Day 25 - Vientiane to Nong Khai "Check out all of the weird statues!"

Today was our last day in Laos - and regrettably it's also the start of our journey homewards, as we have a few days of travelling ahead of us until we reach Bangkok.

We had an early start, walked along the Mekong for a while and then into the city to Talat Sao (the Central Market) for a bit of shopping, then over to the neighbouring bus station to check out the bus times to Nong Khai, today's destination which is just over the border in Thailand.

We ended up catching the bus at 12:40pm, a pretty easy way to do the border crossing since the one bus takes you between the border checkpoints for each country, and then on to Nong Khai.

Our accommodation there was the penthouse suite at the Pantawee hotel. The suite included the whole rooftop area to ourselves, outdoor jacuzzi, a laptop to use as needed, a mobile phone to call for room service at any time day or night, a fully stocked minibar, outdoor and indoor dining area, lounge suite, and a huge widescreen TV and entertainment system ..... all for just $74!!

As we had a few hours left until dark, we visited the Sala Kaew Ku Sculpture Park, which was full of surreal, religious themed sculptures of various sizes. However they weren't your normal, serious religious sculptures, some were quite funny, and other just plain weird, such as the sculpture of the pack of dogs driving various vehicles chasing after an elephant!

Back to town for dinner and a walk along the Thai side of the Mekong, then back to the penthouse suite!

Day 24 - Phonsavan to Vientiane "Just hanging around ...."

Yet another travelling day, but we had to wait around until 3pm to check in at the airport. As we'd pretty much seen most things of interest in and around town already, we had a very lazy day. Slept in, then hung around the hotel after breakfast until checkout time at 12, walked into town for lunch (the same place for three days running, but at least the Pat Phet with chicken was very tasty!), hung around at the hotel a bit more, hung around at the airport until boarding time, hung around on the plane (not much else to do on a Lao Airlines plane), hung around at the hotel in Vientiane for an hour or so as we'd had such a stressful day, walked into the centre of Vientiane for dinner, hung around in town for a while, walked back to our hotel past the riverside food stalls (where large toads seemed to be a popular menu choice), then finished the day with a bit more hanging around. The end result was complete and utter exhaustion (as you would expect), so we're in no hurry to do so much hanging around again on this holiday!

Day 23 - Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars "Do you eat kangaroos in Australia?"

At 9am we headed off on our tour of the three of the Plain of Jars sites. The jars are large sandstone jars, up to 2.5m tall, made over 2000 years ago by an unknown people - there are many theories and stories about their purpose but no-one knows for certain. Only three of the 400+ known sites are able to be visited, because of the danger of unexploded bombs (UXO) .

We visited all three sites - the first site has over 250 jars, the second and third have somewhat less. There were many bomb craters around the sites, and signs warning of UXO (unexploded ordinance). After visiting Site 2, Kathryn stayed with the bus while Mike and another of the tour members trekked the 5 or so kilometres to Site 3 with the tour guide. On the trek there were many more bomb craters, and even some examples of UXO - one a bomblet from a US cluster bomb, the other a couple of mortars found at the edge of a bomb crater.After Site 3, the tour continued on to a couple of villages, one where aluminium spoons were made from recovered aeroplane parts, and another where Lao rice whiskey was made, as well as viewing the remains of an old Russian tank. After all that it ended up being a pretty full day, we didn't get back to the hotel until after 5:30pm.

For some reason, we had been asked on more than one occasion during the day whether we ate kangaroos in Australia - our answer was no, only tourists eat kangaroos!

Day 22 - Vientiane to Phonsavan "I didn't know these sorts of things even existed any more"

Today is another travelling day, so not much to report. After breakfast we did part of the Lonely Planet walking tour of Vientiane, mainly along the Mekong river and into the "tourist" precinct, then headed over to the airport for the flight to Phonsavan (also known as Xieng Khuang), where we'll visit the Plain of Jars tomorrow. The flight was short, and the weather on arrival was quite cool (only 19 degrees). After checking in to our hotel and booking our tour for tomorrow, we walked the three or so kilometres to town and had lunch. As the town is in an area which is said to be one of the most heavily bombed places in the world, it wasn't surprising to see the hotels and restaurants decorated which old bomb and missile casings! We then did a quick tour of the very small town centre and the two markets, the highlights of which were finding a packet of "Viso" washing powder, and a shop that sold false teeth one by one, along with the glue to stick them into your dentures! Back to the hotel for dinner and an early night.

Day 21 - Vang Vieng to Vientiane - "Where is that music coming from, oh that would be Thailand".

Another early start to be packed and on the road again for another mini bus ride, this time 3 hours to travel to Vientiane. The usual tuk tuk rip off from the bus station to the hotel when you don't know how far it is and how much you should be paying, only to discover it is actually quite close. Though we are yet to have one to match a stop we had in Mexico where we got in the taxi with our bags & were driven around the corner - less than a block.

Gorgeous room overlooking the Mekong, very new, bright and airy. We headed down for a late lunch to the nice restaurant in front of our hotel, we then decided we were so tired we went for an afternoon nap!

We woke up to a lovely sunset from our bed overlooking the river and headed down for dinner. The music was very loud from the other side of the Mekong and when I questioned where it was coming from was told "Thailand"
So that was the lovely view from our bed - Thailand.

Day 20 - Vang Vieng - "If my parents were like you I would hang out with them more.."

Headed off to town to hire our tube and take the tuk tuk ride 5 kilometers up the river to start the cruise down, We passed many bars and restaurants on our way down the river - they throw out a long pole to you and haul you across the river and out of the tube to visit. We watched many huge swings and flying foxes that people were throwing themselves into the river from. There are some good videos of it on youtube. We visited one bar and then headed down the river only to discover that the rest of the trip was quite slow with no riverside entertainment. So we finished the trip and caught the tuk tuk to do it again.

By now it was about 2.30pm so the river had really fired up so we decided to visit some bars. There was lots of advertising for drinks by the "bucket" and sure enough that is exactly what they were! The buckets were a little larger than honey tub size filled with whatever alcohol you wished, for about $5. We splashed out on a g & t to share - it goes in the tube with you as you float to the next bar stop. The next one we stopped for lunch as well, while watching the mud wrestling put on by the local backpackers. Chatted to some backpackers from Doncaster who made us promise we wouldn't tell their parents what they were doing ... jumped back in the tube and finished the river about 6pm.

A nice shower and then on the way out of the hotel helped a couple who had driven their 4WD off the side of the raised driveway, surprisingly we got it out undamaged, headed in to town for dinner and then home totally exhausted.

Day 19 - Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng - Survived the dreaded bus ride.

Were picked up at our hotel to join the others in our mini bus to start the "5 hour" road trip to Vang Vieng. The road trip is notorious for its roughness, mountainous winding and is not popular with people with vertigo or travel sickness problems - so not one for you Charlotte! The spectacular views driving through the mountains and passing hilltribe villages made up for the road

The trip turned into a 7 hour drive, we were then dropped in the middle of town and had to make our own way to the hotel dragging our cases behind us.

We walked into town, had a drink at a riverside bar, found a place for dinner and sorted out how the river tripping went for the next day.

Day 18 - Luang Prabang "All that horse knowledge actually is useful!"

Very early start (6am) to watch the Buddhist monks receiving alms from the villages ... as it turned out it appeared to us that most of the "villagers" were actually tour groups trying to capture that authentic Buddhist experience as part of their holiday! The monks did look impressive though walking down the street in single file in their saffron robes.
Back to the hotel for brekky, then a quick climb up Phu Si, a hill in the centre of town with a number of wats and lovely views from the top.
We were then picked up for our elephant riding trip, we were driven about 10km out of town to the elephant ranch. We rode an elephant together through the forest for about 30min, then we went to a small lake where we got to "bath" the elephants. This involved riding on an elephant as it walked into the water. Once it sat down (getting quite wet in the process), we scooped water on it and scrubbed its head/neck area. Kathryn thought it was heaps of fun, Mike was just trying not to fall off!!
After lunch we took a 15 minute boat trip to the village of Ban Chan, renowned for it's pottery (yep, Mike's worst holiday nightmare has just become a reality!). A quick lap of the village watching some quite skilled (and speedy) craftsmanship, with quite large pots thrown with manually operated wheels in just a few minutes!
Back to town, a quick walk over the bamboo bridge the other side of the Nam Khan river, and the days adventures were done!

Day 17 - Luang Prabang "Yum, they don't make those biscuits in my country!"

Went out after breakfast to book some tickets for the next day's activities, on returning to our room Kathryn caught the cleaning lady in the act of stealing some biscuits she had brought along from home. "They were in the bin" she said .... Kathryn knew they were from the bag she kept her supplies in.
We booked a tuk-tuk for a trip to the Pak Ou caves and the Kuang Si waterfall. The trip to the caves started off well, but when we turned off the bitumen road onto the worst dirt road we've ever been on, things started going downhill .... after 8 km of jarring, bumping, jerking, funny bangs and weird noises, the tuk-tuk stopped. The driver made a couple of attempts to restart it, but no luck .... we left him there while we walked to our destination (about 3km down the road). On arrival we spoke to the people there and sent them off to help our driver, while we conitnued onto the caves, their claim to fame being hundreds of Buddha statues of various shapes and sizes.
After the caves, Kathryn managed to beg a lift from a tourist boat heading back to Luang Prabang. On arrival back in town, we flagged another tuk-tuk to take us to Kuang Si, some of the most picturesque and prettiest waterfalls we've ever seen. It's a popular swimming spot, but we didn't go in as it was too late in the afternoon and too cold, we settled for a visit to the Sun Bears and a climb up and over the top of the waterfall.

Day 16 - Siem Reap to Luang Prabang (Laos) "I'm sorry, we can't let you into the country, everyone who works here wants to go home"

Slept in on our last day in Cambodia .... off to town so Kathryn could get a massage, and finally managed one after two aborted attempts - the first due to jackhammer noise on the other side of the wall, and the second because of a strange massage technique requiring donning a pair of pyjamas. Mike spent the time while waiting for Kathryn fruitfully doing nothing useful at all (except drink coffee), which he is becoming quite good at on this holiday.
We met up with Mr Kao back at the hotel for our trip to the airport, where he told us that his son had been bitten quite badly by a dog the day before, and as a result we managed to learn how the Cambodian health system works - you queue outside the front of the hospital with everyone else until it's your turn for free treatment.
The flight to Luang Prabang was interesting .... we got to chill out on the tarmac at Pakse airport when it stopped there to pick up more passengers, it felt more like a bus trip than an air flight!
On arrival at Luang Prabang airport we were very amused to find that the customs officials were very keen to help us through so they could go home .... to the extent of filling in Kathryn' paperwork for her while she went to the toilet! Lucky we didn't have anything to declare!