Which Wat Where?

Another country races by, an action packed time with plenty to see and do at every stop ensured our two weeks in Laos flashed past in the blink of an eye. Bags laden once again after the irresistible night markets in Luang Prabang (or simply Bangbang for those that couldn't pronounce it), paper lamps, oh so comfy hippy trousers, jewellery, bed spreads and anything you can think of adorned with a decorative elephant motif. The Mekong riverside town, deservedly a UNESCO World Heritage Centre, was an ever intriguing place to wander with a fusion of traditional Laos architecture and structures built by the European colonials.

Betsy & Laura enjoying a large glass of wine

Reclining Buddha, Luang Prabang

Delicious fresh baguettes

Delicious fresh chips

Monks on the shores of the Mekong

Snakes in jars, in the night market in Luang Prabang

Sweeney Todd barber?

Luang Prabang temple

A group of us spent a mouth watering day on a Laos cookery course in a rainforest setting. Starting with an introductory market tour and then preparing 4 savoury dishes and a pudding, it was a fantastic way to spend the day and there's no doubt we'll be searching the supermarket for banana leaves, purple sticky rice and sticks of lemon grass so we can impress our friends with our new skills. The worst bit about the day was waiting till the very end to be able to sit down and eat our efforts,well worth the wait though, if we do say so ourselves.

The finished products...  all our creations

Cooking purple sticky rice

Hels' fish parcel

Hels getting sticky fingers

Jim, proud of his pestling

Lemongrass stuffed with chicken

Market tour - which came first, chicken or the egg?

Pounding the flavours together

Shelagh, ready to eat!

Students hard at work

Students tending their stoves

Cooking class teacher

Others spent a wonderful day getting to know the very special elephants that Laos is so proud of. The mahout experience involved feeding, washing, swimming with and riding the huge beasts, mounting them by grasping hold of the ear and crawling up their wrinkled sides.

Bathing the elephants

Jeff

Rowan

That's not a real one!

John getting on board

Thankfully the sun came to play on the last day in time for our truck party, a chance to wash off the last of the dust and grime from the pots and pans and give the inside of the truck a thorough clean. Not that bribery was really necessary, we happened to find a supermarket in town selling French cheese and somehow had ten litres of wine left over from Georgia. A feast was laid on alongside the scourers and sponges for the strangely all British turnout, long live the Queen!

Last resort for getting a tyre off a rim

Truck party sunset

Truck party wine and cheese

We had a long drive on to the capital of Laos, Vientiane where we spent a couple of nights. We were held up along the way whilst a truck and coach unattached themselves from each other after side swiping on one of the sharp bends, nothing too serious. It was interesting to find that it's not only the locals who are inquisitive about the truck, but also other tourists, who are now becoming much more prevalent the further we journey into South East Asia. As more and more traffic backed up, people left their cars and buses and walked up the road, most would pause alongside Calypso and wonder at what it was, who we were and what on earth we were doing, sometimes we ask ourselves the same questions!

The cause of the delay...

Mud, mud, glorious mud

Rice paddies enroute from Luang Prabang to Vientiane

Lovely views en route

Giant cat?  Vientiane's golden stupa

Sheltering from the rain

Put your money where your mouth is

Vientiane's very own Arc de Triomphe

After Vientiane we had a day of mystery, after driving for a few hours, not really sure where we were heading, parking up in some mud by a river and then boarding long-tail boats, 3 to a boat, up the river to an as yet unsigned Phu Hin Bun National Park. We motored upstream, past fishermen and children swimming, washing or simply having fun sliding down the muddy banks and giggling tumbling into the water. Eventually our eco-lodge appeared on the river bank. Best we don't dwell on the difference in standards of accommodation between the handful of newly renovated luxury riverside rooms and the more basic huts behind. Being a jungle everyone had their fair share of huge spiders, visiting bats or taps that come off in your hand and water that stopped inevitably when you were soaped up mid-shower. Evenings at the lodge were spent sitting on the balcony overlooking the river, sheltering from the evening rains. Locals were heard shouting and calling after dark from their boats, paddling from one side of the river to the other, wearing powerful head torches. Pointing the beams into the water, then high up to the trees, beams criss-crossing like searchlights, darting all over the place, looking for fish, birds, or anything that could be hunted for supper. Even young children passing through the jungle were armed with home made bows and arrows looking for birds.

Scenery enroute to Phu Hin Bun

Just follow the Mekong...

Breakfast gathering

Cher, Pip and John

Cher and Shelagh feeling full of life!

Fishing nets

Glad we didn't have to drive over that one...

Jungle lodge

Kids on a mudslide

Kittens as relaxed as we were

Boarding the longboats to the lodge

Massage - all part of the crew service...

Mikkel's catch

Another Mikkel catch

Pip, Di and Gill relaxing on their balconies

Ryan gets in touch with his softer side

Sheltering from the rain

A bit apprehensive?

View from the jungle lodge

On the free day most boarded another set of longboats to visit a cave. The Kong Lo cave is in fact a natural tunnel, stretching 7.5km long underneath a towering limestone mountain, 100m high in places and much less or even inaccessible at high water. Mid-way we pulled over at a riverbank and walked amongst the towering stalactites and stalagmites. The blue and green lights hidden amongst them adding to the eerie film set likeness of it all. Not an activity for the claustrophobic or those afraid of the dark! That evening we were delighted to hear about Andy Murray's win on centre court at the Olympics through Hels' family tennis text service. We sensed a bit of the excitement back home (for the Brits) surrounding the hosting of the Olympics and for a brief moment were transported there.

Entrance to the caves

Exiting the caves, eventually!

It's tough being crew

Approaching the caves

Hels, Jeff and Rogs looking eerie

'Tites and 'Mites

Rogs looking ever so macho

Kev and Shelagh, don't rock the boat!

It was a tranquil spot for a couple of nights so reluctantly the next morning we boarded our boats back to the truck. The heavens opened and unrelentingly drenched us for the hour trip downstream, the boats tipping precariously if you tried to rearrange your waterproof, if you were lucky enough to be wearing one. A damp drive onto Savannakhet for the night and our last stop in laid back Laos.

Nick's "blue-winged-bat" impression

We'd like to mention that Odyssey don't intend on running a “fat camp”. But inadvertently, through the general level of activity that goes with living on the road, Nick has managed to lose a huge amount of weight. He still has a little way to go to complete his self-set Singapore challenge, to fit into the Odyssey t-shirt he was handed at the start of the trip, but is already a shadow of his former self. Some fun was had in his old clothes after a successful shopping trip to replace them, he now has a rainbow array of Beer Lao t-shirts.

Nick and Gareth in The T-shirt

Di and Ryan

Di and Ryan in The T-shirt and The Trousers

Leaving Savannakhet we said our saddest goodbye to date, that of Calypso, our trusty (not a typo, I did not mean rusty) blue truck and home for the last four months. Calypso has carried us, with thanks of course to two very skilful drivers, all the way from London to Laos with barely a murmur. Rogs has now taken her safely back to Vientiane where she will have a well deserved rest over the next few weeks.

It was onto our first hired bus, at last it can be called a bus without fear of the ten star jump penalty, to cross the border into Vietnam. A new country means nothing is same same, and so we go from the Kip to the Dong, from a rate of 7,990 to 20,850 to the US Dollar, the greeting “sabai-dii” is replaced with “xin chao” and “khawp jai” with “cam on”, are you keeping up? We're trying our best!

Savannakhet to Vietnam - a bus fit for royalty

Wait, that's not Hels and Rogs

Check out those tassles!