Temples of Angkor

We arrived in Siem Reap at around 1pm, having spent the bus journey eating bitter mango with salt and chilli, and enjoying the benefits of a front row seat and a large front window. A window into the lives of the rural Cambodian people, and Kotoe and I as voyuers, appreciating the differences between our lives and theirs.

Once again, by following the advice of our tuk tuk driver we have landed a fantastic guesthouse. Garden Village is more of an apartment complex than a guesthouse : little bamboo huts nestled around a picturesque lotus pond, and the remainder of the accommodation within a three-story house, the dorm beds situated in the attic with views across the city. It's also got a restaurant and chill out area on the roof terrace.

We ate lunch here (Fish Amok, which is quickly becoming my favourite Khmer dish) before heading out for a wander around Siem Reap's streets. Like Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng in Laos, Siem Reap's streets resemble a small construction site, which makes the air incredibly dusty. However, unlike Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng, work is most definitely progressing here.

Angkor Wat

The hundreds of temples at Angkor still surviving today exist as the framework of a vast political, social, and religious centre of an empire that stretched from Burma (now Myanmar) to Vietnam. Cambodian's ancient Khmer empire of Angkor was a city that - in its zenith - boasted a population of one million, at a time when London housed 50,000. Angkor Wat itself is the world's largest religious building.

We'd decided to spend the first day (and only day for Kotoe, as she decided only to buy the 1 day pass) renting a tuk tuk and driver, to take us round all the major temples at Angkor. The price was $12 for the day (so $6 each), and the driver would be available from sun rise until sunset, with a break for lunch in the middle. I thought this would be a good way to familiarize myself with the site and allow me to decide which of the temples to re-visit. Our driver was called Batman, but unfortunately he was not a very enthusiastic or knowledgeable superhero.

We left the guesthouse at the unheard of (unless you're still awake from the party the night before) hour of 4:30am. When we arranged our transportation yesterday, we were unaware that a tropical storm was about to descend upon us that evening, so when we arrived at Angkor there were still several of these rain clouds lurking rudely in the sky, and the possibility of seeing any sign of the sun was looking very slim. However, the weather conditions didn't prevent hundreds of tourists from making exactly the same journey as us, their cameras poised on tripods standing in front of the lake.

At dawn Angkor is a very grey and eerie place to walk around. It's beauty isn't really appreciated in quite the same way without the presence of the sun to illuminate the sky behind this spectacular and imposing building.

Our itinery for the day included the following :

1. Angkor Wat (for sunrise)
2. South gate of Angkor Thom (where we watched the sun breaking throuh the clouds)
3. Bayon
4. Baphuon
5. Terrace of the elephants
6. Terrace of the leper king
7. Ta Prohm (jungle temple & our personal favourite)
8. Angkor Wat
9. Phnom Bakheng (for sunset)

After our viewing of Ta Prohm, we spent the remainder of the morning drinking iced coffee and resisting the incessant pleas of a little girl begging, wanting us to buy her postcards, wooden flute, or set of 10 bamboo bangles for $1. I made the mistake of asking to look at the postcards, and was promptly surrounded by 3 of the little girl's friends, all attempting to sell me exactly the same. It's quite amusing : the first question they'll ask is, "where are you from?"and when I reply, "England", they will recite to me, as if reading from a blackboard : "Capital is London. Luvely Jubbly. Top Banana", but with a cheeky, lovable glint in their eye.

We had lunch back in Siem Reap town (Angkor prices are far too inflated) at Easy Speaking Restaurant, where we have already become known as the mango and papaya shake girls.

At 3pm our driver collected us and delivered us back to the entrance of Angkor Wat. The sun was so hot it felt like someone had an open flame inches away from my back. Angkor Wat is so much more attractive at this time of day, with the sun shining in between the balusters on the large windows and creating interesting shadows on the walls and floors. It's very easy to get lost wandering through Angkor's numerous corridors and rooms, but it's a mesmorising and captivating kind of lost, where your thoughts wander as much as you do.

We both climbed up to the top of one of Angkor's 5 chedis, which is a relatively simple task unless you decide to look down part the way through your climb, as I did! Climbing down is rather unnerving too, as the steps are so steep and so shallow that you cannot actually see them until you are standing right on the edge of the prang.

After spending about an hour and a half exploring Angkor Wat, we were driven to Phnom Bakheng. On route we spotted a gathering of mischievous macaque monkeys chasing each other around amongst the trees. Acting like a pair of children we pleaded the tuk tuk driver to stop for half an hour so that we could watch their antics, feed them soursop and chase them around with a camera in hand!

At Phnom Bakheng we scrambled up the rocky incline to the main temple, where we were hoping for a good view of Angkor Wat at sunset. However, there were a few problems :

1. Due to the level of altitude at which we were standing, our view of Angkor was obstructed by the trees which grow beside it.
2. Without using a zoom lens on your camera, the temple appears very far away and barely deciferable as Angkor Wat
3. The clouds hadn't politely floated away, so were still blocking our view of the sun - hence no sunset

I enjoyed Angkor immensely; the true scale and detailed design of the temples is awe-inspiring. However, after seeing the old Siam empires at Ayuthaya and Sukhothai in Thailand, I do think the awe factor becomes a little diluted.

This eveing Kotoe and I lost track of time and the number of draught Angkor beers we'd both consumed in the guesthouse bar (at $0.50 each, this is very easy to do!). One of the local tuk tuk drivers, Som (who hangs out at the guesthouse so frequently you'd think he works there!) was impressing us both by speaking and reading Japanese, and then proceeded to have a conversation in Japanese with Kotoe. I appreciate that to be a tuk tuk driver you need a good grasp of the English language but to be able to speak, read and understand Japanese (which isn't a very commonly spoken language outside of Japan) was truly admirable.

Photo is of the famous Ta Phrom (jungle temple), Angkor Wat.

Big Brother is watching you . . .

We arrived at Kompong Cham, to be greeted by a moto driver offering us a free ride to Speam Thmiy Guesthouse. Now, i dont normally pay any attention to touts but my decision to in Kratie actually found me a decent little place to stay, so after confirming with the driver that we'd take a look but if we didn't like it we would still be entitled to our free ride, we hopped on. At first glance Speam Thmiy appeared to be a decent enough choice : $4 for a room with 2 big beds and a balcony overlooking the newly constructed Japanese bridge spanning the Mekong. However, whilst we were sitting on the balcony admiring the view and deciding where to go for lunch, a woman and her (maybe 10 year old) child appeared. they seemed to be lingering about for no apparent purpose and kept peering into our room (we had left the door ajar)

At first i thought i was just being paranoid when i got the impression that they were waiting for us to go out in order to try and steal something from us, however I wasn't the only one who was a little suspicious about the situation. Our suspicions rose even further when we noticed that the woman was carrying a set of keys and that one of the key fobs attached to the keys had our room number on it : room 201.

Now I appreciate that someone at the guesthouse needs to be in possession of a spare key in case we were to lose ours and thata spare key may be given to a cleaner/maid so that she may change sheets and towels during the duration of our stay. However, this lady was clearly not a cleaner or a maid and was not even making the effort to pose as one, as none of the props required were to be seen within the vicinity. Moreover, we'd only just checked in so all cleaning and preparation of the room had alraedy been done prior to our arrival.

Of course the lady and her son professed not to be able to understand English when we asked them exactly why they were in possession of a key to our room. Funnily enough, the member of hotel staff didn't speak any English either but after 10 minutes of attempting to get our point across, he finally gave us the key that the lady had with her. However, we still felt uncomfortable as it begged the question : how many more 'spare' keys are in rotation and how many people's hands have they managed to find their way into? So, we checked out, less than 15 minutes after we'd checked in!

As if this wasn't a bad enough introduction to Kompong Cham, i also felt a little uneasy about the fact that we were being constantly watched. The moto driver and his friend who dropped us at Speam Thmiy were waiting for us outside when we checked out, and less than 10 minutes after checking into the Nava Hotel the other side of town, they were banging on our room door demanding money for our supposedly 'free' ride. Maybe I was a little rude to them, informing them rather aggressively, "I know you're trying to scam us and we're not having any of it!" before slamming the door in their face, but i've got no time for people who lie and try to deceive people as blatantly as that pair did!

When we eventually sat down for lunch at Hao An Restaurant, we were watched constantly by the two girls who served us our fruit shakes, and interrupted by another moto driver wanting to know how long we would be and attempting to sell us rides to various attractions and discounted bus tickets to Siem Reap (how did he know we were heading to Siem Reap? I'm hoping it was just an estimated guess . . ). Moreover, at the end of our meal, we spotted 2 or 3 more moto drivers who had approached us earlier on in the day, lurking in the shadows and waiting for the moment we paid our bill and got up from our chairs.

Maybe these people are so desperate for money that making tourists feel safe and allowing them their privacy becomes very unimportant. Either way, I wasnt comfortable about wandering around Kompong Cham by myself and as Kotoe was perfectly happy sitting in cafes and drinking iced coffees all afternoon, that's what i did too.

Photo is of Japanese bridge spanning the Mekong at Kompong Cham.

Dolphin watching at Kratie

I had breakfast at You Hong with Kotoe. She shares my passion for mango so we both shared a mango and papaya salad coated with yoghurt and honey, along with one of the restaurant's delicious iced coffees with sweet milk. The food at You Hong is first class, and it's a fantastic little place to waste a couple of hours, soaking up the hustle and bustle of Kratie's streets. The only problem that i can foresee travelling with Kotoe is that she seems quite content with arriving at a place and seeing only the inside of the guesthouse walls. I know half the fun of travelling is the experiences you share with fellow travellers rather than the sights you see, but i prefer the happy medium of being able to do both.

This afternoon i caught a moto taxi out to Kampi (15km north of Kratie) where i would then charter a boat out to (hopefully) see one of the 75 Irrawaddy dolphins still inhabiting this stretch of the Mekong river in Cambodia. When i arrived at the boat pier at Kampi I met an Irish girl called Maria and the 2 of us chartered a boat with 2 Khmer ladies ($2 each), a boat driven and navigated by a boy who couldn't have been more than 12 years old!

As promised, we did see Dolphins but only from a distance, and only the gleem of their backs as they jumped out of the water. There was a mother and her baby swimming around our boat, and as their bodies left the water, we could see the baby tucked under the stomach of its mother. Unfortunately the dolphins were too fast and too far away for me to be able to capture them on camera, and i'm not sure the whole experience was worth $7 but I don't get many chances to see dolphins in their natural habitat, so i didn't want to turn down this one.

Photo to follow

Voen Kham border scams and Angkor with Kotoe

I decided to leave Don Det two days before my visa is due to expire, as although the last few days have been relaxing, there's a limit to how long my restless body can tolerate it and i think 4 days is its limit! Crossing the border into Cambodia turned out to be a more difficult task than i'd anticipated. Just as there are Laotians operating the whole speedboat scam in Huay Xai, there are also Cambodian people out to get an extra few dollars from unsuspecting tourists. Unfortunately this time they picked the wrong group of tourists to try and scam . . .

The scam goes as follows :

• You will be driven to the Lao border to get your exit stamps and pay 10,000kip or $1. This all goes very smoothly until you are told you must walk (with backpacks) to the Cambodian border. However, you will stop not at the Cambodian border but in no man's land, at small open sided wooden building. You will be told to rest before a skinny Cambodian guy who wears glasses and who speaks too fast, will arrive.
• He asks who has visas pre-arranged and who needs visas to be organised. 4 people in our group needed visas on arrival (which are now available at Voen Kham for just $20) and were told that if they paid an extra $5, he would be able to get their visas for them within 20 minutes but if they didn't they (and in turn the rest of the group) would have to wait 3.5 hours.
• This is complete bul***it : we all realised that he was playing us off against each other. He wanted the 4 people who needed visas to feel guity at having to make the rest of us wait, so that they would all pay their extra $5.

The annoying aspect (one Canadian girl was so angry she started crying) was that although we knew he was trying to scam us, there was nothing we could do as we were relying on transport to the border and then subsequently to our onward destinations. Some people were travelling all the way to Siem Reap and did not have time to wait around if they were going to make it there this side of midnight.

The trick, we found, is not not back down. We basically made the guy aware that we knew what he was trying to do and that no-one would be paying any extra money to anyone but the people at the immigration office. We demanded to be driven straight to the Cambodian border so that we could sort the matter out ourselves. After about 2 hours, this is what finally happened. The 10 of us and 6 huge blocks of ice were driven to the border. 10 minutes and $80 later the 4 of them had a visa. The rest of us were quite envious as, not realising a visa on arrival could now be obtained at Voen Kham, we had all paid around $30 each to get our visas pre-arranged.

The British couple in our group had been travelling for the best part of 5 years and we were all intertested in exactly how they have afforded to do this. The guy joked that he was a drug dealer and then proceeded to inform us that they had worked for 8 months in South America and 3 months in Australia, and that it was possible to get by on $10 each per day. Maybe it is in South East Asia but you'd struggle in South America and Australia where the accommodation alone would cost you $10 a night at least. Maybe the whole drug dealer concept wasn't a joke afterall . . .

The scenery throughout the drive down from Stung Treng was very similar to Laos : lots of bamboo huts/wooden houses built alongside the river, and shaded by tall palms. The roads were straighter and the surfaces more even but they were still very dusty, so we had to keep the windows shut despite the intense heat.

When I arrived in Kratie, i followed one of the guesthouse touts for the first time in my trip. You Hong's laminated flyer really caught my eye : $2 rooms, attached restarant/chill out area with music, T.V, and internet, and photographs of all. Kotoe (a Japanese girl who was in our group as we crossed the border over from Laos) had the same idea so we both took a look. The $2 rooms turned out to be a bit cell-like but for an extra $0.50, we both got a more homely room with attached bathroom.

After checking in Kotoe and I sat down to enjoy a cold Angkor beer and some peanuts. We spent the remainder of the evening hanging out together and in some degree of intoxication!

Photo is of some Cambodian girls operating the sugar cane juice extraction machine at a village between Stung Treng and Kratie.

Raging rapids and bumpy rides on Don Khon

This morning, after only one bottle of beer Lao last night, my motivation returned. I hired a bicycle (8000KIP for the day) to cycle over to Don Khon and Tat Somphamit, where i was meeting Martin at 3pm. We would continue the journey down to the very southern tip of Don Khon and charter a boat out to (hopefully) catch a glipse of the rare Irrawaddy dolphins who inhabit the area.

The "no worries" slogan evidently extends to the activity of hiring a bicycle, as not only was i not given a lock for the bike (so any opportunist could hop on the saddle and cycle off with my vehicle) but I wasn't asked for any personal information, identification or the name of the guesthouse i'm staying at (so I could, in effect, walk away with the bike, if i could find a way to smuggle it off the island!)

The large stone bridge that separates Don Det from Don Khon affords some fantastic views along the Mekong and of life around the little wooden houses along its banks. After having crossed the bridge I actually missed the turning off to the waterfall and ended up cycling along the old railbed towards the south of Don Khon. This was an incredibly grueling ride : the terrain made it difficult for me to keep my feet on the peddles, hands on the handlebars, and the bike on a straight course!

When i did actually find the waterfall, it was a lot more spectacular than i'd anticipated : huge volumes of water gushing through chisled, imposing rocks and set against a perfect blue sky. I climbed down a collection of rocks to sit at the bottom and watch the water spilling powerfully over into the pool below; it looked like hundreds of soapy bubbles rushing over the rocks. A British guy climbed down to join me and to appreciate the view. Spliff in hand, he obviously had the idea of letting the water do all the work, while he sat there calmly toking on his reefer, melting in the heat of the sun and floating away into his marajuana-filled thoughts . . .

The weather is so hot here and the humidity levels so high that even by sitting in the sun for a couple of minutes, you can feel the sweat quickly escaping from every pore in your body. I decided to re-hydrate myself and slow down the release of sweat by sitting in the shade at one of the small cafes up at the falls, drinking fresh coconut juice and then munching on the crisp juicy white flesh.

Before meeting Martin, I spent an hour or so down at the beach : mounds of thick white sand leading down to a calm section of water where you can swim around the rocks and little fish nip at your toes. Martin and I grabbed some water (half of which he fed to a very thirsty little dog who lapped it up from the palm of his hand) before cycling down to the southern tip of Don Khon. After reading in the Lonely Planet guide that it costs $2.50 to charter a boat out 3km to the dolphin's territory and estimating that this price would probably now be $3.50 a year after the book's publication, we were a bit shocked to discover the price was actually $7. The boatman would not accept anything les, no matter how much we joked and bartered. We decided this was a little expensive considering that for $5 each we could sign up to a day tour from Don Det to take in the big waterfall AND the dolphins.

Instead we stopped off at a little restaurant beneath the Don Det - Don Khon bridge. We sipped some beer Lao, shared some nice food and conversation, and watched the sun go down. Pleasant as it was, it then meant that we had to cycle home in the dark with no lights on our bikes and no lights along the route to guide our way. Fortunately our eyes adapted quickly to the dark so this wasn't too much of a problem until we arrived back at Don Det and i needed to find the place I'd rented my bike from!

After enjoying a lovely cold shower by flashlight, I met Martin at Mama's Kitchen for some final rounds of cards and good conversation. We discussed the whole concept of travelling and the fleeeting but memorable meetings with other travellers. I still find it quite strange the way people enter your life, you just start to get to know them and enjoy the time you spend together and then they walk out of your life just as quickly as thyey walked in. However, I do enjoy the concept of meeting people from all walks of life and of various nationalities; people you would not otherwise have the chance to meet. I enjoy the whole process of bonding with someone new, learning about their passions and motivations, and how you relate to them. It's fun and fresh and exciting.

Photo to follow.

Life on Don Det . . . no worries

Due to the Lao Lao banishing my perception of time last night, I didn't actually crawl into my bungalow until gone 1am. So my constructive day I had planned went out the window! Instead of hiring a bicycle and cycling down to Don Khon and some waterfalls, I joined Sarah for a late breakfast at our guesthouse and we both took it in turns to do some involuntary babysitting. Whenever the lady disappeared to serve some prospective guests or fetch some drinks, she clumsily placed her 4 month old grandson on either mine or Sarah's laps! He was quite amusing : he kept trying to eat the table or Sarah's shoulder, but i was still rather relieved when our food arrived and he was taken off our hands.

Once i'd had breakfast I settled myself down in my incredibly comfortable hammock and began to continue my reading of "First They Killed My Father"; my hammock encasing me like a pea in a warm and cosy pod. Suffering from lack of sleep after last night's entertainment, I woke up a couple of hours later, feeling rather disorientated, the book open on the page where I left off, lying neatly on my stomach.

I forced myself to roll out of the hammock and walk down to the beach (which is a good 20 minutes along the river from Mr Tho's). I woke myself up with some liquid refreshment and a swim in the sea before spending the remainder of the afternoon finishing Loung Ung's novel. It's a gripping, moving, disturbing tale, and Loung Ung really forces her readers to experience the mass murder, starvation and disease that claimed the lives of 4 members of her family. It's heartbreaking to learn that a child of not even 8 years old has experienced so much sadness and pain, and been witness to so much suffering and death, but it's inspiring to learn - through Loung Ung's experiences as a child growing up during the Khmer Rouge overthrow - about the strength and indomnitability of the human spirit : "somehow, one way or another, we find ways to stay alive."

This evening I met Martin again at Khampong for a meal and some more rounds of Shithead. He'd retrieved the card that catapuled itself over the side of the restaurant veranda last night and down on to the beach, so we had a full deck once again. The food on this island is not the fastest in arriving, so after I waited about half an hour for the watermelon shake i'd ordered, Martin joked that he'd get his food (which he'd ordered well after mine) before mine arrived. No prizes for guessing who was happily munching on his chinese vegetables and rice whilst I was still fighting back the hunger pangs!

It's part of the laid back attitude and atmosphere that permeates through the island of Don Det : "no cars, no electricity, no worries . . . " (Lonely Planet Laos). Ok, so there is a small amount of electricity now, which is supplied by generators. However, the generators are clearly overloaded and the power frequently shuts down, resulting in the majority of your evening being spent by candlelight.

Photo is of a selection of bungalows along the Mekong, Don Det.

Beaches, Cards, and Lao Lao cocktails on Don Det

Tina, Ben and I caught the 8:30am boat down to Don Det, a pleasant hour and a half journey down the Mekong, watching villagers bathing, scrubbing clothes and fishing along the river banks. When we arrived, Sarah (an Irish girl, also on the boat over to Don Det) and I started the long walk along the river to Mr Tho's Bungalows (a Lonely Planet Recommendation), whilst Tina headed in the opposite direction to find Miss Noi's, a guesthouse partly owned by a Belgium guy. As Sarah and I were walking past the dozens and dozens of bamboo huts scattered along the riverside, I was starting to wonder whether Mr Tho's was worth the walk, as they all looked very similar and all came with a $2 per night price tag.

On reflection, i like Mr Tho's for the following reasons :

1. There are 3 windows allowing maximum airflow through the bungalow
2. There is a large shaded balcony and 2 very comfortable hammocks
3. The bungalows are detached so no waking up the neighbours or vice versa!
4. There is an on site libraray with free rental of books (10,000KIP and a $5 deposit for everyone else)
5. There is an attached restaurant overlooking the river.

I stopped for a drink at Noun Riverside restaurant, overlooking Don Det's small beach. Firstly I met Sarah, also doing the same thing and then Bianca and Simon walked in! It really is a small traveller's world out here!

I spent the aftenoon sunbathing on the beach, swimming in the sea and reading "First They Killed My Father" by Loung Ung, a book i'd borrowed from Mr Tho's library.

This evening i ate at Khampong Restaurant, adjacent to Noun Riverside and with very similar views (in the daytime only!). After I'd eaten I was approached by a dutch guy, Martinwho had also been dining alone at a nearby table. He asked me if i fancied a game of cards, and following my response he joined me at my table and the 2 of us had numerous games of Shithead, accomapnied by numerous glasses of Lao Lao with honey and lemon (which is actually a pleasant cocktail; the honey takes a way a little of the potent sting!). Not as numerous, however, as the bottles of beer Lao being consumed by a British crowd over the other side of the restaurant. The later in the evening it became and the greater number of empty bottles being stacked up on the table, the more frequently the one guy persisted in falling off his chair! It appears us Brits do in fact earn our reputation as beer drinking fools!

Photo is of Don Det island

Don Khong Island

Due to the lack of chickens here or sunlight blaring through my windows (although my room has 2 windows, the shutters on both are closed from the outside, which made it a bit difficult to sleep last night due to the lack of airflow in my room, but was a godsend this morning!) I managed to sleep in until 8am!

It never really occured to me to make the connection before ( I just put it down to the heat disrupting my normal sleep patterns and thus causing small bouts of sleep rather than one long deep sleep) but I reckon there may be some truth in what Bianca said about the doxycycline causing vivid dreams. Back home i rarely even remember my dreams yet here i often wake up recalling the bizarre and sometimes disturbing thoughts and images from my previous night of slumber. Only last night remember trying to wake myself up because i was convinced there was someone in my room. I managed to do this and i had to switch the light on to allay my fears.

I wandered down to Pon's Guesthouse to enquire about the arrangements for the boat across to Don Det Tomorrow and stopped there for breakfast after doing so. I contemplated the Lao option of rice soup with fish but settled for a fruit salad and some lemon juice, whilst soaking up the serenity of my surroundings : the whir of the tiny motorboats on the river, the cheerful chatter between the birds in the trees, the distant voices of children from the nearby school and the distinctive sound of the odd gecko making its presence known.

I spent the afternoon walking around the grounds of the temple at the north end of Muang Khong, puzzling water buffalo down by the water's edge, using the internet on the only computer on the island (at 1000KIP per minute you pay for this priviledge) and sunbathing on the decking opposite my guesthouse, whilst listening to children splashing around in the water below me.

I ate dinner at a restauarant next door to Pon's with Tina and Ben (a Canadian guy Tina met yesterday). Ben must be the only person I've seen to eat an entire papaya salad and not break out a sweat. Not only did he eat all of it but he ate it with the speed and gustor of someone who hadn't eaten for days!

Photo is of temple, Don Khong.

Ruins, motorboats and songthaews

I met Tina again at breakfast, and we hired a couple of bikes to take the 10km ride out to Wat Phu Champasak. The ride was very pleasant : the roads were flat and for the most part, nice and even, and flanked by rice fields and mountains either side.

The ancient Khmer religious complex of Wat Phu is spread over the lower slopes of Phu Pasak. Whilst i imagine the sight pales in comparison to Angkor Wat in Cambodia or The Grand Palace in Bangkok, it is a peaceful, almost mystical place to spend a few hours. The ruins give you a good idea of what the site looked like in its entirity and there is a fantastic view of the surrounding valleys from the very top of the Wat Phu complex. Wat Phu achieved world heritage status in 2001.

Once we'd returned the bikes to the guesthouse, we began what was to be a difficult and expensive (and tiring!) journey to Dong Khong island, highlighting the benefits again of visiting Wat Phu as a day trip from Pakse, rather than staying in Champasak. However, if you fancy an adventure, have no particular timescales for your travel and no set budget for your transport costs, then taking the route I did was certainly a lot more fun.

The journey consisted of :

1. Walking with backpacks : 20 minutes (free)
2. Tuk tuk to boat landing (3,500KIP each)
3. Boat across the Mekong (2000KIP each)
4. Walking with backpacks along a main road and sweating like pigs for 30 minutes (free)
5. Hitching a ride in a cattle truck (could have been free but i gave the guy 3000KIP for his troubles)
6. Songthaew containing 7 passengers : approximately 2 hours (50,000KIP each)
7. Motorboat to Dong Khong (10,000KIP each)

The whole journey had taken approximately 3.5 hours and had cost 68,000KIP each!

Tina and I are staying at the Mekong guesthouse, i have a nice big room for $3 per night and Tina paid the extra dollar for a view of the river. There's a pretty little restaurant attached to the guesthouse, which is shrouded by palm trees, overlooks the Mekong and there are some friendly resident cats who try to climb on to your lap and eye up your food whilst you're eating.

There's not a great deal to do on the island, and in hindsight i think i may have arrived here a little prematurely, but i do deserve a bit of relaxation time (almost every day of my trip so far has been packed with travelling or sightseeing of some description) so if i can find a peaceful spot of beach and a good book then i'll be happy for a day or two.

Photo is of Wat Phu, Champasak

Crowded songthaews and perverse monks!

I ate breakfast down at Delta Coffee with Rebecca and her 2 friends Stephanie and Simone, before heading to the bus station to catch a songthaew to Chamapasak. They were also visiting Wat Phu today but as a day tour from Pakse. In hindsight I wish i'd done the same, as the cost to hire a songthaew for the day was only $5 each due to the fact that they were hooking up with 3 others : 1 Canadian, 1 American and 1 British guy, also from Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse. Moreover, their songthaew took 1 hour from Pakse and mine took effectively 4! I say this because i actually bumped into the 6 of them in Champasak when i'd just arrived and they'd already been to the temple!

The reason for this was because, although we all left at approximately the same time, my songthaew stood at the bus station for 2 hours before going anywhere. It then proceeded to make several long stops on route to pick up locals and their huge bags of rice/potatoes/fruit, or whatever else happened to be in those non-descript white hessian sacks they all use. As if this wasn't enough of a burden to the journey, it also waited at the boat pier whilst the passengers ate lunch (supplied by a swarm of food vendors in conical hats and with baskets suspended from each end of a long pole across their shoulders) before we were ferried across to Champasak on the opposite side of the Mekong.

After checking in to Souchitra Guesthouse (quite a pleasant little spot with a veranda and attached restaurant overlooking the river) I joined the 6 of them for lunch. It was good fun : the American guy stole the show and was making us all laugh about Public Enemy, 'slitz'and getting shafted (won't mean anything to you guys reading it but it will make me giggle when i do!) and fighting with his fiery papaya salad.

After they left in their private songthaew and headed back to Pakse, I wandered over to Wat Thong (the only temple worthy of a mention in the town itself) as it was now too late to visit Wat Phu today. One of the monks at the temple asked if i could help him with his English, and as i had 2 hours to kill in a town where there's not much to do apart from admiring the views across the Mekong from my guesthouse veranda or one of restaurants situated along the river, I happily agreed.

There were 3 other monks on the balcony of the small wooden hut opposite the temple, where i was invited to sit down and was given a glass of ice cold water. However, the other 3 monks didn't speak any English and as i do not speak enough Lao to hold a conversation much beyond asking someone what their name is or how much something costs and understanding the reply, they soon departed. This left Monk Somnuk and I alone. Now i didn't think monks were allowed to be alone in the company of women, which arose my suspicions. However, i continued to write a selection of questions and answers in English, in the monk's book, believing i was being a very helpful 'falang'. Very naieve as well it seems, as Monk Somnuk only tried to seduce me!!! I was shocked : of all the people who inhabit this earth, I was under the impression a monk was someone you could trust not to have wandering hands!

I left the monastry rather quickly, still not quite believing what had just happened, and bumped into Tina (a Belgium girl also travelling alone) out on the verandawhen i arrived back at the guesthouse. We chatted for a while and i relayed my story about the perverse Buddhist monk, which made us both laugh. We later had dinner together down at the guesthouse restaurant, got eaten alive by mosquitoes and chuckled at the crazy Thai woman at the adjacent table, embarrassing her western boyfriend and trying to take photographs of the Mekong in the pitch darkness, enthusing about how beautiful she thought it was!

Photo is of our songthaew where we stopped for lunch before crossing the Mekong into Champasak.

Coffee beans and waterfalls

I caught the bus to pakse with Bianca and Simon at 8am and it's probably the hottest 5 hours i've spent on a bus to date : there were no fans and all that was blowing through the windows was the hot air from the dusty roads outside. We had the usual random stops and at each one the bus was boarded by numerous Lao food vendors selling whatever your stomach desires - on a stick : bugs, chickens, eggs, pork balls, donuts, barbequed bananas, as well as the standard drinks in plastic bags. The 3 of us managed to get rooms in the Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse, and then Bianca and Simnon disappeared for a nap whilst i went for a wander around Pakse's hot and unfamiliar streets.

In the evening Bianca, Simon and I shared a meal, conversation and beer Lao at Delta Coffee. Although it doesn't sound very Lao it does actually have a long list of Lao and Thai dishes, as well as Italian and continental, and a huge selection of coffees, teas and fruit shakes.

The next day the three of us joined 8 others (a lovely well-travelled older Canadian couple, a pretty, super fiendly German girl called Rebecca and her 2 friends, a very opinionated woman from London and her friend from New York, both of whom were caffiene and nicotene fiends, and Laura, a writer from Canada who's actually had a travel book published entitled 'Tro Tros and Tuk tuks') on a day tour to the Bolaven Plateau. It was a lovely relaxing and educational day with a (mostly) good crowd of people. The British woman was very knowledgeable and did have a lot of valid points to make about the country, it's culture and economy and the impact of tourism on these three things. However a lot of us did wish at times that she would not try to force her opinions on other people. Poor Rebecca was apparently helping to destroy the local culture and economy by simply choosing to drink Nescafe instead of the locally cultivated Lao coffee!

The Bolaven Plateau is famous for its cool climate, waterfalls, fertile soil and high grade coffee plantations. It's also known for being one of the most heavily bombed theatres of the second Indochina war, and in fact we walked past a huge bomb crater on our way to Tat Fan, one of the most spectacular waterfalls in Laos. Tat Fan is on the edge of the 1100sq.km Dong Hua Sao National Protected Area, and has 2 parallel streams of the Huay Bang Lieng plunging out of dense forest and down more than 120m. We were able to get a fantastic view from the Tad Fane resort, a collection of wooden bungalows built on a cliff opposite the falls. It costs $20 per night to stay at the resort and if you'd have seen the view, you'd know why.

As we wandered through the plantations, the cultivation process was explained to us and we were shown the instruments utilized in this process. The scenery was simply beautiful, interspersed with a wide variety of interesting and colourful flowers. Children were climbing trees, pushing wooden carts full of plants and playing jovially in the streets. We were shown the 4 different varieties of coffee plant : Big Bean has the biggest leaves, followed by Robusta (the most popular variety of coffee consumed in Laos), Arabica (which has a slightly chocolately flavour) and a forth one beginning with a C whose name now escapes me. We all stopped for a coffee break where we were able to sample some fresh Arabica, before walking down some bamboo steps to another waterfall where we could swim in the pool at the base of the falls. On our ascent back up to the village where we ate lunch, we encountered a collection of over enthusiastic Thai tourists, all keen to have their photographs taken with us!

After lunch we were driven to a Katu village. The Katu are distinctive for their face tattoos of their women, a custom that is slowly dying out as the Lao influence in the area increases. Another Katu custom, which is still in existence, is the carving of wooden caskets for each member of the household well in advance of an expected death ; the caskets are stored beneath rice sheds until needed. We witnessed a lady pounding rice by hand, a few dirty looking children in the deserted school begging for pens and money, and an old lady (with the kind of face where every wrinkle tells a story) smoking a long wooden shish pipe, which apparently contains a mixture of tobacco and honey.

The last waterfall we paid a visit to was Tat Lo. This is a 10m high waterfall, where the flow of water is controlled by the dam authorities. Apparently the tour group who visited the falls yesterday were unable to do any swimming because the dam authorities hadn't turned the taps on! The water was beautifully warm and the place had a certain serenity about it. We met a few travellers who had chosen to stay at one of the guesthouses surrounding the falls, and i can see Tat Lo turning into a bit of a backpacker's hideaway in years to come : the accommodation is cheaper than Pakse, there's a waterfall right on your doorstep and there's an elephant lodge at nearby Tad Lo Lodge, offering rides into the surrounding forests.

We finished the tour by visiting one of the local weaving villages where we watched the villagers dye the cotton using natural plant colours and then weave it into intricately detailed garments such as belts, scarves, skirts, shawls and table runners. By the time we's completed the long drive back to Pakse, we had seen the sun set and it was approaching 7pm. For $13 the tour had definitely been good value for money. The day began at 8am and included all transport, guides, entrance to the park and waterfalls, lunch, coffee and an endless supply of water and bananas.

I'd definitely recommended Sabaidy 2 Guesthouse, not so much for the fact that the rooms are paricularly outstanding but for the fact that the package as a whole is. The staff at the guesthouse organise and conduct excellent, value for money tours, have an endless supply of information for travellers (including how much you should be charged for a tuk tuk ride to all major sites/points of interest in the area), visa, laundry and motorbike rental services, as well as a pretty little garden containing a pond full of Coi Carp and a wooden seating area where you can enjoy food from the guesthouse restaurant (at very reasonable prices) or a beer Lao with all the friends you've made there.

Photo to follow.

Giving alms, taking lessons

I was surprised it was actually light at 5:30am, however this fact made it no easier for me to open my eyes and roll my body out from under the mosquito net . . .

Noi seemed in no rush to get us moving in preparation for the alms ceremony - at least not until the last minute, leaving us no time for an explanation as to what would happen during the ceremony and what part we would be expected to play. We were given the same decorative scarves to wear as in last nights 'baci' ceremony, accompanied by a traditional Lao skirt (Simon excluded on the latter!). We were then given an alms bowl each (full of packets of noodles, cartons of orange juice, and small dough-based cakes) and a small cylindrical bamboo container full of warm sticky rice. We carried these to the local monastry, and took our places on a wicker mat on the floor in front of the three monks. We then made three balls of sticky rice which we placed in the alms bowls, and bowed to the monks three times. The monks then recited a long Lao script (possibly a prayer thanking us for the offerings) before we each stood up in turn and distributed the contents of our alms bowls between the three bowls on the table behind us.

We turned down breakfast (as i don't think any of us wanted to walk on an full stomach in the heat that was already making itself apparent by 7am) in favour of some strong Lao coffee and a couple of bananas at the village cafe, whilst we watched all the village children on their way to school. We spent 2 hours of the morning at the school introducing ourselves to the children, playing games with them and answering their questions. I'm no teacher and i didn't particularly appreciate being on show in a class full of giggling children but the teachers were incredibly grateful for our presence and it was fun once we'd got used to the reactions and having to answer the same questions over and over again :

1. How old are you?
2. Where are you from?
3. How do you feel?
4. What is your job?
5. Are you married?
6. How do you like Laos?

I felt like i could relate to all these celebrities who attend interview after interview and are asked all the same questions, and have to answer the last one with the same content and enthusiasm as the first. As we were leaving the classes, we all felt like we'd achieved celebrity status when the children crowded around us with their exercise books, asking for our autographs!

When we left the school gates, unfortunately there was no limosene waiting for us : just a dirt road stretching out for miles ahead of us. We walked this dirt road in the blazing sunshine, consuming water like it was going out of fashion. After about 5km we took a turning and walked through the trees for another kilometre before reaching Turtle Lake (not quite sure how it got its name as there was no mention of the existence of any turtles within it).

We ate lunch in one of the little bamboo huts overlooking the lake : another feast of sticky rice, chilli paste, papaya salad, bamboo, barbequed fish, omelette and crispy white cabbage, followed by large juicy chumks of water melon. We had the chance to ride a little paddleboat around the lake but Noi and a couple of the school children who'd joined us were having enough trouble clumsily navigating the vehicle around a small section of the lake, that we decided to stay put under the shade of our bamboo hut and amuse ourselves by watching them instead!

After lunch we drove by tuk tuk to Ban That, where we observed the villagers making torches by mixing wood chippings with oil from the Nyang tree and wrapping the mixture in a banana leaf. We then walked to the nearby That Inghang Stupa, which is the most sacred stupa in the province. It was a pleasant walk around the grounds and there's a lake adjacent to the temple where children were playing and cows looked gormlessly at you as you passed.

This evening Bianca, Simon and I caught motorbikes over to Noi's Noddle Shop (the restaurant doesn't actually have a name but Noi has some connection with the establishment and i like the illiteration in that name!) and ate some delicious noodle soup with Noi and one of his students. Although we were all thoroughly 'schooled out', we kept our promise to Noi and visited the school where he teaches English in the evenings, for a couple of hours after dinner. The students at his school were a little older than those at the school in Ban Phonsim so their English was a lot better and the conversations more structured and questions more inventive.

Overall i enjoyed the trek immensely. Bianca and Simon were down to earth, easy-going guys, so were very easy to get along with, which helps a great deal considering you have to be in the company of your trekkin companions 24-7 whilst you're away. Moreover, the interaction with the local people and participation in village activities was fantastic. I was impressed by the baci ceremony held in our honour and the fact that we were allowed to help with the preparation of the ceremony and the cooking of the food. Our guide spoke very good English, but on a few ocassions failed to explain things thoroughly enough. That and the fact that we had to pay for afew of our own drinks were my only complaints. It is, however, definitely one of the better treks I've been on.

Photo is of Nong Lom lake, near Savanneket.

Ban Phonsim homestay and trek in Dong Natad

I was met by my guide, Noi (nickname, means 'small' in Lao) spot on time at 8am, we collected the other 2 participants on the trek, Bianca and Simon (a 27 year old town planner and 25 year old graphic designer from Melbourne, Australia) and then travelled 15km by tuk tuk to the start of the trail.

To begin with we were walking through forests and the tall trees provided shade from the hot sun. The terrain, which i remember thinking was a little strange considering we were in the forest, was soft white sand. After about 2km we stopped at Nong Lom lake, a pleasant little clearing in the forest where there lies the remains of a large rice field, the majority of which has sunken into the water below. Nong Lom translates as 'the sinking of the rice fields.'

We continued our walk along the sandy carpet beneath our feet, leaving the forest and entering farmland, or the barren land being prepared for farmland, where all that remains of the once healthy trees that grew upon it, is a few blackened pieces of wood lying dead in the charcoal mess beneath them.

We stopped for lunch a little early, weakened by the strength of the midday sun, opening up every sweat gland in our bodies. We shared sticky rice and chilli paste, omelette, whole barbequed fish and morning glory. We didn't share (even Simon and Bianca, the meateaters, left it to the resiliant stomached Laotians) some rather dubious looking pieces of pork which were still covered in prickly hair. Someone hadn't bothered to shave the pig before butchering it.

When we reached Ban Phonsim (apparently 15km later but i'm sure we can't have walked more than 10), we were all desperately in need of a cold drink, our water had gotten so hot that if you added a spoonful of coffee and sugar to it you'd think your cuppa had come straight out the kettle!

The villagers at the house where we would stay were making preparations for the traditional 'baci' ceremony : a ceremony to welcome foreigners into their home. This would take place later on in the evening, before the eating of the meal which they would also prepare and cook for us. A couple of the ladies were rollling banana leaves into cones and decorating them with white and orange flowers. We helped by tying knots into lengths of white cotton, the purpose of which would be apparent later. We also made a quick trip to the village school to talk to the staff and catch glimpses of the children as they finished their lessons for the day.

Just before sunset, Simon was roped into a game of football with Noi and some of the local boys. Bianca and I sat on a fallen tree on the sidelines, watched the boys at play and took photos of a couple of little Lao kids playing around on a bicycle. When we returned to the house and had showers (if you can call them that!) we helped (or rather, tried to, as neither Bianca or I are brilliant cooks by any stretch of the imagination!) with the cooking of the food for tonights meal.

As the 'baci' ceremony began, we were all given decorative scarves to wear, which were wrapped around our bodies and over our shoulders, before sitting down and being presented with our welcome present. I was so impressed with what you can do with a bamboo basket, several handfuls of rice, some banana leaves and flowers, and strands of white cotton : it truly was a beautiful creation.

The family proceeded to the light the 2 candles on top and one by one they would each take a length of white cotton and tie it around our wrists, whilst reciting wishes of good luck and health and fortune in Lao. At the end of this bizarre ceremony, i felt like the bottom half of my forearm had been mumified! We tucked in (rather awkwardly due to having pieces of cotton dangling from our arms!) to the feast that had been prepared in our honour, followed by several shots of Lao Lao, washed down with water.

In keeping with the village custom, a man and a woman are forbidden to sleep in the same bed, even if they are married, so Bianca and i were fortunate enough to be given the bed with the mosquito net and Simon and Noi slept (minus mosquito net) in the bed beside us. We tried to get a (relatively) early night due to having to be awake at 5:30 the next morning in order to prepare alms to give to the monks. However, we couldn't find the light switch and someone had the T.V blaring downstairs for what seemed like hours, so we all lay there with the light on in a state of semi-consciousness. When we did eventually fall asleep, Bianca woke us all up by having one of her vivid dreams (apparently due to her anti-malarial tablets) and freaking us all out because she thought there was a rabid dog in the room!

Photo is of Bianca, Simon and I with our welcome gift just before the Baci ceremony began, Ban Phonsim.

The streets of Savannaket . . .

I managed to finish "Catfish and Mandala" (which incidently is an excellent book : well-written, funny, insightful, moving, and with a fantastic use of imagery, which transports you to the heart of the situations Pham describes) sooner than i expected because, what was supposed to be a 5 hour bus journey to Nakhon Phanon, turned out to be nearly 8! I also had to tolerate a very annoying and cocky conductor (or whatever they call the people who collect your tickets here in Thailand). He attempted to speak Thai to me (the only westerner on the bus), to which i replied, "dii-chan phuut phaasaa thai mai dai" (i don't speak Thai). He obviously gathered from my very bad pronounciation and intonation that indeed i did not speak Thai, and therefore more than likely did not understand it either! He proceeded to speak more Thai to me and had the nearby passengers in stitches, presumably at my expense. Where's Tao when i need him? I would have loved to have understood this guy and responded with a suitably quick-witted remark, and left a stunned and speehless expression on his cocky little face.

Fortunately after a while of ignoring him (which i don't normally like to do but with this character i had no qualms about doing so) and sticking my hed in my book, he left me alone. We eventually arrived in Nakhon Phanon at around 4:45pm, just in time for me to catch the last bus of the day to Mukdahan, in order to cross the border into Laos.

It was blowing a gale when we pulled into Mukdahan and i was shivering in my little sleeveless T-shirt, being laughed at by the locals who thought i was a bit crazy in the head when they all had coats on! Maybe they're a bit more used to this erratic weather we've been having lately : 2 days ago i could barely reathe the air was so stifling, so packing a jumper in my hand luggage when i left Nong Khai was not a concept that even entered my head.

I checked into the Hua Hin Hotel in Mukdahan, expecting to have to pay at least 280THB for a room, so i was pleasantly surprised when the limited-English speaking owner produced one for 120THB with a double bed, complementary towel and soap and enough room to swing a tiger in!

In the evening i walked along the riverfront to Wine Wild Why. The length of the walk was exaggerated by the fact that, even wearing a jumper (the only one i have with me) and a scarf i bought at one of the Karen villages, i still had severe goosebumps on my arms and was longing for my cosy, warm hotel bed . . .

The restaurant was a little bamboo building right on the river with heaps of character and an extensive hand-written English menu. The only other people in the restaurant were a group of 4 Thai men, guzzling their way through bottles of beer Chang and enthusiastically singing along to the current music offerings being played through the restaurant speakers. They jovially interupted my meal on several occasions with drunken shouts of "cheers!" or "Tam Jaw!" (phonetic spelling, Thai for Cheers), to which I, amused by their friendly state of intoxication, rose my glass in response.

MUKDAHAN - SAVANNAKET

1500THB poorer and i'm back in Laos! As soon as stepped back on to Lao shores, an air of calm pervaded me; a feeling of being back off the beaten track once again . . surrounded by crumbling colonial architecture, tall trees, uneven roads, and friendly, curious children. There's not a lot to do in Savannaket, apart from wandering through the quiet streets and observing all of the above. There are a couple of temples in the town, Wat Rattanalangsi and Wat Sainyaphum. Wat Sainyaphum holds an attractive setting along the banks of the Mekong. It's the oldest and largest monastry in Savan, with more than 100 monks and novices in residence, and a walk around the grounds will guarantee that you are approached by at least one of them, keen to practice their English.

After my aimless and pleasant wander around Savannaket's streets and temples, i called into the Provincial Tourism Office to enquire about the possibility of doing a trek to Dong Phu Vieng National Protected Area, home to a number of Katang villages and one of Lonely Planet's recommended highlights in Laos. Yet again i encountered the same problem : a minimum of 2 people were required before the trek will go ahead. I returned to the office just before closing time, when i was informed that there would be no trek leaving to Dong Phu Vieng (no surprises there) but there was a 2 day trek now available (as 2 Australian tourists had signed up) to Dong Natad Provincial Protected Area and a homestay in Ban Phonsim. At $45 for 2 days, it's a little over my budget, but the trek sounds interesting, well organised, and professional, and it's the only trek i'll be doing during this stay in Laos.

Photo is of a modern looking creation which looked rather out of place amongst Savannaket's crumbling colonial buildings.

Leua's mystical sculptures

Now i believe in God - well, the rain God at least! I woke up this morning to find the ground wet and a cool, refreshing taste in the air. I never thought i'd be so thankful for rain but the atmosphere had become so close, so suffocating, that it felt like i was melting into the stifling air that surrounded me.

ONCE UPON A TIME . . .

Laotian artist and mystic, Boun Leua Souritat went hiking in the mountains in his native land. He was walking alone, minding his own business, when he fell into a hole and landed in the lap of Keoku, a kindly hermit who lived in a cave. Leua stayed with Keoku for several years, during which time the hermit taught him about Buddha and the underworld, and introduced him to some of the Gods and Godesses who live in the higher realms of Buddhist mythology.

After resuming his live above ground, the artist created a vast array of gigantic sculptures in the forset of north east Thailand, which he named Sala Keoku (Hall of Keoku) in honour of his spiritual teacher. Leua's spectacular figures depict many of the religious and mythical beings he learned about from Keoku. The dominant statue in the park is 25m high.

I cycled up to the park, against the wind, on highway 212. the park is only 500m off this busy highway, yet it feels like a much more remote setting. I ended up spending around two hours being mesmorized by Leua's creations and wishing i could read the foreign script engraved into the base of many of his sculptures. Amongst the sculptures and numerous plants which decorate the grounds, was a huge cactus garden : hundreds of the prickly pets in all manner of shapes and sizes. It's a shame they're not a little easier to transport or i would have purchased one of the tiny offspring being sold just outside the entrance for 10THB.

Following lots of beautifully carved slabs of concrete, i cycled over to the west side of Nong Khai to observe the very un-inspiring slab of concrete that is the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge. There's a small beach beside the bridge, where tubing is on offer when the water levels are low enough. However, there's not a lot else to do here unless you want to join the few Thai people sitting on straw mats beneath a large thatched shelter (which covers most of the beach) drinking Thai beer and eating sun-dried river fish.

My next destination was also rather disappointing. Ok, so Lonely Planet do say that Phra That Klang Nam "can only be seen in the dry season when the Mekong lowers by 30m", but i expected a little more than what looked like a rock emerging from the river with a few flags tied to its summit! The chedi apparently slipped into the river in 1847 and continues to slide. If you want to catch a glimpse of it (not really worth the effort in my opinion!) then you'd better get to Thailand fast because there isn't much left above water!

I spent the evening at Mut Mee eating delicious green eggplant with tofu in curry sauce, reading "Catfish and Mandala" and eavesdropping on the conversations of the expats at the adjacent table. Caroline (a London girl who works at Mut Mee) was nursing a broken heart after her American traveller-lover had moved on to his next destination. I saw the two of them hugging their goodbyes and i'm sure he's the same guy i encountered in the Organic Mulberry Cafe in Vang Vieng, Laos, about 3 weeks ago. It's a small traveller's world out here!

Photo is of one of Leua's large stone statues at Sala Keoku

Chiang Mai - Udon Thani - Nong Khai

I decided upon the overnight bus to Udon Thani, as it would save me 160THB on accommodation costs and it allowed me an extra day in Chiang Mai, which i spent hiring a bicycle and cycling up to Wat Umong (about 4 or 5 km to the west of Chiang Mai), a temple which Tao had recommended i visit.

WAT UMONG

Wat Umong was firstly called Werkattatharam, which means "temple of the eleven clumps of the bamboo", due to the site on which it was built. By the command of Phaya Kuena, a tunnel was built near to the temple, which houses Buddha images and a wall decorated with mural paintings of trees, flowers, and birds. In Thai, tunnel is "U-Mong", hence the current name. Wat Umong is also referred to as the 'forest temple' as it's located inthe western jungle zone of Wiang Suan Dok. Visiting Wat Umong was a peaceful and tranquil escape from the city. There's also a conservation reserve on site and nature trails through the forests (where i spotted a peacock which i followed for several minutes trying to capture it on camera!).

The bus left at 7pm and arrived in Udon Thani at 7:30 the next morning. The only differences between this overnight bus and the ordinary daytime public buses were a) you are allocated a seat when you purchase your ticket and b) you are provided with a blanket, due to the fact that, even at the beginning of Thailand's hot season, it can - and does - get very chilly at night.

I had planned to read a large chunk of "Catfish and Mandala" on the journey, however the lights onthe bus were switched off only 30 minutes after leaving the terminal. In the darkness, there wasn't a lot to see out the window, so my only option was to try and sleep, which i only managed to do an hour before arriving in Udon Thani. The remainder of the journey was spent drifting in and out of consciousness, my mind full of the last couple of month's events and experiences. It was, however, the first time i think i've been awake to see the sun rise : a perfect circle of blinding lemon fuzz floating low in a cloudless sky. It's just a shame it wasn't in a slightly more aesthetically pleasing setting. . .

When i arrived at Udon Thani, i decided to depart just as quickly, as i felt i needed a break from city life, not that Thailand's cities are even comparable to ours in terms of scale and population (even Chiang Mai, the largest of the 3 i've recently visited, only has a poulation of 170,300). However, as north eastern Thailand seems to be a fairly industrial area of the country, 'little' Nong Khai (where i'd decided to head to) still has a populationof 61,500, which is actually more than twice the size of Nan. Oh well, i guess i'll have to wait until i get to Laos to escape the crowds . . .

I'd chosen to stay at Mut Mee Guesthouse in Nong Khai as none of the other guesthouses were really comparable in the reviews i'd read and the rooms started from 90THB per night so i had no reason to shop around - unless Mut Mee was full of course! When i arrived at around 9:30am, it actually was! But someone was due to check out at 11am so i ate breakfast (which consists of fruit and yoghurt now that i'm on a diet after consuming my body weight in food in Nan!), soaked up the scenery and eavesdropped on some other traveller's conversations.

Mut Mee is in a fantastic location, right on the Mekong river which separates Thailand from Laos, and in beautiful gardens, complete with wooden hammocks which look like little paddleboats.

By the time my room was available for check in, it was almost midday. I wanted to hire a bike and cycle out to the infamous 'Sculpture Park' but cycling anywhere in the midday heat (bearing in mind that i don't even need to leave my room at the moment to break out a sweat, the humidity levels are so high) was out of the question. So i made the sensible decision to catch up on my sleep tonight and set off early tomorrow morning, leaving this afternoon to explore the centre of Nong Khai and Wat Pho Chai, activities frequently interspersed with well needed drink stops.

Photo is of Buddha image at Wat Chai Sri Phum, Chaing Mai

The waiting game . . .

I arrived back in Chiang Mai in order to arrange my visa for Cambodia. There wasn't a lot of difference in price between the 3 day (1100THB) and 1 day (1350THB) services so i chose the 1 day, which is actually 2 days due to the time of day i'd made my application.

I'm staying at Somwang Guesthouse (Soi 2, off Moon Muang Road), which is actually a comfortable, clean, relatively quiet (no chickens!) and well-run establishment owned by a polite a friendly Thai couple. My room (with attached cold water shower) is 160THB per night. The guesthouse has an attached restaurant (with prices more reasonable than a lot of restaurants in the surrounding area), laundry, bike hire and visa services, and an endless supply of information about activities and sightseeing in the area. They even have a timetable for the buses to Udon Thani, which i was unable to find anywhere on the internet!

As i'd previously spent 4 or 5 days in Chiang Mai during this trip and as a result, seen and done pretty much all i'd wanted to in the city, i spent my time here leisurely strolling around Chiang Mai's streets, drinking coffees and fruit shakes and reading my recently purchased book "Catfish and Mandala" by Vietnamese born American writer Andrew X. Pham. It tells the tale of Pham's solo bike voyage around the pacific rim to Vietnam, and is intertwined with amusing travelogues whilst at the same time relating Pham's stark and often frightening childhood memories of living in Vietnam and the disturbing tales told to him by his father about the war.

Not content with being entirely lazy though, i did wander into a couple of temples to the north of the city :

• WAT PHA PAO. During the reign of King Inthawichayanon (1870-1897), a group of Buddhist faithfuls from the Shan states founded a monastry here in a grove (Pa) of Plao trees, locally called 'Pao' which gave the monastry its name.
• WAT CHAI SRI PHUM. Built in 1519 by King Phra Muang Kaeo at the auspicious site 'Sri Phum' (prosperity of the land). Prior to the construction of the temple, a fig tree stood in its place, a symbol of good fortune for the city.

A Royal visit

As i walked through the night market in search of some cheap food on my last night in Chiang Mai, I was aware that something a little bit special was happening in the vicinity : there were policemen at every corner and the market seemed unusually crowded, with many people simply standing around as if they were waiting for something - or someone.

I fought my way through the hoards of standing figures opposite the Royal Princess Hotel, took a seat in the restaurant situated behind them and ordered my fried vegetables in red curry sauce and coconut milk (with rice only 30THB). When the waiter approached, i quiried who (i'd made the assumption there was to be an appearance by a celebrity of some degree, i heard someone in the crowd shout, "is it David Beckham?") the crowds of people were waiting for. He answered "our Queen", whilst pointing at the larger than life portrait of a decadent looking woman hung on the exterior wall of the hotel.

So, less than 30 minutes later, through a small opening between the masses of bodies stood before me, i caught a glimpse of Thailand's Queen, dressed in white, as she walked the red carpet up the stairs towards the hotel entrance, turned back to face the crowds, and waved.

Final thoughts on Chiang Mai

I do like Chiang Mai. For a city it still retains a very laid back atmosphere. However, it is over-run with tourists, and i've noticed in particular, with pretty young Thai girls and ageing, often overweight, western men. I've passed them together in temples or in shops, walking along Chiang Mai's busy streets or sharing drinks or a meal in one of the city's numerous cafes/restaurants, but most frequently i've noticed them in bars.

Normally i will, quite comfortably, walk into any bar i pass, sit down, order a beer and read a book or write my journal. However, as i look into so many of Chiang Mai's bars, the only men i see in them are pot-bellied, grey haired westerners and the only women i see are the sexy young Thai girls in short skirts who partner them, draping their arms around their necks and hanging off their every word like they're Johhny Depp or something. Somehow i think i'd get looked at, and for all the wrong reasons, if i stepped foot in one of these establishments!

Photo is of a Thai dancer at the night market, Chiang Mai

Aerobics, cityscapes & goodbyes

I grabbed a hot (ahh . . .) shower and some strong coffee at Tao's before a friend of his (who he used to work in the construction business with) showed up at his house and the three of us chatted for a while (more precisely, Tao and I and Tao and his friend chatted; if i wanted to talk to Tao's friend and vice versa, Tao had to translate!) before making a late breakfast together, of omelete, fried rice, and the remaining green curry from last night.

The three of us then headed over to the site where Tao is currently managing and working on the construction of a new property. All the walls, windows, and doors are in place; of the initial framework it was only the roof which was still awaiting completion, completion which had been handicapped due to the dramatic rise in temperature and humidity over the past few days. The project into its construction, a project which Tao believes will be his last, as he's investigating the prospect of setting up business as a travel agent with his Canadian friend, Roger. He offered me a job if it all goes to plan, an offer i told him i'd consider if i can't find work back in the U.K (just kidding mum!)

Tao, his friend (whose name escapes me) and I spent the afternoon wandering around Nan city centre and eating sticky rice, mango and coconut milk (my new favourite food) from the market. When his friend left, Tao and I walked down to the river to watch the amusing but mesmorising aerobics class in action, and as the sun set we drove up to Wat Phra That Kao Noi to see the cityscape illuminated in the falling darkness.

We ate at one of Tao's favourite restaurants to the north east of Nan (river fish fried in ginger and red curry paste with sweet basil, fresh peppercorns, green beans and chilli peppers) and amused ourselves by eaves-dropping on a Korean gentleman practising his Thai on the pretty young waitress. Apparently he'd tried to ask for some green onion but had actually asked her for a kiss!

The next morning, I packed my things, checked out of my guesthouse (i'd well over-stayed the amount of time i'd planned to spend in Nan but it's definitely been woth it) and said my goodbyes to Mia before meeting Tao for breakfast at Tanaya's kitchen. We discussed Buddhism, Monkhood (he practised as a monk for a couple of years when he was younger) and my travelling plans, and he drove me to the bus station in time to catch the 12:15 bus to Chiang Mai. We've exchanged email addresses and telephone numbers, and he's invited me to stay with him if i ever find myself back in Nan. Hopefully i will return to Thailand (it's a beautiful country with - what i've found to be - some of the most honest, kind and friendly people you'll ever have the pleasure of meeting) and if i do, i'll be sure to look him up.

Nan Recommendations

Nan Guesthouse : Clean, spacious rooms in an old teak house with a lot of character. It's a family run business and the owner, Lyette, really makes you feel at home. There's an attached restaurant where she serves wonderful strong coffee, freshly baked bread and real (i.e not processed) cheese, which is a rarity in Thailand. The notice board is full of information about sightseeing and treks in the area, and there are also maps and bus timetables for reference.

Hot Bread : Friendly English speaking Thai owners, and delicious, reasonably priced food. Bike hire also available at 50THB per day (24hrs)

Tanaya's Kitchen : English and Thai menus, delicious food and heaps of choice.

Photo to follow