The train down to Surat Thani left at 7.30pm and we got in at around 7.30am the next day. There were a load of people making their way down for the full moon party which was going off at the weekend. We were trying to avoid the masses and opted instead to head to somewhere Helen has never visited before whilst travelling through Thailand. Our destination was Khoa Sok National Park and so when we exited the train we headed straight to a restaurant area where we could buy bus and taxi services to any destination in the south. We managed to book onto a mini-van operator who would pick us up at 10.30am, so we sat in a restaurant along with a few other backpackers and enjoyed a fruit shake whilst we waited.

The pick up was early to our surprise and it took around an hour and a half to reach the entrance to Khao Sok. We didn’t have any accommodation booked but as soon as we got there taxi drivers were ready waiting with their pick up trucks to take us to a place to stay. We wanted to go to one place recommended called Art’s River View Lodge in the Lonely Planet which was advertised as being around 300 Baht as their cheapest option but when we got there we were informed that the cheapest room was 600 Baht, so we soon moved on and luckily our taxi driver hung around so that he could earn his commission for wherever we would end up. There was a great place further back down the lane towards the main road called Nungs House that we had spotted on our way past.

They had a great sized bungalow with en-suite and hot water which we bargained at for 2 nights for 500 Baht. The manager there is really friendly and hospitable. We looked around for a few tour options for the next day and then set off to explore the national park for a few hours. When we set off it was very hot and sunny, within 2 hours the weather changed and a monsoon came with it. We’d managed to walk a good distance and stop by at some of the waterfalls in the area (although they didn’t really impress us). It was a good walk but we could tell the weather was going to worsen so we started making tracks back and in doing so got caught in a monstrous downpour which brought to the surface many leaches who decided to attach themselves onto us…not a pleasant experience but getting absolutely drenched was fun!

When we got back we opted to book the one day lake and cave tour through our guesthouse as-well as our travel arrangements to Koh Pha-Ngan. The one day tour cost us 1500 Baht each including lunch, we managed to find a few cheaper alternatives but only by 100 Baht or so and we were happy with the service at the guesthouse so decided to go with them. The joint bus and boat tickets to Koh Pha-Ngan were 600 Baht each.

The following day we woke up early to be picked up at 8.30am for the tour. There were 7 of us in total along with another cheeky chappy Thai tour guide and the drivers. It took around an hour and a half to get to Cheow Lan Lake, an enormous man made lake built for hydro-electricity. As we arrived at the pier there was a long-tail boat waiting to take us on an hour long boat trip to the Tham Nam Thalu cave. The scenery around in and around the lake is stunning, we were reminded once more of the karst peaks we’ve seen time and again in China, Vietnam and Laos but we thought this was the most beautiful of the karst areas we’d yet visited. They jutt out of the water some 950m, with perhaps 100-300m depth below, we just couldn’t believe that the lake was man-made and had taken nearly 20 years to fill.

Along the way we stopped to view monkeys swinging in the trees and a monitor lizard who was unhappily disturbed from its roost by our tour guide who just couldn’t resist getting the creature on public show for us. Be warned, Thai tour guides and those from other South-East Asian countries do like to show off and disturb creatures from their natural habitat to show them off to tourists, but it’s not what we want to see!! Still they’ll do it all the same, like boys playing with ants!

On the south-west shoreline there is a base where many tourists and backpackers stay for the night in bamboo style bungalows over the waters edge. There are also a few restaurants there and we were able to use kayaks as part of our tour cost, we enjoyed a great lunch there too. After a short trip on the kayaks and a very filling lunch we took the boat a little further down the shore-line and got off to start a 2 hour walk through the jungle to the cave. We crossed through big jungle forest trees and leaves, butterfly’s drinking from the water-logged paths and more wildlife which prompted our tour guide to once again act his child-like ways by disturbing them and trying to grab them for us to photograph. We saw massive spiders, lizards, beetles, birds and so on, before eventually arriving at the cave entrance. We didn’t really know what to expect but the cave is massive! We packed away our cameras and valuables into dry-packs and started trekking through the cave. We were in the cave for over an hour making our way from one side to the other, passing by hundreds of bats, more huge spiders, toads, frogs and streams. There were other tourists in there too but most of the time our group was alone, and at one stage we all stripped down to our swim gear and got ready to swim through the deeper streams. Our hero tour guide took all of our dry-packs over his shoulders and didn’t once get them wet, whilst he directed our steps along rocks and through small rivers that he has guided people through time and again. At one point we were head deep in water as we climbed down a waterfall and into a pool, it was scary and exciting all at once. We couldn’t believe the scale and depth of the cave and with all of the wildlife, limestone, rock formations and water passing through, we have to say it was an amazing experience.

As we exited the cave we had a further half hour or so walk back to the boat which was then followed by a tasty snack of fresh fruit and banana rice balls – yum! With another one hour boat journey back we eventually arrived at our accommodation after 8pm, it was a very long day indeed but we really enjoyed it and thought our tour guide was great too. We enjoyed food with our fellow tour buddies and then made our way back to prepare for another departure the next morning.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

A relaxing day in Bangkok exploring the streets and canals on foot, we picked up a few essential items for the wet weather which seemed to be imminent including umbrella’s and a decent dry pack. We also enjoyed a great vegetarian meal consisting of vegetable tempura and a vegetable curry with red rice. Our hard sleeper train heading south from Bangkok station left later in the evening bound for Surat Thani from where we would be discovering lush jungles, tropical islands, beaches and a Yoga Retreat!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0, processed in Lightroom 3)

We stayed at a great hostel in Bangkok called Hostelling International Bangkok, it’s around half and hour from Khao San road heading up river. It’s a little tricky to find, especially at 5 in the morning but once we got our bearings we thought the location was pretty good. We didn’t want to be in the hustle and bustle of Khao San and we had a ferry stop nearby at Thawet in the Dusit district.

We couldn’t check in until after midday so we decided to take the ferry south and head towards China town so we could get absorbed in some street photography. We always like getting to a big city after ambling through rural areas as there is an energy and buzz that definitely inspires us photographically. Bangkok did just this for us, we weren’t particularly interested in doing too many touristy things as per usual but we were quite happy to get lost in the streets and photograph people, places, food of course!

China town is busy at any time of day with no exception at 10am in the morning, we found alleyways with beautiful light, bizarre funeral gifts, food stalls and bizarre crafts. It’s dirty, hectic and a little tacky but all the while we took it in and enjoyed being flies on the wall. We spent a good few hours making our way through the Lonely Planet walking tour before hopping on the ferry back to our stop so we could check in.

The hostel houses some very nice retro 70′s wooden furniture and the retro theme runs throughout. Our room was very Germanesque in style with a nice hint of art deco in the decor, we loved it and thought it would definitely be a good place to hide away from the busy streets of Bangkok. We made a few plans for the next few days and caught up on some sleep before heading out to catch up with some friends on Khao San road. Nicola was Helen’s old neighbour in Leicester so it was lovely to finally catch up with her and Matt on their travels across the globe. We were relieved not to be staying in this area as the streets were packed and it’s really hit and miss for the accommodation around there. However we do know there are some good options if you don’t want to travel too far away from the backpackers hub of Bangkok.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 processed in Lightroom 3)

We booked to do a 1 day course at the Chang Siam Elephant Training Mahout School based on a recommendation from one of our friends so we didn’t have too many hang ups about which one we were going to pick. You’ll soon find that in Chiang Mai there is a lot of choice for this type of excursion. We booked through Panda Tours based at 179 Thapae Rd but the school do have an office in Chiang Mai where  you can also book this trip. There were 6 of us on the trip with one tour leader and the elephant trainers who live at the farm who are either part of the family who own the elephants or hired to train them. This isn’t a case of training an elephant to perform tricks, it’s about communicating with them for the purpose of elephant and human being to be able to live and work alongside each other. There are no wild elephants left in the north of Thailand as they were all captured many years ago by native Thai’s who used the elephants for log moving and transportation. We have found out that one elephant costs 1,000,000 Thai Baht which is around £200,000 so they are worth a hell of a lot of money to their owners.

The elephants at this farm range in age between 1-40 years old with a mixture of 9 male and female elephants. We had heard some horror stories about the way elephants are treated in Thailand by their owners and many of these camps offer elephant riding, shows, performances and the like. What we wanted to do was to spend the day with the elephants, learning how to communicate with them through traditional Thai Mahout training, feed them, learn about the way they live in the north and then go on a bare back ride to the water hole where we could wash and bathe them. So this is what we did, whilst we were there we did see fellow tourists riding the elephants on wooden seats, which we’ve heard isn’t very good for the long term quality of life for the elephant, so we were a little disspointed to see this. However everything else lived up to our expectations and from the start we had a really good laugh too.

We learned about the history of these elephants, where they had come from and why the owners had come to have them in their family. We also learned that in order for the elephants and the locals to live peacefully the elephants needed to be kept in farms and in contained areas as otherwise they eat everything they come across which over the years has led to crops being destroyed and elephant poachers getting what they want.

We learned the commands of going forwards, backwards, left, right and the all important stop which in western voice is completely different from the way the Thai’s pronounce it so we think the elephants went along with their trainers commands over ours! We fed them a good amount of bananas as they need to eat around 300 or so pounds of food per day. We went on an hour walk with the elephants and Dave and I shared ours swapping part way through to direct the elephant through the forest. We had some encounters with bushes, dung and steep inclines but it was really good fun along the way. We finished the trek at the water pool where the elephants got straight in and we washed and bathed them aswell as carrying on with a water fight that the trainers started. This was probably the most rewarding part of the day and we got to try out our new underwater Sony DSC-TX5 camera which we hope is going to provide us with another creative element to our blogs in the future.

We paid 1800 Baht each for the day and this included lunch and transport which took about an hour from Chiang Mai heading north. This was the price for sharing an elephant and it cost 2500 Baht to have one to yourself for the day. We were happy to share though. It was a pretty satisfying day, and if you do have any hang ups about going to one of the elephant camps from Chiang Mai it’s worth looking into what they do on their one day itinerary. There are some companies who only have elephants that have been rescued from poachers or farms where they have been mistreated and The Elephant Nature Park is one of these with good reviews.

(Sony DSC-TX5 waterproof camera, processed in Lightroom 3)

Oh oh beautiful Pai! How we loved our days camping in our wonderful boutique style tent with views across the valleys…not to make people jealous but we really were spoilt and all for as little as 250 baht a night! We loved spending time in our tent, reading, watching the sunrise, and having the luxury of a duvet! It was very hot during the daytime when we were here sometimes reaching 38 degrees, but in the night we were nicely cooled by the 16 degree air. This felt quite cold actually, long gone are the cold nights in China.

There isn’t that much to do in Pai to be honest, but it is a very beautiful town with lots of yoga class offerings, cooking classes, walks, bike rides and so on. In the night-time the streets turn into a walking night market with local crafts and clothes many of which are made by the neighboring tribal villages. We picked up a few nicely branded Pai items which are hard to avoid, but they do tend to stand out over most tourist branded things. There are opportunities to hike and explore on kayaking tours in the wet season but we opted for some low-key adventuring in the form of hiring a motorbike for the day and exploring most of Pai’s famous sights. It is a very twee place and extremely popular with Thai holiday makers due some old films that were made there in the 90′s.

There is a pool around 1km outside of Pai in the direction of the Canyon at a place called Fluid, it’s a good sized swimming pool and they have plenty of space for sunbathing too. The food there is okay but overpriced for what you get, however it’s probably the best place in town to cool down from the heat especially when the river is at a low level.

Helen found a nice yoga class to attend which cost 200 baht for a 2 hour session, if she hadn’t had been struck by her 3rd tummy bug in 5 weeks then she would have been able to attend a few more classes!! It’s also a great way to meet people as many will do 3 classes in a row before moving on. Aside from the stomach upsets though we had a fantastic time here and would consider returning. We don’t think we’d be able to get as good a deal on accommodation in the future especially for our little set up as we knew they were a new resort.

So 5 days later and we were ready to head back to Chiang Mai. We can quite see why people end up hanging around Pai for longer than anticipated. There are great restaurants offering a variety of good Thai, western and other foods, there are places to go and drink chai, a good choice of bars, shops to poke around in,  and a nice river that flows through beautiful scenery. If you’re a little prone to travel sickness then the 764 turnings in the road to get there may cause a slight problem but getting a mini-van would help with this. We got a minivan there for 180 baht and the return journey to Chiang Mai was only 150. You can get a local bus for around 72 baht if you don’t mind being crammed into the rooftop and the journey takes around 3-4 hours.

When we got back into Chiang Mai we sorted out a few arrangements for the next few days; one was to book an elephant mahout day, another to do a one day massage course and the last to sort out our travel arrangements to Bangkok.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We started the day with our customary Luang Prabang breakfast; JoMa’s cinnamon and raisin bagel with jam, followed by oats, fruit and yoghurt. Our pick up was at 11.10am and off we went to the airport. The whole process was very smooth indeed and by 2.30pm we were in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Bliss.

A taxi took us from the airport to Julie’s guesthouse in the south-east area of the old town in Chiang Mai. They had a few rooms available and saving cash we opted for a triple for the night at 270 baht between the 3 of us. We spent that day sorting out things for the next few days of our trip with the most important on the list being a good cooking class. Helen has done the class in one of the many schools before and so we wanted to do one that was a little different. We booked a full day class for the 3rd with the Thai Farm Cooking School, costing us 1900 baht each, a little more pricey than some but with the experience of cooking at the farm and getting away from the city for the day. Other things we looked into were possible elephant sanctuary’s and buses to Pai. There are so many tours to choose from half the time it’s just a case of getting the price you want to pay for a tour that looks good value. The food choices in Chiang Mai are very good with a wide range of thai and international restaurants to choose from. We opted for a local cafe style restaurant for some long awaited authentic Pad Thai and Papaya salad.

We booked minivan tickets from Julie’s for 180 baht each to take us on the morning of the 4th so we had a few days to play in Chiang Mai before the next part of our adventures. We took in more temples, this time in Thai style design, and recognised some elements that have been taken into some of the temples we saw in Laos. We picked up a Thailand Lonely Planet second hand and paid more than we should have, only to realise this later on and we found a few useful camera accessory items from Paantip Plaza near to where the Night Bazaare starts from the east side. We explored the busy night bazaare and bargained for a fake north-face rucksack, hoping that it lasts! We asked at Julie’s about swapping to single rooms but they were very vague and we couldn’t help but think they had rooms available but were waiting for people booking treks and tours with them to use up the room allocation. This happens a lot in Chiang Mai.

The cooking class took place on the 3rd and we were picked up from Julie’s as part of the package. Our tour guide Tommy talked us through the day and explained that he would also be our chef for the day too. He was a real charmer with the ladies and had a good sense of humour to go with it. We started the tour by going to one of the markets a little out of town, we were really surprised by the organisation and cleanliness of the market. Tommy talked us through traditional Thai foods used on a regular basis, rice, sticky rice, fish sauce, coconut, curry pastes and so on. We then explored the market ourselves for a short while before continuing onto the farm. A couple on the tour bought some deep friend insects and frogs and managed to pass them around on the bus causing intrigue and disgust.

The farm is really nicely located around 45 minutes from Chiang Mai, we were introduced to the vegetable gardens and talked through the various herbs, fruits and vegetables growing there. Our first task was to make curry paste for our curry of choice, Dave chose green curry and Helen yellow curry. We bashed away with a mortar and pestle for around 10 minutes until all ingredients were nicely combined into a paste, some of which were chillies; fresh and dried, kaffir lime, galangal and garlic (many more went into each one!!) turmeric being the one that makes the yellow curry go yellow!

Once the pastes were made we went into the kitchen and started on the mains. We all chose from a selection of 3 different dishes per course and so have 5 in total to cook. We chose different options on purpose so we could try different things. The mains being green and yellow curry, a soup either traditional Thai or Tom Yum, a stir-fired dish, papaya salad, a noodle dish and a dessert. By the end of the day we had cooked and eaten most of our food including the dessert and we had pad thai and noodle dishes ready to take away and eat later on. It was a good course and we’d recommend this school to anyone looking for a cookery get away.

We enjoyed Thai massages that evening along with a few people who had joined us on the course. This is something you must do when you come to Thailand; have a Thai massage. Helen opted for an oil body massage which was very good indeed, and Dave enjoyed a more hardy traditional Thai one, both costing in total 400 baht. Not bad! We went to a salon called Panna which is located near to the eastern gate and we liked the idea of doing a one day massage course and looked into this for when we would be back from Pai.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We opted for a minivan to take us to Luang Prabang, it cost 110,000 kip as opposed to the 90,000 kip fee for a VIP bus, we’d heard that the roads are very windy indeed from Vang Vieng and we figured it would be quicker option for us too. Corrinne was still in tow so we all travelled together to the north. The roads were very up and down, perhaps more up than down but the views were amazing, anyone who get’s to do this journey in their own time is in for a real treat as we would have loved to stop along the way to take photographs. We did get one chance at a food stop area high up in the mountains, and yes this time we mean mountains.

The mini van got into Luang Prabang at around 4pm and we stopped at a bus station just outside of town so we had the customary bartering for a tuk-tuk to take us into town. We roughly knew where we wanted to stay so when we were dropped off it was a case of seeing watt was available. Accommodation does cost more in Luang Prabang unless you’re prepared to stay in the dingiest guesthouses, which to be fair we’re not. So we had a look around and found a place where we could all get a room for 100,000 kip/room. The guesthouse we wanted to stay at The Oudomphone Guesthouse was full and there outside sat Floss enjoying a beer, we knew there would be a room free the next day as she was checking out so later on we went to arrange a room for 80,000 kip per night. We enjoyed the local night market and some reasonably priced food on the river front along with Floss and Corrinne, followed by a trip to one of the bars where there was an Asian fashion show taking place.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

Over the next few days our stay in Luang Prabang saw us take in the world heritage site over and over again, it can’t be helped as temples and old French colonial buildings are everywhere. There are several temples and monasteries throughout town, along with a few up on top of hills looking out over the landscape. We opted for this one later in the day for sunset along with lots of other tourists so we didn’t stay for too long. We ate tuna and salad baguettes, freshly prepared on the street stalls, we drank many a cheap fruit shake and enjoyed the cheap 10,000 kip all you can eat street style buffet. As well as going cheap we ate at a very fancy western restaurant at the opposite end of town from the market heading out towards the older temples, the greek salad and pizza was some of the best western food we’ve eaten yet. The Joma bakery also did us proud in providing very good bagels which we bought for breakfast most days.

We got up at 5.30am one morning to watch the monks take their alms from locals and tourists offering food. This is a very traditional and important part of the monks day, and we do appreciate the history and significance of the offerings. However here it has become a huge tourist attraction with many a person shoving cameras and flashes into their faces. We were really surprised by this as are told over and over again about the etiquette involved in this particular ceremony, we don’t doubt that some of the offerings are genuine but it really does appear on the surface to be more of a tourist event now than anything else. Okay so we went to have a look and took some of our own photographs but we kept our distance and observed the tourist onslaught, of which some are also monks!!

We shopped at the slightly touristy night market, and people watched as they bargained for their goods. We strolled the streets looking for charms to photograph of which we were presented with many. One day wasn’t quite so successful and saw Helen come off her bicycle, boo!! She manages to take the skin off her toes, bash her left knee and right ribs, she was a little upset and worse for wear for a few days with good bandaging to show the extent of her wounds!! Silly bikes with no gears and cycling in flip flops on hilly roads, a lesson to be learned by us all!

So with a wounded soldier in tow, we managed to take a tuk-tuk to the most famous waterfall in the area along with Corrinne. We paid 150,000 kip between us to leave when we wanted to (this can be done cheaper the more people there are). The waterfalls are very nice indeed, clear turquoise and green water, big drops and pools to swim in, the main drawback is that everyone goes there, but it is a beautiful place to spend a few hours so we still recommend it if you can get there early enough. We also used the time to catch up on the blog and use the time to fully relax, taking in a few more cafes around town and crossed over to a little shack opposite the top end of Luang Prabang, where we looked out over the Mekong on onto our last sunset in Laos.

We booked a flight with Treasure Travel based on the main street in the centre of town moving away from the night market and towards the older monasteries. They did us a nice deal and included a taxi pick up to the airport and the flight ticket with taxes for $140 each. After asking around a lot this was the best price we got and were happy to pay this amount, it also mean’t we would get a 30 day visa upon entry into Thailand with less faffing and expense on the other side to arrange visa runs. We did miss the epic Luang Prabang to Chiang Rai 2 day boat journey which we’ve heard is a great travelling experience, but we were more than happy to get to Chiang Mai at a quicker pace after many a long bus, boat and train journey on our travels so far.

We enjoyed our time in Laos and were surprised at how developed the country is compared to Cambodia, we got the impression that Thailand has a large influence over here in terms of trade and business. Cost of living is going up and the cities are very well maintained and not over crowded whatsoever.

We said we were never going to go to Vang Vieng, we’ve been told many a horror story of people ended up injured from their tubing and partying experiences and we thought we’d just skip it and explore another part of the country. However chatting to fellow travellers we got the impression that Vang Vieng offers more than the opportunity to go tubing down the river and get inebriated on toxic substances.

We took a bus journey to Vang Vieng which was around 5 hours from the capital and arrived at a decent enough time to start looking for accommodation. There was a group of us looking and we all managed to get into our first choice La Jardin Organique, Dave and I ended up sharing with Corrine to lower our costs for a few days and so it was 100,000 kip between the 3 of us which wasn’t a bad deal at all considering the costs in Vientiane. They have a good selection of accommodation here with bungalows, guesthouse style rooms and cheaper rooms for 40,000 with shared bathrooms, also the owners are very accommodating indeed and the female owner certainly seems to be the one negotiating prices with tourists over her husband!

With accommodation sorted early on we set off in search of finding some kind of trek/kayak trip that would cater to our needs. We went to a few companies along the main back street of Vang Vieng and found a company located around 10 minutes walk up the street from Le Jardin Organique on the right hand side, there are so many but these guys offered a 2 day tour that included hiking, caves, waterfalls and kayaking. The more of us that were interested in booking the tour then the price would come down, so after a good mint and lemon shake at the organic cafe in town we opted to book the trip and later on found out that Doug and Emma would also be joining us so that would shave off some of the cost. The total came to roughly £50 for the two of us to do this trip with food and one night’s accommodation included. That evening we went back to the organic cafe and enjoyed some good home-cooked soups and curries.

We met the next morning at 8.30 am for the tour and hopped onto a song thaw along with others who were going on a one day kayak and cave tour of the area. We all got off at the same point but the kayakers went one way and we the other. We started with a Buddhist cave in a village around 15km north of Vang Vieng along the Nam Song river, the cave is called Phu Kham cave and hosts a reclining Buddha along with a shrine and other symbolic Buddhist monuments. We were there for 5 minutes or so and our guide then started the trek. The first part of the trek was very steep indeed and took us up a karst peak, through dense jungle like foliage and we had a few clear moments where we could look out over the area, but otherwise it was quite hard work and in the heat we sweated lots. The walk led us to another cave, this one being much more interesting than the first, with no other tourists around for a start which is always a treat! We were led through one part of the cave where new stalagmites and stalactites were forming and the light shining into the cave was beautiful. Our guide started to get a barbecue going and said lunch would be around15-20 minutes later. So we explored the cave, Doug enjoyed the spa like water coming from the river and we cooled down after the heat of the walk.

Lunch was really simple but very good indeed; barbecued kebabs with vegetable fried rice, a baguette and bananas, it certainly filled us up and did the trick. After lunch we continued to walk through the secret eden forest area which is a valley in the middle of the peaks where no-one goes through other than the villagers as it’s surrounded by steep peaks all around. It was once an area where a hill tribe village lived and no-one knew of their existence until the Indo-Chinese war and then they left for more mainstream areas…we do try to remember this information when it’s told to us by our guides! We then carried on back up the peak and out to the other side, followed by a further hours walk to the eco-lodge built next to the river where we had stopped earlier in the day to drop off our bags. We got into the river to cool down and waited for our rooms to be organised, there seemed to be some confusion as to where our accommodation was but after a while we found ourselves in a wooden lodge which was simple but did the trick. We enjoyed a good local meal cooked by our hosts, accompanied by our guide Noi and this was followed by some card games.

Another good part of the tour was that we could choose our own breakfast from the menu at the eco-lodge, this was a first on a tour!! We had a bit of a wait for the tour guide and kayaks to turn up and whilst doing so the rain decided to come down, our fist rain shower in a long long time, it was really refreshing. The rains don’t last very long so we were able to get into the kayaks and start the first leg of this part of the tour. This time we were heading in the direction of Vang Vieng as we would eventually land up there later in the afternoon. The first part of the kayak took only half and hour and we got off to start trekking again, we were all aching a little from the steep climbs of the trek the day before but today we were promised it wouldn’t be so steep! This was the case though and after half an hour of walking we landed at our third cave of the trip, it was huge, we were able to walk through one entrance under the peak and out to the other side. During the wet season water comes crashing through from a river located further up the hill and right now it was completely empty with only large tree branches and trunks as evidence that water does come through at great speeds and volume. It was very cool indeed, we walked with head torches and took in the scale of the cave, not as bit as one’s we’d seen in Tha Khaek but impressive in other ways. On the other side we climbed out into the sunshine and our guide asked us if we wanted to go to another cave or to the waterfall up the hill. We opted for the waterfall and began the walk upwards. It didn’t take too long to reach though and when we got there we met a few other people on tours, including Ann who we’d met in Tha Khaek. We enjoyed another dip in a deep pool, it was much colder than the river temperature so it wasn’t long before we were sat warming up on rocks and enjoying another kebab and rice style feast.

The last part of the tour was kayaking all the way back to Vang Vieng, it was around 13km or so to get back and we took in a few rapids along the way, they were pretty tame though but we had fun going through them all the same. We passed through where the tubing starts and were faced with hundreds of happy go lucky backpackers enjoying the Vang Vieng tubing and zip lining into the water. It is a pretty mental site, from the peacefulness of the valley and mountains to an Ibiza style day by day party, music blasting out and everyone getting wrecked, really odd! As we got closer to Vang Vieng we passed more and more tubers coming to the end of their little adventures and we landed at the bay just where La Jardin Oraganique is located, perfect for us. We had already pre-booked a room there so we were able to check in straight away, they had an even cheaper room for us 80,000 kip between the 3 of us and it wasn’t any worse than the last other than it wasn’t in a bungalow.

Later on we attain town at a Lonely Planet recommended restaurant which didn’t really live up to it’s reputation, although opting for the local barbecue was the best option, for those after western tastes don’t expect to be in a rush. Still this is Laos after all!

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

The  King of Bus, VIP to Vientiane from Tha Khaek was worth paying the extra 30,000 kip for as although we did stop quite a bit on the journey it wasn’t as often as the local bus and it was more comfortable. At lease for us it was, they still pack on as many people as they can even on the Kong of Bus! We left Tha Khaek at 9.30am and arrived at around 2pm, whilst en route we met Flo an Corrinne and shared a tuk-tuk with them into town, it took around 10 minutes to get into town from the southern bus station and cost us 70,000 kip. We’ve been informed that a tuk-tuk ride should generally cost 10,000 kip each for shortish journeys. Arriving in the centre of Vientiane our aim was to get into one of the guesthouses up by the river recommended in the Lonely Planet but it was along with many other guesthouses already full. We searched around for a while and the cost of a room was more than we were anticipating, so once we got it in our head that we would struggle to find anything for less than 100,000 we settled for a family room at a Chinese guesthouse down the road from the national museum. We had 2 rooms, 4 beds, a bathroom and a large balcony, Dave managed to bargain the cost of the room from 600,000 kip for 2 nights stay to 500,000 kip. This would be split between us all and was more than we were wanting to pay but we had a good space and a few friends to join us.

We walked along the Mekong riverside once more and sat by the statue of Anuvong whilst we watched another lovely sunset. Later that night we went out for food as a group and Doug and Emma rejoined us having last caught up with them in Don Det. We ate some good street-style food, which was more costly than we think real street food should be, but we figure many people are setting up street restaurants and charging prices similar to the restaurants themselves…defeats the object of being street food we thinks. However aside from this the food was very a great Laos Barbecue style set up, grilled fish, meats, and other delights for us to feast upon. Back at the apartment we sat on the balcony, chatted and shared our photos with Flo and Corrinne.

Our second day in the Laos capital saw us hire some bikes and go off to explore the area. We followed the Lonely Planet’s walking tour for a while and landed at several beautiful Thai-style wats and shrines and as Flo and Corrinne are also keen photographer’s we looked like a camera club on tour of the temples. It was good to explore and we took in most of the temples in the town as well as going up and down the same street a few times to get our bearings. We ended up at the Arch-de-Tiromph style monument a few kilometers out of the centre, positioned in the middle of a roundabout and made to appear a little akin to its French friend, along with several other sightseers we walked around the fountains and sat in the shade before venturing further on our bike tour. We cycled via the market which wasn’t especially exciting so we ventured to a bakery for some decent food and then went in search of a swimming pool.

There are supposed to be 3-4 dotted around town, 2 of which are public, one is in a hotel and the other is in the grounds of the Australian Embassy. This last one is supposed to be the best place for swimming in town, however when we got there we were told it wasn’t open to the public, so around we turned and tried to find others listed in the Lonely Planet. The second pool has been torn down and is now a development site and the third…to our luck was open and had many people splashing around inside. This one is the National swimming pool of Laos, and we were certainly impressed by the thong wearing ladies walking around… how national was this place??

We sunbathed for a while, read our books and had a dip in the pool, by coming in through the side entrance we seemed to have skipped the payment part, so we managed to enjoy a free dip too! Later on we enjoyed a cheap-ish vegetarian curry on the river front at Naz’s (they tend to pop up in the towns and cities here in Laos) and opted to chill out for the rest of the night.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)

We woke up early to the sound of eager cockerels the first going off at around 4.30am. It wasn’t the best night’s sleep with a very hard mattress indeed and snoring echoing throughout our eco-shack. We had a cooked Laos style breakfast in the form of noodle soup, eggs and fruit, Helen was getting her appetite back and starting to feel a little more like herself again. We left the village at 8.30am and began to trek once more through forest land, past more karst peaks and made our way up and down a hilly terrain which required a little more effort than the flatness of the day before. We had a few descriptions of plant-life and the area and we walked for a good 4 hours before arriving at the second village for a home cooked lunch. We sat inside someone’s home at the back of a shop and chilled out awaiting more food, it was really kitsch inside with old wardrobes, bright wall colours, retro tiles and clothes everywhere. It was a good little stop for photographing! More rice, more soup and stir-fried egg and we were all ready for a nap. No time for this though as we were waiting for a pick up to take us to the Blue Lagoon.

On the usual itinerary there is a tractor ride involved whereby you get pulled along on a cart by one of their home-made style tractors; not like ours at home. This didn’t happen for us because there were 8 in our group and the tractor wouldn’t cope with all of the western weight. So we had a mini-van take us to the lagoon instead with music blasting out of the over-hyped stereo. It took around 15 minutes to drive to the lagoon, packed in on a bumpy ride. The lagoon lives up to its name and is a very intense copper sulfate looking colour, it’s hard to believe that the lagoon is natural as it seems more like a chemical phenomenon. There were no scientific descriptions available from the tour guides only spiritual ones. It’s quite deep and plays host to shoals of large fish. Most of the group plunged in for a cooling swim after we walked around the edge of the lagoon, we both decided to photograph and observed from the sidelines. We hope the photographs show the intensity of the colours and the subtle reflections that glowed.

After a group photo we continued in the minivan to a point from where we walked a further 2 km to meet our pick up trip. At around 3pm we met our pick up back to Tha Khaek and we were back in the town at just before 5pm with an en-route detour to the bus station so that we could book bus tickets for the next day of travel. Back in Tha Khaek we checked into the Travel Lodge along with the rest of the group and settled in for a relaxing evening of food, chat and planning. It’s a really good spot for meeting other backpackers and they have a good outdoor seated area. We would recommend staying there and the dorms are good value for money if you’re on a budget, we paid 50,000 kip for a double with shared bathroom.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f2.0 & Olympus PEN, 17mm f2.8 & 100mm f2.8, processed in Lightroom 3)