong River, where the riverside was lined with tons of inviting waterfront restaurants - too many to choose from. We strolled up and down umming and aahing and eventually settled on an Indian and Malaysian restaurant. We sat down and opened the menu, but to Jackie’s utter horror they didn’t sell alcohol - it was a Muslim restaurant. We made our apologies and left, but vowed to go back another night.
We settled on another riverside restaurant which sold beer. I ordered a fried chicken dish with girolle mushrooms and coconut milk, whilst Jackie ordered a Pad Thai chicken. Both meals were lovely and Jackie voted hers the best Pad Thai on this trip.
We caught the 9.30pm shuttle bus back to the hotel, had a vodka nightcap and retired to bed shattered.
Song of the Day - Another Train by Ian McCulloch.Read more
Day 11 - A Bonus Scooter Day
March 3 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
We struggled to get up this morning and we were in danger of being late returning the scooter. I came up with a brainwave - why didn’t we keep the scooter for one more day.
We packed our rucksack for our day out, then rode to the scooter shop, paid the man 180,000 Kip and told him we would return the scooter that night before 8pm.
The restaurant that was the scene of our pork gluttony the previous evening was next door and we knew they made shakes. Jackie ordered a banana shake and I, an iced coffee with milk, for just £1 each, a fraction of what we were paying at the posh bakery up the road. The drinks were heaven sent and I, in a moment of delirium, promised to walk down early the following morning to pick up a couple of takeouts before we moved on to our next destination.
Now we still had the scooter, it gave us to the opportunity to visit Kaeng Yui Waterfall, which was 6km east of Vang Vieng. It is described in my guidebook as ‘a peaceful spot, nestled in the forest among the hills protecting Vang Vieng's eastern flank.
Besides offering a refreshingly cool picnic spot, with small pools of water directly under the falls to lounge in, it rewards the journey with the sense of being smack in the middle of the tropics, miles from anywhere. Along the path to the falls keep an eye out for reptiles, giant stick insects and butterflies’.
We paid our 30,000 Kip admittance fee, parked up and strolled up the gratefully gently inclined pathway through the forest. It was a very pleasant 600 metre walk to the waterfall. I was scouring the undergrowth and trees with my beady eye, but apart from dozens of different species of fluttering butterflies, I unfortunately didn’t see a single reptile or stick insect, unless you could describe Jackie as a giant stick insect.
The waterfall itself was not much more than a dribble, which was not particularly surprising considering it has been the dry season for the last couple of months. We took the usual photos, Jackie even got her feet wet, then we walked back down to the scooter. It was a very pleasant experience and so glad that we took the time out to go and visit Kaeng Yui Waterfall.
We rode back to Vang Vieng where we encountered a school just finishing for lunch or for the day. I so wish I had had the opportunity to video it (and not get arrested), because it was hilariously chaotic. About a hundred young schoolchildren raced out of the school gates, all at the same time, most on mini scooters, some on cycles, bringing the surrounding traffic to a complete standstill.
Eventually we arrived at Tham Chang, not for the cave, but so we could have a leisurely sunbathing afternoon around the lagoon and Jackie could fulfil her promise of zip lining here.
We set out our sarongs on a grassy bank overlooking the lagoon with a great view of the jump platform and zip line, then refreshed ourselves with a cold beer. We watched a couple of very young kids who worked at the lagoon go down the zip line time and time again whilst hanging upside down like a couple of little Mowglis.
Eventually a European couple gave it a go, the lad was fine, but his girlfriend managed to fall off almost instantly and belly flopped from a great height into the lagoon below. This didn’t bode well for Jackie, but she had the gall to analyse what the girlfriend had done wrong.
Jackie thought it was too quiet to go on the zip line, so instead we sidled into the lagoon for a little swim. Once we got out, I decided to take the bull by the horns and show Jackie how it was done.
I got my phone for Jackie to video it from behind, then I pulled in the zip line handle. It was quite a long narrow wooden runway, which I ambled along then stepped off to soar through the air. I pretty much reached the end when I let go and dropped into the water with the applause of a French lady ringing in my ears. As I resurfaced, she cried out “Bravo, bravo”.
I returned to Jackie who decided that she was going to have a go on the zip line in the afternoon. We decided to indulge in some local produce for lunch from the stalls on site. We planned to have a couple of banana rotis, but Jackie by now had the taste for something more savoury.
We enquired about the contents of a banana leaf package, which we assumed was sticky rice. The lady didn’t speak English, so she opened a package and showed us the contents. It didn’t look appetising, but we agreed to buy it as she had taken the trouble to open it for us. We inexplicably also ordered a couple of sticks of burnt pork bites, which we definitely didn’t need.
Jackie took a bite out of the contents of the banana leaf, declared it vile, then immediately consigned it to the bin. The pork bites were fatty and overcooked. This was not a success. I ordered a banana pancake, which was delicious.
The afternoon was spent lazing in the sun, with one more dip in the lagoon. Jackie kept threatening to get on the zip line, but after one excuse too many, Jackie finally conceded she had lost her bottle. Am I surprised………..No.
We left Tham Chang around 4pm and returned to our hotel. Over the next 2 hours, we packed our rucksacks and got ready to head out for the evening.
At 6.45pm we rode back to the scooter shop, via an ATM, to drop off the scooter and collect my passport. We then walked to Il Tavolo, a pizzeria that we had seen attracted queuing crowds.
There was no queue when we arrived and we were allocated a small table for four. We ordered 2 beers and a pizza with mozzarella, garlic and spicy salami. It was supposed to be a non spicy meal, because we were travelling in the morning, but Jackie ordered additional toppings of onions and fresh chillies for our shared pizza. The pizza was lovely and tongue tingling, so we ordered a carafe of white wine to help numb the pain.
It was a delicious meal, but it was slightly disconcerting to have so many people queuing outside waiting for a free table whilst we were still eating and savouring our house wine. At one point, I thought we should have ordered a pizza each, but by the end of the meal, we were both struggling to eat the one we had ordered.
We walked back to our hotel, had a couple of nightcaps, then retired for a particularly early night.
Song of the Day - Waterfalls by Death Cab For Cutie,Read more
Day 10 - We Are Really Flying Now
March 2 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C
I was awake at 5.59am, when the rodent started gnawing away at our wall again. I banged on the wall, turned the light on and off, but nothing would deter him. Twenty minutes later he just stopped and silence fell upon our room once again apart from Jackie’s shallow snoring.
When Jackie finally woke up, she announced that she was feeling slightly queasy and didn’t feel up to the zip line, but she could manage the strenuous planned Viewpoint climb.
We departed the hotel at 9.30am and rode to Luang Prabang Bakery & Restaurant again. I ordered a simple iced Americano whilst Jackie ordered the same as yesterday, iced Americano with pink milk and a large pain au chocolat.
There was no sign of Jackie’s coffee 10 minutes after mine had arrived. She was convinced they had forgotten, but then her pink and brown two-tone coffee arrived. It was a sickly sweet strawberry milkshake flavoured coffee and nothing like yesterday’s coffee.
We then set out for more adventures and rode out to Horkham Viewpoint. On the way we passed Nam Xay Viewpoint, which is probably the most famous, because I understand it to be the first with a motorcycle installed at the top. It was obviously also the most popular judging by the amount of scooters and other vehicles in the car park, therefore too busy for us.
Instead we parked up at Horkham Viewpoint and paid the standard 20,000 Kip entrance fee. This hike was different in as much as we were required to scramble up over rocks and boulders sometimes on all fours. It also felt that we had ascended higher and for longer than the previous day’s viewpoint climb.
What turned out to be about halfway up, we came to a footpath T-junction. One way led to the plane, the other led to Pegasus, or as Jackie called it, ‘the pony’.
We had already planned to head to the plane, so onwards we climbed. Eventually we arrived at the summit puffing heavily and sodden. There were a nice young Korean couple who were taking photos and fresh as daisies. We sat/lay in the wooden shelter and cooled down.
After 10 minutes or so, I plucked up the courage to attempt to board the aircraft that was positioned on the top. Jackie videoed me climbing in not so elegantly. To climb into the tiny cockpit, it required me to stand on the wing whilst clinging on to the rim of the boiling hot cockpit for dear life. Then I had to step up and over into the cockpit with a sheer drop looming on the other side. A fall would surely guarantee instant death.
Inside the cockpit, I donned the very sweaty helmet and waved the Laos flag. After a few minutes in which I’d hoped Jackie had taken a photograph or two for prosperity, I tentatively climbed out and returned to Jackie anticipating a heroes welcome. I was sadly disappointed, but the Korean girl was full of praise for my achievements.
Jackie dithered as to whether she would get in the plane, so an Asian lad who had now joined us asked me to take some photos of him. I did him proud.
By now Jackie had built up the courage to give it a go. I filmed her boarding the plane with an audience now behind me encouraging her on. After taking sufficient photos, including of a concrete gorilla in a bamboo cage, we headed down the mountain. It was steep and took a lot of concentration, but we arrived at the bottom in one piece and elated that we had conquered Horkham Viewpoint or at least half of it.
We had a cruise through the Laos countryside and villages, before heading back to Vang Vieng. We stopped at a shack overlooking the Nam Song, where we shared 3 large beers and a plate of pork ribs. It was a pleasant interlude as we watched incompetent kayakers beach themselves on the rocks in the shallow river.
Our next stop was Tham Chang, Vang Vieng’s most popular cave and tourist attraction:-
Tham Cham is described as a spectacular cave consisting of numerous beautiful and rare stalactites. Located in Meuang Xong Village, this spacious cave was used as a bunker during an invasion in the early 19th century and a haven for local inhabitants in the civil war. To enter the cave, visitors need to climb up the stone stairway with a couple of hundred steps leading to the mountainside entrance. Inside the cave, there are several well-lit pathways that lead to different sections of the cave with myriad stalactites and rocks in weird formations, one of which leads to a nice viewpoint outside where you can take in the countryside scenery. Tham Chang Cave is also an ideal spot to cool off from the hot weather as the temperature inside the cave is fairly low.
We paid our 22,000 Kip each admission fee and headed straight for the cave and climbed the 171 steps (I counted them) to the cave entrance. Inside, we followed the path through the cave, enjoying the cool air more than the rock formations.
After 20 minutes of rock watching, we exited the cave down the 171 steps and found ourselves a grassy spot between the lagoon and the Nam Song with an ice cold can of BeerLao. We watched the zip liners and the highlight was a French girl, who took a bit of a running start causing her legs to swing forward then back, whereupon she lost grip and face planted from quite a height into the lagoon with a hell of a splash.
Her friends were beside us crying with laughter, when she dragged herself out of the water with a red stomach and thigh that was clearly smarting.
Jackie considered going in for a swim, but then decided that we would return tomorrow instead and she would give the zip line a go then. We shall see!!!
That night we extracted another 2 million Kip from the ATM and had to then buy a new purse to all the notes in. We returned to Kook sawarng restaurant starving hungry and promptly over ordered. We ordered TWO plates of fried pork belly, Pad Thai with tofu and fried spring rolls.
I ploughed through my pork belly with a couple of spoonfuls of Pad Thai, whilst Jackie could only manage half her pork belly and the remainder of the Pad Thai. The spring rolls just sat there untouched until the end, when we had a bite into them and decided it was too much.
We left the restaurant feeling sick and desperate for air. We were annoyed at ourselves for being too greedy and ruining a lovely meal by devouring what felt like a whole pig.
We waddled home and sat on the balcony with a nightcap, when the rodent mystery was solved. A small rat appeared from the balcony ceiling, probably lured by the pork sweat emanating from our pores, ran along a cable, then scuttled back into the ceiling when I turned the outside light on.
Song of the Day - Flyin’ High (In The Friendly Sky) by Marvin Gaye.Read more
Day 9 - Scaling New Heights
March 1 in Laos ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Both in altitude and in our daily spending.
We were awoken at 6.15 am by some sort of rodent scratching on the wall behind our headboard. It was loud and we were both convinced that whatever it was it was actually in the room with us. I bravely banged on the wall, but to no avail, the scratching continued incessantly. I reluctantly turned the light on, fearing the rodent would attack us once it could see us, but the scratching immediately ceased even when I turned the light back off again.
It was 8.45am when we finally woke up, having slept for close on 10 hours despite the rodent interlude. We hurriedly got up and packed for a day out. We dropped the room key off with receptionist, Vanh, and headed out skipping the hotel breakfast.
We walked to the fairly posh looking Luang Prabang Bakery and Restaurant and ordered an iced americano with pink milk, a coffee frappe, a croissant and a chocolate bun. Everything was supersized including the bill. Jackie’s croissant was enormous and my chocolate bun was as big as a family sized Panettone.
We munched our way through our dough breakfast washed down with a vat of cold coffee. It was very nice, but way too much, including the bill of 388,000 Kip (about £13). This was just about our dearest meal to-date.
We walked up the road and hired a scooter for 2 days, which cost less than our breakfast (just £6 a day). We fuelled up with £3 worth of petrol then set off on my pre-planned route. We were both wearing much comfier helmets.
We crossed the Nam Song on the narrow motorcycle bridge, followed a short but traumatic wobbly wooden bridge. We then rode out into the countryside surrounded by dramatic limestone karst mountains. It was a bit of a procession of tourist vehicles, Lao privately owned 4x4s, dune buggies, Tuk-tuks and scooterists like us.
Several miles in we turned off down a pretty much deserted stony track and arrived at the entrance to Pha Perng Viewpoint. We parked up and paid our 20,000 Kip entrance fee to 2 very young girls. The viewpoint was 200 metres from the entrance.
A sign warned :-
‘People with heart disease are prohibited.
People with diseases such as: Asthma, High blood pressure Do not go up.
An old man whose health is not strong, must not climb up’.
I think I do or have qualified for all of the above!!
Jackie led the way and I followed, ready to catch her if she slipped and fell. The path started off fairly flat, but then the path was replaced with steep rocks and a bamboo hand rail to cling on to. Halfway up, we met a young western couple coming down, who informed us that a motorcycle was being secured to the top when they arrived. They were the very first people to sit on the motorcycle atop the mountain and we would be the second.
The route got steeper to virtually vertical. Wooden steps that might as well have been a series of ladders with thick wire cables to hold on to assisted us to climb the mountain. Eventually we arrived at the top, sodden through, to find that we were the only climbers at the summit…………………apart from 4 workers repairing one of the last ladders.
One of them very kindly offered to take our photo at the top, although I nearly had a heart attack when he leant over the rail with my phone to get a better angle.
We took several photos of each other astride the precariously balanced newly installed motorbike seemingly just held in place with some thin metal wire attaching it to the rock.
We climbed back down tentatively upon reaching the car park Jackie announced that she was not doing any more climbing today. It was a miracle that she hadn’t slipped at any point during the ascent or descent, but her knees were now uncontrollably shaking.
Anyhow, we continued on my planned route until we reached the turn off for Lagoon 1 and Phoukham Cave with another 20.000 Kip entrance fee. It was at Lagoon 1 that we found all the Lao long weekenders and Korean tourists. The place was rammed with Asians and next to no Europeans. I have to admit it had a nice friendly vibe despite the crowds and we found a shaded table to enjoy a large BeerLao and watch jumpers into the lagoon.
It was only after drinking our beers did we go in search of the Phoukham Cave. It turned out to require another vertical climb of 120 metres to reach the cave entrance. Jackie declined, but I was going to get my money’s worth, despite the same warning sign as at Pha Perng Viewpoint.
Fifteen minutes later I found myself in an atmospheric cave with a Buddha shrine in the centre. I could have continued deeper into the cave, but there was an absence of hand rails or people, so I headed back down to a waiting Jackie.
We rode on and found Horkham Viewpoint which appealed to Jackie and we agreed to scale it the following morning.
We continued and found Lagoon 3, which cost us 30,000 Kip to enter. It was strangely full of swimming and sunbathing western youngsters with hardly an Asian face in sight. We found ourselves a table and sat down with 2 ice cold beers, whilst we watched the Lagoon activities, particularly a zip line and a rope swing.
The lure of the Lagoon was too much for me, so I changed into my swimming shorts and shoes, then walked round to the zip line to make a stylish entry into the water. Sadly l forgot to breathe in and looking back at the video I will definitely be back on a diet when we get home.
The Lagoon was refreshing and we shared another beer, whilst I dried off. Jackie couldn’t be persuaded to have a go on the zip line (or even have a swim) for fear everyone would be looking at grandma having a swing. Although she did say she might give it a go tomorrow!
It was by now late afternoon and I continued our circular 26 mile planned route passing through villages and swerving around the wildlife of free roaming cattle, dogs and chickens with broods of chicks. We also saw other advertised Lagoons and Viewpoints before arriving back at our hotel knackered.
That evening we continued our spending spree by eating at a more upmarket restaurant, Happy Mango Thai Restaurant, which always seemed busy. The restaurant was completely full when we arrived, but luckily for us, I spotted a couple getting up from a front row table, so I dashed through the restaurant, almost climbing over the other diners, and plonked myself down at the table.
We ordered a satay chicken starter, I ordered a beef Massaman curry with sticky rice, Jackie ordered duck in tamarind sauce and obviously 2 beers. Signs on the wall asked us to be patient because all the food was cooked fresh to order. It took an age for our beers to arrive, (which Jackie didn’t comment on), until she called over the waiter to remind him we were thirsty.
The food was gorgeous. My beef melted in the mouth and Jackie’s duck arrived on a duck shaped serving dish and was covered in a thin layer of crispy seaweed. The total cost came to the equivalent of just under £20. Just as well we had withdrawn another 2 million Kip before dinner!
Shortly after dinner my stomach started to gurgle. I had to make an emergency pitstop in the Amari Hotel and by the time we got home I was perspiring profusely. Nurse Jackie insisted I drank gallons of water and when we went to bed she made me check my heart rate and ECG on my watch. Both were normal.
Song of the Day - I Wan’na Be Like You (The Monkey Song) by Louis Prima, Phil Harris, Bruce Reitherman.Read more
Day 8 - Pool Day
February 28 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C
We had a fantastic sleep in our hard mattress’d bed and then Jackie insisted I put our sarongs on 2 of the only 6 sun beds around the pool. We then went down to the aircraft hangar for breakfast and even as we walked in it did not look appealing.
It was a buffet style breakfast and the coffee was thick tar like and bitter. I nibbled on a couple of chunks of watermelon and some tasteless melon. Jackie had a slice of toast and a spoonful of rice. There was also a an egg station but neither of us could stomach it. We won’t be having breakfast there again.
The morning was spent by the pool with Jackie constantly critiquing the breakfast whilst I tried to catch up with my blog and read my book.
At midday we left our sarongs on the beds and booked a Tuk-Tuk and seats on the bullet train to Luang Prabang for Wednesday with our receptionist, Vanh. She also confirmed that the air balloons were still not flying.
I had originally planned to take a minibus to Luang Prabang, which is apparently a scenic route through the mountains, but Jackie read that the minibus took 6.5 hours compared to just 1 hour by train. It was a no brainer.
We headed out for a lunch The main thoroughfare Route 13 was nowhere near as busy as that first dusty crossing and we even walked along it before cutting down into town. We got 2 million Kip out of a BCEL Bank ATM with minimal fuss, then found a slightly more westernised cafe. I’m embarrassed to admit that we both ordered a cheese burger and french fries with a couple of beers. It turned out to be a minuscule burger in a large bun, but it was still tasty enough and filled a hole.
We walked back to the hotel to discover the pool area was busy, mainly French girls either in the pool or sitting on the pool side. As we returned to our room, I started to feel guilty, but apparently Jackie didn’t. However, Jackie suddenly felt the need to do something or other in the room, so I had to make the walk of shame back to our sun beds on my own, trying desperately not to catch anyone’s eye.
It was a roasting hot afternoon and I managed to get some reading in. The peace around the pool was disturbed when Jackie climbed out of the pool, slipped on the wet floor and went arse over tit and landed with a thud on the tiles. I heard a few gasps from the fellow pool users, possibly secretly thinking there is such a thing as karma.
The peace was disturbed for a second time when my phone went berserk with news alerts. Anyone would have thought that World War Three had started………….maybe it had!!
That evening we went out early and did a tour of the walking street markets, selling clothes, food and god knows what else, but at cheaper prices than we have probably ever previously experienced.
The town was significantly busier than Friday night, which I understand was due to the wealthy Laos families from Vientiane and Luang Prabang driving to Vang Vieng for a weekend of adventures.
We strolled around the bustling town until we found a Lao Restaurant that took our fancy. The owner was very welcoming and the restaurant had a nice atmosphere. We ordered fried ginger and pork, fried chicken and cashew nuts with rice , morning glory and a starter of fried spring rolls. It was very nice, but didn’t have the wow factor of some of our previous meals.
We returned to our balcony for a couple of nightcaps. We were in bed by 10pm.
Song of the Day - War by Edwin Starr.Read more
Day 7 - Bullet Train to Vang Vieng
February 27 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
The alarm clock went off at 8.00am on the dot and we sprang into action. We showered and packed up our rucksacks in less than an hour.
We went down to breakfast and ticked off our usual food request. The food came out minus my pancakes, assuming I had forgotten to tick the box I contented myself with munching through 4 thick slices of baguette, 2 yoghurts and a bowl of fruit. I was just finishing my, when my pancakes, banana and honey arrived. It would have been rude not to force them down as well.
In contrast, Jackie nibbled on half a slice of toast with a coffee. Apparently she was still full from eating my mango and sticky rice the previous evening!!
At 10.10am we settled up with Nou in reception, then waited for our 10.30am taxi which he had booked, allowing us sufficient time to get to the China-Laos Vientiane Railway Station for our high speed bullet train to Vang Vieng.
Our taxi arrived 10 minutes early and we arrived at the enormous Railway Station at 10.50am. I think Nou was being over cautious about the time to check in or just glad to see the back of us. Upon entry to the terminal we were confronted with airport security scanners operated by a bunch teenagers for both our luggage and person.
Jackie and I were both required to open our rucksacks for confiscation of our inflammable aerosols, which apparently included suntan oil sprays, deodorants etc. Jackie had numerous prohibited aerosol cans, but she whipped out just one can of sunscreen, which seemed to satisfy the teenage security guards. I rummaged and rummaged through my rucksack looking for what I believed to be the offending item, a can of mosquito spray. I resorted to emptying my clean, neatly ironed clothes into Jackie’s arms as I delved deeper and deeper into my rucksack until the security guard got bored and told me not to worry. I stuffed my clothes back in my rucksack.
We had a 90 minute wait in the huge departure lounge before we boarded our $14 US dollar bullet train to Vang Vieng. The whole boarding process was ultra efficient and the medium to high speed bullet train silently and smoothly rolled out of Vientiane before reaching speeds of 161 kph, although it felt like we were hardly moving.
On the short journey, we received the Election results for the Gorton and Denton by-election. I was ecstatic to discover that that disgusting creature Starmer and his Paedophile Apologist Labour Party had come 3rd behind the Green Party and Reform. I could go off on one about my opinions of Starmer and the Labour Party, but this is not the time and place.
Jackie has absolutely no interest in politics, so she concentrated on Laos Facebook posts and discovered that all aerial pursuits had been suspended since the 25th February so that authorities could enforce tightened up safety procedures by air balloon and paramotoring operators. We had planned to go air ballooning in Vang Vieng because it is one of the cheapest places anywhere in the world. I’m not sure if I was disappointed or relieved.
Jackie still had time on the train ride to discover to her horror that our next hotel only rated as GOOD, with an average score of just 7.7 out of 10. This gave her something else to fret about and was already saying that we would have to change hotels if it was only that ‘good’.
We arrived at Vang Vieng Railway Station about an hour later. We somehow managed to get off the train first and boarded a Tuk-Tuk bus with 6 other tourists into Vang Vieng centre. We were dropped off outside our hotel last, the fare costing just £1.40 each.
Our £24 per night hotel has a double identity, known as Vang Vieng Phongsavanh Resort AND Sansan Resort and Restaurant. From our initial impressions Jackie described it as scruffy and overgrown, I described it as shabby chic. Reception was located in a big empty building the size of a school gymnasium with a few breakfast tables off to one side.
After checking in, we went to our allocated room and walked mud all over the lovely wooden floor. Jackie quickly identified that there were no towels, glasses or coffee despite having a kettle. I was dispatched off to obtain the missing items.
Upon my return after a successful mission, Jackie was still scouring the room trying to find fault, but finally conceded it was fine. In fact it was very nice and better than the previous hotel.
I hung up my now creased to buggery linen shirts then we headed out to explore and seek refreshment. It was not long before Jackie was moaning again. Between us and the town centre is the country’s main thoroughfare - Route 13. Two lorries rattled along the road into front of us kicking up clouds of dust. We ran across the road into a bus station car park and continued a 10 minute into the centre of town.
We headed straight for the Nam Song river and found the poshest and probably most expensive hotel cafe, Phubarn Terrace Cafe, in Vang Vieng. We sat down on the terrace overlooking the Nam Song and ordered 2 large beers and a plate of fried pork belly. It was so lovely that I was happy to order a 2nd round of beers, whatever the cost. We drank our beers in the sun and watched the comings and goings of kayakers on Nam Song. It actually wasn’t that expensive.
It was late afternoon when we returned to our lovely shabby hotel. Whilst Jackie was getting ready I connected my ‘legal’ Amazon Stick to the television. I couldn’t turn the television on so I went down to reception only to be told that none of the hotel televisions were working. That buggered up my plans to watch the cricket later and football on Sunday!
We went back into town for dinner and stopped at Kook sawarng restaurant. We had to select our dinner from banners on the wall. We chose Pad Thai chicken, more crispy pork belly and morning gorly (their spelling, not mine).
Without wanting to sound like a broken record, it was utterly gorgeous, then we finished the night with a nightcap on our 1st floor balcony and had an early night.
Song of the Day - Bullets and Blue Eyes by The Silencers.Read more
Simon and Jackie AnnalsSteve it has been great. We have been particularly enjoying Vang Vieng
Day 6 - A Lizard in my Adventure Sandal
February 26 in Laos ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
It was the usual start to the day with the same breakfast at the same time. At 10.10am we boarded the scooter and cruised into the city centre. On the way we passed a traffic police checkpoint, Jackie ducked down and luckily they didn’t notice (or care) that she wasn’t wearing a helmet.
At 10.30am sharp and after turning the wrong way up a one way dual carriageway, we dropped the scooter back off at TL Motorbike For Rent and I retrieved my passport.
We then walked for over a mile along Rue Setthathirat to Wat Si Muang, apparently the most frequently visited grounds in Vientiane. Inside the main temple is a replica of the Emerald Buddha. I had a nosey inside, picking my way through the floor sitting locals receiving prayers from monks, whilst I surreptitiously snapped a couple of photos.
Legend has it that when the site for Wat Si Muang was selected in 1563, a large hole was dug to receive the heavy stone pillar that would become the city pillar. When the pillar arrived it was suspended over the hole with ropes.
Drums and gongs then sounded to summon the townspeople and everyone waited for a volunteer to jump into the hole as a sacrifice to the spirit. A pregnant woman named Sao Si leapt in and the ropes were released, killing her and in the process establishing the town guardianship.
As we were leaving, a Buddhist monk was blessing a brand new van that the owner had brought to the temple. The monk splashed holy water over the windscreen, lent into the driver’s seat to presumably say a prayer, beeped the horn several times then walked off without acknowledging the owner.
Outside the temple complex, a shop was selling small birds for visitors to buy and release for good luck. It wasn’t a pretty sight, because the birds were way too tightly packed into their cages and we could see several dead birds lying at the bottom of the cages. We didn’t buy any, not because we are tight, but because we didn’t want to encourage this illegal wildlife trade.
We walked back through a scruffy unkempt Chou Anouvong Park into central Vientiane, where we located a cafe for a much needed BeerLao.
Fully refreshed we continued to Wat Ong Teu Mahawihan, another temple deemed one of the most important in Laos. It was originally built in the mid-16th century by King Setthathirat and is believed to occupy a site first used for religious purposes in the 3rd century.
Next stop was Wat Chanthabull, a beautiful riverside wat built in the 16th century. It is notable for it’s enormous bronze seated Buddha, but we’ll have to take their word for that because the temple was closed.
Now completely Wat’d out we headed back towards our hotel via a restaurant, Lao Kitchen, that received top ratings in every review we could find, but bizarrely closed at 6pm each day.
The dining area at Lao Kitchen was on a white tiled spotlessly clean floor that had the feel of a car showroom with well spaced tables instead of vehicles. It was also well air conditioned, much to our relief.
We ordered 6 x Fresh spring rolls with pork, Heavenly sun-dried beef (slices of beef seasoned with sesame and deep fried) served with their LK green sauce, a portion of Luang Prabang sausage and a couple of beers. They were all cooked to order and were absolutely delicious. The sausage tasted of a Thai green curry. We have earmarked this restaurant for our final meal in Laos.
After lunch we headed to the nearest supermarket to pick up a bottle of spirits. They didn’t have any of the super cheap Lao John Henry whisky we bought for less than £2.50. Even the Thai Hong Thong was £10, so I gave Jackie directions for a short cut back to the hotel, whilst I would walk a big loop via the whisky shop.
I was halfway home when I got a WhatsApp message from a disgruntled Jackie saying that she had come to a dead end. I rang her back and we had a frank discussion about learning to read a map on the phone. After several more messages and calls, the outcome was that a miserable Jackie arrived back at the hotel 2 minutes after me.
As we walked into the hotel, I had a sudden desire to run to the reception toilet for an urgent poo. Without going into any unnecessary detail, I did my business then realised there was no toilet paper, just a shower hose and tap. I had no choice but to try this out for the first time in my life. Ultimately I ended up with a clean but sopping wet bottom!!
It was 3pm, when Jackie and I relocated to the pool sun beds to rest our now blistered feet. My phone had recorded that we had walked 6.5 miles so far that day in heat exceeding 30 degrees. We spent 2 hours wallowing on our sun beds and in the pool until the late afternoon midges or mosquitoes started to make an appearance.
The only thing of note beside the pool was that a smooth lizard sidled up to my sweaty adventure sandals, had a sniff, then waddled off under our sun beds and then into the undergrowth. He did later make the return journey, but I noticed he gave my sandals a wide berth. How rude!!
We relocated to our cool air conditioned room to pack in anticipation of our onward travels in the morning. Later we exchanged more US Dollars for Kip with our friendly receptionist Nou. Jackie bombarded him with questions and ultimately arranged that we would WhatsApp him in the next week or so to arrange a favourable room rate if we return to Vientiane the night before we depart for the UK via Bangkok.
Nou sorted us a KKM into the city centre and we mooched around the streets taking in the atmosphere and looking for a place to eat at. On our travels we located the Fish and Meat Market. It was a hive of activity in technicolor and surround sound. The foods on display looked intriguing and delicious at the same time.
Jackie was particularly drawn to a stall with large oyster shells filled with a heap of an unidentified diced seafood, presumably oysters. They were very popular with the market goers, but Jackie bottled it, fearing she may just be ill on the bullet train.
Soon after we stumbled upon Coco Cafe, which was a cute little restaurant serving Lao food hosted by the most charming cheerful lady. Jackie ordered a Thai red pork curry with steamed rice and I had fried noodles with chicken. It was all very tasty and I ordered a mango and sticky rice with coconut milk for dessert.
Despite devouring most of a huge dome of steamed rice with her curry, Jackie felt the need to eat half of my dessert, mainly most of the mango. To add insult to injury, Jackie later declared that she had eaten too much and she shouldn’t have eaten any mango or sticky rice. The entire meal with 3 large beers cost about £11.
We flagged down a taxi and I negotiated, almost bullied, the driver into agreeing a very decent price to take us back to the hotel. We had a nightcap and had an early night.
Song of the Day - My Sacrifice by Creed.Read more
Day 5 - Ride Like A Local
February 25 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
We both finally had a decent nights sleep. I woke up at 6.30am and Jackie managed to sleep on to 8.30am. We went down to breakfast 45 minutes later. I ordered the pancakes with banana and honey, whilst Jackie went native and ordered fried chicken rice with a fried egg on top. Our best breakfast so far.
At 10am, I set off on foot, loaded up with my passport, driving licence, credit card and cash to rent myself a scooter. Jackie struggled down to the pool sun beds for a rest!!
It was a mile and a half hike into the city centre, where, whilst mildly perspiring, I located TL Motorbike For Rent. I was offered a scooter for 250,000 Kip, which I agreed to and we completed the paperwork, but when I was given a demonstration, the fuel cap would not open. This was no good, so I was offered a bigger brand new scooter for 300,000 Kip (£10). With my passport held by them as a deposit, I negotiated the busy roads back to the hotel.
Jackie was waiting for me and soon we were both boarding the scooter for a day out. Unfortunately Jackie’s helmet had a floppy visor and kept falling down until we jammed a folded hotel business card under the visor.
We rode down to the river side road and then followed the Mekong River on Thadeua Road south east out of Vientiane. Our intended destination was the Buddha Park. The fuel tank was only a third full, so we put the equivalent of £3 worth of petrol in the tank which filled it right up.
As we were leaving the Vientiane suburbs I turned right off Thadeua Road on to a minor road to take a more southerly long route following as close as we could to the Mekong. The roads were in very good condition and we were able to scoot along at a decent lick.
There were numerous Buddhist Temple complexes, but one half way into our journey looked particularly impressive. I rode in and parked up inside the complex. Jackie attempted to dismount the scooter and disaster struck, her trusty Navratilovas ripped. The rip was virtually indecent and was only going to get worse, they would now have to be consigned to the bin, so Jackie scuttled off behind a temple and changed into a baggy pair of elephant trousers.
Whilst Jackie was changing, I set off to take some temple photos until a pair of nasty looking dogs ran at me barking and snarling. A young Buddhist monk in his orange outfit came to my rescue and called them off.
We continued our ‘long cut’ until we found a little supermarket to obtain some refreshments to combat the searing heat. We bought 2 large cans of beer, 2 bottles of water and a Cornetto and an ice lolly for the grand total of £2.71. I got the impression they didn’t get many tourists in their supermarket.
We ate our ices and drank our beer at a shaded table and chairs outside the supermarket. We returned to the scooter and Jackie decided she wasn’t going to wear her helmet any more and was prepared to pay the $4 US dollar fine.
We eventually arrived at Buddha Park sometime during the early afternoon. We paid our 60,000 Kip (£2) and commenced our tour of the park of 200+ concrete sculptures. It was boiling hot and my phone told me that it had also got too hot, then went all dark so I couldn’t see what I was taking photos of.
One concrete structure was a massive ball with a mouth as an entrance and a pointy tree thing on top. I stupidly entered the tight entrance and climbed up the ever increasingly narrow and steep steps before crawling out almost upside down out of a tiny entrance at the top. It was akin to being in the Chi Chi Tunnels in Vietnam and definitely not designed for a 5’11” tall, 14 stone something, hunk of a man in his 60’s and slightly arthritic. All for the sake of a photo opportunity!!
After an hour or so we were melting and it was a pleasure to be back on the bike with a breeze - in Jackie’s case rushing through her hair. Several miles back along the road towards Vientiane, we pulled over at a scenic little riverside shack, where we treated ourselves to our couple of beers and a nest of very crispy fried noodles to snack on.
Suitably refreshed, we were back on the bike and racing towards Vientiane. The road was much busier with rush hour traffic. Once we actually arrived back in Vientiane there were vehicles everywhere and the rules of the road went out the window.
The scooter was king as they weaved through the slow moving or stationary cars and lorries. I soon got the hang of it and was riding like, no, actually better, than a local. When the road just got too congested, us scooterists took to the pavement to ride round the queuing traffic, having scant regard for any pedestrians!!
After a tiring all action ride, we eventually arrived at our next destination Pha That Luang, a huge golden stupa. It is depicted on everything from banknotes to buildings. This Buddhist stupa is the most important religious building in Laos and is the country’s national symbol.
The present structure dates back to just the 1930s and is a reconstruction of the original thought to have been built in the mid-sixteenth century. In 1867 the original structure was overgrown but still intact, until a few years later when Chinese-led bandits plundered the stupa looking for gold and left it in a pile of rubble.
We took our customary photos and it was then we made a dash through the chaotic traffic back to our hotel arriving at 6pm absolutely shattered. After a short lie down, we showered and hit the road again. Jackie had decided she fancied a bbq style dinner and research showed us that a there was a highly recommended suitable restaurant on TripAdvisor less than a mile from us.
The night time ride was a strange experience, because other road users kept pulling out in front of us as if they hadn’t seen us. When we made it to our destination still miraculously in one piece, it was Sod’s Law to find that it was closed for refurbishment. This was fate.
We remembered a Japanese Style BBQ restaurant on the riverside road from the previous evening so we decided to give that a try. Our circuitous route took us along the main roads, accidentally past the airport and back down to the riverside road. It was on this leg that we came to a relatively unlit area and then, and only then, did I realise that we had been riding around the entire night without any lights on. That explained a few things. Luckily we hadn’t got stopped by the police, otherwise we would have been looking at a double fine with Jackie still refusing to wear her helmet.
We arrived at the Japanese Style BBQ restaurant with the road now wondrously illuminated in front of us. After getting a table, we were presented with a menu of meats to barbecue and other assorted accompanying dishes. We chose 2 dishes of Ribeye and 1 Pork as well as the recommended vegetable platter, which all came with a selection of sauces. We obviously ordered a couple of beers and a cheeky Kimchi starter.
The waiter provided us with a small bbq on house bricks with red hot embers and we (and I do mean we) set about cooking our dinner. It was an unforgettable meal, utterly beautiful, a great dining experience and all for less than £13.
Sadly, I was still feeling hungry so we toured the city until we found a 7-Eleven shop and bought 173,000 Kips worth of sweets, biscuits and Coke Zeros. Back at the hotel we had a couple of nightcaps and called it a night.
Song of the Day - Wicked Garden by Stone Temple Pilots.Read more
Day 4 - I Can’t COPE
February 24 in Laos ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
My alarm went off at 2.56am and I tuned into Sky Sports to watch the Everton v Man United game live. It wasn’t the most exciting match, but our relatively new young striker, Benjamin Sesko, came on as a sub and scored the only goal of the match.
Despite my best efforts I struggled to get back to sleep again after the match and I felt shattered when my alarm went off at 8.05am.
We went down to breakfast at 9am, where on this occasion I ordered an omelette and Jackie ordered 2 boiled eggs along with all the other accompaniments. Over breakfast Jackie decided that she wanted a couple of hours of sun beside the pool before sightseeing. This suited me as it gave me an opportunity to write my blog on the pool sunbeds.
At 12.30pm, we left the pool, showered and caught a stretch Kok Kok Move from the hotel to the COPE Visitor Centre. COPE stands for Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise.
It is a surprising fact that Laos is the World’s Most Bombed Country per capita. Beginning on the 9th June 1964, the United States during the Vietnam War deployed more than 2 million tons of ordnance in 580,000 bombing missions over Lao P.D.R. This is equal to one plane-load every 8 minutes, 24 hours a day, for 9 years. At least 270 million cluster bomblets (Bombies) were released during this campaign, which amounts to 2 tons per inhabitant. This was done to hinder their adversaries’ use of guerrilla warfare along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and resulted in Laos becoming the most extensively bombed country in history. 10 to 30 percent of the bombs did not explode resulting in civilians still being regularly killed and maimed today by unexploded bombies.
The Visitors Centre was well set out with bombs and prosthetic limbs on display. There were numerous photos of victims displayed on the walls, but I chose to avoid them leaving them to Jackie and her more morbid curiosity.
20 minutes later we were done and we walked back to Khop Chai Deu for a couple of large BeerLaos, satay chicken, garlic bread and finally a half litre of white wine, which was just about drinkable.
After lunch, we headed to Wat Sisaket, the oldest wat in Vientiane. We had to pay a 30,000 Kip (£1) entry fee and Jackie was made to wear a pair of trousers to enter. We entered the temple and I managed to sneak a photo. We also walked around the tile roof cloisters that contained 100s of Buddhas, then around the outside of the cloisters which were where the monks were residing. Our visit was interrupted by a group of visiting Thai dignitaries complete with their own film crew.
Our next stop was Haw Pha Keo, which was once the king’s own personal Buddha temple, but is now a museum of art and antiquities. It cost us another £1 each and Jackie wore a long wrap around skirt provided by the museum. Again it was mainly lots more ancient Buddhas and not particularly interesting.
We then hiked back along Setthathilat Road to the MAG (Mines Advisory Group) Visitor Information Centre. The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is a global humanitarian and advocacy organisation that finds, removes and destroys landmines, cluster munitions and unexploded bombs from places affected by conflict.
MAG also provides education programmes, particularly for children, so people can live, work and play as safely as a possible until they clear the land. Since 1989, MAG has helped over 20 million people in 70 countries rebuild their lives and livelihoods after war.
It was only a small Visitor Information Centre providing information about the work they do around the world. We contributed to their good work by buying a packet of ‘From Bomb To Beans’ coffee beans to take home.
Our next stop was at motorcycle rentals to hire a scooter for the next 2 days. Unfortunately the place I had identified (nearest to home) turned out to cater more for motorcyclists who wanted a bike to go touring on and wasn’t what we wanted. There wasn’t another scooter hire shop nearby so instead of riding home as planned we ended up walking back to the hotel and clocking up another 4.32 miles.
After a short recuperative lie down then shower, I went down to reception to see our very friendly and helpful receptionist, Nou. We had already spent virtually all of our 2 million Kip, so I changed up another $60 and instantly became a Kip millionaire again. If I’m honest, I am already sick of shuffling through wads of notes with too many zeros.
Through Nou, I also booked seats on the bullet train to Vang Vieng for Friday. All the 1st class seats were already booked, so I had to make do with booking the 2nd class seats. Nou later WhatsApp’d me our tickets in the form of a QR code.
I returned to the room where Jackie was still doing her hair and makeup. We had a whisky and coke on the balcony then Nou booked us a 24,000 Kip Kok Kok Move (KKM) to the river front. We selected a table at a riverside restaurant overlooking the Mekong and the lights of Thailand beyond.
Jackie chose grilled squid and I had a fried chicken green curry and rice. It was all very delicious and reasonably priced.
After dinner, we strolled along the river side, decided that no bars particularly took our fancy so we flagged down a KKM who took us home for 90,000 Kip. I was told to stop moaning about the fare price.
After a nightcap on the balcony, I climbed into bed to watch England’s run chase in T20 World Cup match against Pakistan using my Amazon Stick plugged into the telly. England won by 2 wickets thanks to a superb ton by captain Harry Brook. England have now already qualified for the semi finals.
Song of the Day - Zombie by The Cranberries.Read more
Andy and Teresa MaysIs that a legal fire stick 😜 - and stop moaning about the cost of TukTuk’s 😂
Day 3 - Let The Adventures Begin
February 23 in Laos ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
Well actually no, we have planned to have a relaxing day beside the pool and an orientation trip only into the Old City Centre of Vientiane.
I awoke around 5.30am, Jackie struggled to wake up for 8am. Apparently she had watched 3 episodes of Bridgerton during the night.
Around 9am we went down for breakfast and were presented with a tickbox order form to complete for the waiter. Jackie selected the American breakfast of fried eggs & ham, whilst I chose the Continental breakfast of pancakes and honey both with everything on offer. We also had muesli (which was disgusting), fruit, yoghurt, a loaf of toast, orange juice and coffees. It was a very pleasant affair and we now know what to and not order tomorrow.
After breakfast we set up camp around the lovely little pool and I set about swatting up on Vientiane from my 2 Laos guidebooks, Lonely Planet and The Rough Guide To. I prefer the Lonely Planet guidebook, but unfortunately its latest edition is already somewhat out of date, because the Chinese have since built a bullet train railway through the country.
At 12.30pm, we showered and 30 minutes later we disturbed the hotel receptionist by asking to change up $100 US dollars into LAK, Laos Kip. For our $100 US dollars we received 2 million 100 thousand Kip, I don’t know if it was a good deal, but today, for the first time in our lives, we are millionaires.
We walked along the main roads down to the Mekong River in search of the highly rated (in both guidebooks) Laodi, a Rum Bar. Described by The Rough Guide To guidebook as ‘Refurbished shipping containers in front of a spooky abandoned building, riverside breezes, and local rum distilled by a Japanese resident. Laodi is hard to pin down, but easy to enjoy. And best of all, the rum, made from Lao sugar cane grown near Vientiane, is delicious; try a tasting flight, which ranges in flavour from plain to passion fruit (we like the barrel-aged "brown' and coffee)’.
The tasting flight sounded right up our street and we vowed to return that evening when it was open. We then walked along the river front road until we reached the evening market which was already starting to stir into action. We made our way past numerous temples (Wats) to Setthathilat Road described as the city’s most scenic thoroughfare with it’s shady tall trees.
It was 2pm, when we stopped at Khop Chai Deu, which translates as Thank You in Lao, bar and restaurant. It was clearly a popular westerner’s hangout, particularly with Aussies. Not our usual choice of lunch venue, but it provided welcome shaded relief from the 34 degree midday sun. We necked a total of 3 large BeerLaos and a plate of chicken satay, which was very pleasant.
After an hour or so we continued along Setthathilat Road, passing the Presidential Palace and Wat Sisaket, Vientiane’s oldest wat and the only temple spared by the invading Siamese in 1828. After passing the Haw Pha Keo museum, Jackie declared that she didn’t fancy walking much further, so we headed down to Fa Ngum Road, which ran alongside Chao Anouvong Park and headed back towards our hotel.
On the way home we stopped at a little shop and purchased a 700ml of John Henry Blue Label whisky, 3 cans of Coke Zero and a large bottle of water, all for the utterly ridiculous price of a fraction over £4.
Chuffed with our purchase, we continued home. I espied an opportunity to take a shortcut, which led us along some residential back streets with locals apparently quite surprised to see us. Unfortunately we eventually came to a grinding halt at a dead end. We then had the indignity of walking back past the surprised locals. Jackie was now not quite so chuffed!
When we finally arrived back at the hotel my watch told me that we had walked 5.26 miles. We had an hours lie down to recuperate and I managed to connect my Amazon Stick to television, which pleased me immensely.
After our 3rd shower of the day, we tested our recent whisky purchase which was remarkably palatable, then went down to reception to order a Tuk-Tuk (Kok Kok Move). Our friendly receptionist showed me the Kok Kok Move booking and asked me to photo it to confirm the driver and price, being Yeng THOR with a fare of just 42 Kip (about £1.45). THOR picked us up in his orange electric Kok Kok Move and dropped us off at the Evening Market.
Vientiane is apparently famous for its culinary scene. It has a surprisingly diverse range of places to eat and drink, including slick coffee houses, vibrant street markets, fine French patisseries and restaurants specialising in regional Lao cuisine.
We chose a an authentic looking Lao restaurant called Kataenoy. We ordered chicken and cashew nuts, crispy pork and a side of green vegetables in oyster sauce as well as steamed rice and 2 large BeerLaos. It was all utterly delicious, particularly Jackie’s crispy pork. When the bill arrived, I was slightly taken aback to discover the cost was 410,000 Kip (£14.20). It transpired that the crispy pork accounted for virtually half the bill. I was told to shut up and get over it.
We then walked along the river front to Laodi Rum Bar and took a front row table on the first floor terrace. When we were presented with the menu there was no mention of a tasting flight and the waiter couldn’t speak English. We settled for just 2 glasses of rum. Jackie chose a sweet dark rum and I chose a ginger and chilli rum. The menu suggested they came with a free mixer, so we both ordered a pineapple juice to accompany our rums.
The half-witted waiter returned with our rums as well as an orange juice and another indescribable juice that didn’t feature anywhere in the menu. Not the pineapple juices we had ordered, but we couldn’t be bothered to argue the toss. I stupidly poured my rum into the unidentified juice, then decided I didn’t like the taste of it. We drank up and left. The final insult was that we were charged for the juices.
We walked west along the river front, where we stumbled upon a number of open air riverside restaurants that we deemed worthy of a visit on another night. We then flagged down a Kok Kok Move, negotiated a price of 70,000 Kip who took us home.
We ended the evening with a nightcap on our balcony before going to bed just before midnight and setting my alarm for 2.56am.
Song of the Day - Walking In My Shoes by Depeche Mode.Read more
Andy and Teresa MaysLooks stunning. The hotel restaurant looks a bit smart for the likes of you two 😉. We are both well jealous looking at the photos!
Day 2 - Constantly Travelling
February 22 in Thailand ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
After a couple of hours of sleep, I woke up with Jackie still using my thigh as a pillow. I tried to surreptitiously get up to go to the toilet and in the process accidentally dropped my iPad on Jackie’s head. She didn’t make a fuss………much. A glass of red wine to soothe the pain seemed to do the trick!
We landed in Bangkok at 3.30pm local time following a fairly painless 10 and a half hour flight. We then had a several hours to kill before catching our connecting Thai Airways flight to Laos.
At 6.30pm, we took off on a full A320 aircraft for the short 55 minute flight to Vientiane. Incredibly, the super efficient airline crew managed to serve everyone a meal followed by coffee. The meal consisted of a purple (Thai Airways) coloured wrap containing bbq chicken and honey mustard dressing followed by a carrot cheesecake.
As we were coming into land there were a series of crew tannoy announcements and I heard (or thought I heard) that it was illegal to bring pork products into Laos…….it might’ve been just from certain surrounding countries like Vietnam, China, Cambodia etc. We weren’t taking any chances and tried to force down 4 now slightly warm mini pork pies that Jackie still had in her bag. I managed two, Jackie ate one and the remaining one was stuffed into the seat pocket.
Upon arrival at Wattay International Airport, we filled out a lengthy Arrivals form, then went to the Visa desk, where we were given a visa form to complete which required exactly the same information as the Arrival forms.
Eventually, we were ready and handed over both forms, our passports, 4 x crisp (as requested) 20 US dollar notes and an additional passport photo each. We were asked several questions about our trip and then told to go to the adjoining desk, where a lady counted out the US dollars notes we had handed over. We were given our passports, photos and the Arrivals form back and told to go to the immigration desk, where we handed everything over again. After a few more minutes, our passports were handed back to us and annoyingly our passport photos which apparently they didn’t want.
I mention the passport photos, because all the official travel information told us we needed them for our visas and we had both spent £10 at a Photo Booth to get them. I wouldn’t have minded so much, but Jackie thought my photo looked like a Brinks Mat robber……she was meaning Kenneth Noye.
Unsurprisingly, after this carry on lasting about an hour, our rucksacks were waiting for us in baggage reclaim and we walked through a now empty customs hall. We needn’t have swallowed the pork pie evidence after all.
At the taxi desk, we paid $7 US dollars and a taxi took us the 3 miles to our hotel, Chandara Boutique Hotel arriving at 9pm. We dumped our luggage in our room, cleaned our teeth, changed into shorts and went straight out in search of a beer.
We found a BBQ/Grill place just 200 metres away that seemed quite lively (it was the last night of Chinese New Year). We sat down and order 2 large BeerLao. The young waiter then just stood there smiling as we leafed through the menu book, despite several attempts by us to encourage him to get our beers. Jackie also tried to enquire whether we could pay in either Thai Baht or US dollars, but this just prompted more grins from the waiter.
Eventually another waiter came to our rescue and we learnt that the menu book was a waste of time, because only the meats on the front page for barbecuing at our table were available. We didn’t fancy it so we declined and instead just supped 4 large beers over the next hour or so.
When we ordered the bill we were informed that it was buy 3 beers get 2 beers free, so they brought out a fifth beer for us to take away. Our bill was just $6 US dollars. An absolute bargain.
We returned to our hotel for a much needed shower then sat on the balcony with our free beer in the warm night air.
Hopefully tomorrow we will actually do something other than be constantly travelling.
Song of the Day - Travellers Tune by Ocean Colour Scene.Read more
Andy and Teresa Mays
Thinking on it I think it looks like you’ve lost weight mate, I know what Jax means though, there is something slightly off or funny about your face - you’ve got a turkey neck 😂 Good on ya!!
Day 1 - Get Me Away From This Weather
February 21 in England ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C
After six weeks of what felt like continuous rain, particularly as I walked a minimum of at least 4 miles every day, this trip could not have come any quicker.
Our 3pm taxi arrived at 3.04pm without an apology for being late. I advised him accordingly which seemed to prompt him to put his foot down through Cuckfield Village, swerving to miss an elderly couple crossing the road who angrily gesticulated at us as we raced past.
At 3.30pm, our National Express Coach duly arrived and transported us via Gatwick to Terminal Two at Heathrow Airport. The 2 hour journey gave me the opportunity to watch the disappointing 2nd half of the England v Ireland Rugby match with lacklustre England losing 21 - 42. On the plus side, the football scores were more to my liking with Brighton winning at Brentford and both Chelsea and Villa drawing.
During the coach journey, we embarked on a picnic of pork pies and crisps, neither of which I had even licked let alone eaten in the last 6 weeks. This was washed down with a bottle of white wine, which again was a treat for me in 2026.
We (I) had been on a strict diet of virtually zero carbs and lots of exercise since New Year.
However, the best bit about this coach trip was that it had cost us just £5 each way with our trusty Blue Light Card.
Upon arrival at Heathrow, we checked in and made our way to the bar. I bought 2 single gin and tonics costing the exorbitant price of £20.20. Luckily for us, we had smuggled half a bottle of gin in a water bottle through security and we topped up our glasses with ever stronger G&Ts.
The Thai Airways flight to Bangkok departed on time (around 9.35pm) and much to our happy surprise it was just about a third full. After dinner and a couple of drinks, Jackie stretched out and fell asleep using my thigh as a pillow.
Song of the Day - Flying Out Of London by The Long Ryders.Read more
