Museums, markets & morning glory

I had breakfast with Mia at the guesthouse before heading to the National Museum of Nan. As i was meeting Tao there, i thought i'd take the opportunity to arrive a little earlier and have a look around the museum. It provides a good introduction to the history of Nan : the province, archeological styles, and locally uncovered atrifacts, as well as informtion about hilltribes, weaving designs and colours used, religions and religious ceremonies. In retrospect, the museum should be the first stop for any visitor to Nan, but it was interesting and informative all the same.

Tao was already waiting for me outside when i'd finished my museum tour. We ate, 4km outside the centre of Nan, at a little restaurant owned by a friend of his : vegetable and fish soup, omelete (Tao's favourite!) and steamed rice, followed by some kind of palm fruit in sweetened water with ice. Tao used to work as a translator before he became a tour guide, which may explain why his English is so good. Furthermore, he has a lot of English speaking friends, which would explain why he also knows a lot of English slang. It's quite strange to meet a Thai person who understands almost as much English as i do and who appreciates my sense of humour. But then again, maybe sense of humour is universal once you get past the language barriers . . .

I accompanied him back to his house after lunch where i had some tasty vanilla-based tea (actually from the Czech Republic!), listened to him play a few Thai songs on his guitar and then sang along to a few Beetles tracks with him. We then picked up Kai (who'd only just got out of bed, the trek must have tired him out!) and drove up to a couple of silver factories. The jewellery at Banngern Nanthaburi is actually made on site in designs unique to the Nan Province.

Whilst Tao took care of some work-related business, Kai and I wandered around the food market, choosing some ingredients with which to cook a meal tonight round at Tao's. The idea was to teach me how to cook some of my favourite dishes from the trek. We picked out morning glory, garlic, chillies, sweet basil, galangal, lemongrass, kafir lime leaves,various other herbs Kai didn't know the English names for, spring onions, green curry paste, eggplant, pumpkin, baby green pumpkins, tofu, coconut milk, tomatoes, limes and glass noodles and last but certainly not least - delicious papaya.

With our numerous bags from the market in hand, we both caught a motorbike taxi back to Tao's (I was careful how i dismounted this time, as i still have the scar from my Chiang Mai motorbike incident!) and started to prepare the food. Thai kitchens are quite different to kitchens back in the U.K : there is a little square table no more than 12 inches high and everything on here is either prepared whilst sitting on the floor or on a small wicker stool. The gas stove is low enough to be able to stir the contents of the saucepan or wok whilst kneeling down. There is no sink or water tap so if you need to wash your hands you have to go outside, and all washing up is done in cold water on the balcony upstairs, the dirty water either tossed over the balcony on to the garden below or left to run down to one end of the balcony where it will drain, through a small hole, down on to the cement pathway and evaporate in the heat of the sun.

Kai had a good giggle when i mixed too much fish sauce with the morning glory (so he had to add rather a lot of sugar to compensate!) but otherwise we worked well together in the kitchen. when Tao returned, the meal turned out to be a lengthy evening affair due to the fact that - yet again- we had cooked a mountain of food! Tao got his guitar out again after the meal and while he played, the two of us sang Eric Clapton's "Wonderful Tonight". It's one song i used to listen to a long time ago that i can actually still remember all the words to!

The evening finished with an amusing episode involving the three of us trying to cover Tao's cement (it was so humid, he suspected it would rain later) with a cheap plastic hooded rain mac he bought from the market for 10THB, and me passing out on his bamboo sofa because i was so full i didn't even have the energy to move past Tao's front door!

Photo to follow.

Red carpets, arctic swimming & art galleries

Huay Me - Ban Sapan - Nan

I awoke just before 7am to find Tao and Kai already preparing breakfast. Showering was a little more sophisticated this morning : we had a cold water tap in a lockable room with soap and shampoo. We set off around 9am to walk 'the red carpet' (so called as it's a dirt track which weaves its way through the mountains and from a distance looks almost red in colour due to the sediment in the rock). Not long after we left the village, we were caught up by the 60 year lady whom we'd met last night. She was beginning her walk "not very far" (it was actually 3 or 4km) to the nearest stream to catch some fish for her family. She was mending her net with cotton and thread on the way down to the stream. It amazes me how little these people have yet how much they are capable of. It's eye-opening, refreshing and inspiring.

We passed by a Christian church in a local village where a priest was performing a ceremony to bless those who were sick, and also a small bamboo weaving establishment where a lady was making a wicker sunlounger, which she will sell for just 600THB. I would pay at least twice that amount for the level of work and time which goes into the construction of these beautiful pieces of furniture.

We finished our trek back at Ban Sapan, where we made a final 2km hike up to the waterfall to take a refreshing swim. However, once i'd submerged my entire body in the water 'refreshing' was not the word i would have used : the water was so cold it took my breath away! I wondered why Tao and Kai were reluctant to join myself and Mia!

When we arrived back at the village, one of the local families (friends of Tao's) had cooked a huge spread for us : sticky rice, chilli paste, spicy pepper and eggplant sauce, pumpkin, omelete, homegrown crispy white cabbage and local tea. I was so full afterwards that i think i slept through most of the journey to Nan Riverside Art Gallery. I was, however, awake for the stop at the site of Chompoo Phu Kha. It's a tree which only grows in this part of Thailand and for that reason the local people regard it as holy, its trunk decorated with bands of brightly coloured flower garlands to represent this.

Nan Riverside Art Gallery was well worth a visit. The grounds and the buildings within them are designed by local artist, Winai Prabripoo, who also owns the gallery itself. It's situated along the banks of the Nan river, in a very peaceful setting, whilst at the same time being just off the main road, 20km out of Nan. The artwork is a combination of sculpture, buddhist inspired paintings and local landscapes. Tao and I both had a favourite painting we wanted to take home with us : an abstract face melting into the backround it was painted upon.

We finally arrived back at Nan Guesthouse at around 6pm, where i thanked Tao and Kai for a fantastic few days. It really was everything a trek should be : we walked over such a variety of terrain and through diverse and spectacular landscapes, and in the villages i felt part of the environment and its people, rather than just a voyeur.

As we were parting company, Tao invited me for lunch tomorrow. I wasn't entirely sure how i was going to manage to eat any more food after the amount we'd consumed over the last few days, but the two of us got on well together during the trek so i had no reason to refuse his invitation.

I spent the evening perusing the stalls at the market (a monthly event spanning 3 nights and lining the best part of Sumonthewarat Road). Like Nan itself, the market is not really aimed at tourists (i.e there were no stalls selling the usual gifts and handicafts attractive to foreigners) but it was interesting all the same and the prices were a lot lower that at markets in more tourist-orientated towns and cities. They even sold pets there : dogs, rabbits, mice, and the tiniest little Russian hamsters.

There was live music entertainment provided on a stage set up opposite the Dhevaraj Hotel and seating laid out outside the hotel itself. So, when i'd seen all there was to be seen at the market, i sat down at one of the tables, ordered a beer and listened to the Thai music offerings being performed on the nearby stage.

Photo is of a lady weaving a piece of bamboo furniture, just outside Ban Sapan.

Forest scrambles, Htin hospitality & alcoholic desserts!

Ban Huay Tone to Ban Huay Me

We were woken this morning by the sounds of pigs, chickens and dogs, and the (now recognisable) gentle thuds of the rice pounders in operation. The village was a hub of activity by 7am. Mia and I sampled the delights of primitive showering (a cold water tap over a very unstable wooden platform on the side of a hill) before settling down to the huge feast of a breakfast that Kai and Tao had prepared for us.

Today's trek was much more strenuous (a lot of uphill scrambling and downhill sliding, it's a good job we had bamboo sticks to steady our climbs and descents!) but we reached our destination, the Htin village of Huay Me, before 3pm. Whilst climbing the hill up to the top of the village, we encountered one of the male villagers who was already drunk on rice whisky! We subsequently stopped off at one of the village houses where a woman was making the rice whisky. Her husband was crushing balls of yeast (with the blunt end of a macheti), which would then be mixed with the sticky rice and the mixture placed in a bucket with water and left to ferment. We sampled a little of some that had been brewing for approximately 20 days. It tasted like sweet white wine but without the vinegary aftertaste. The couple kindly gave us a bottle to take with us to consume later on this evening.

We were staying at the village school again but this time we were able to obtain keys to the appropriate rooms. The school was situated right at the top of the village, with stunning views of the surrounding mountains from the school grounds. A few of the children were brave enough to play on the swings in our presence, but unfortunately their bravery was transient and they jumped off the swings like frightened rabbits almost as soon as they had summoned the courage to get on them!

A visit to the village shop (a room in one of the village houses which supplies basics like rice and eggs as well as a few sweet snack foods such as sticky rice biscuits and banana chips) followed, after which Tao and Kai began the preparations for this evening's meal. The feat turned into a comedy sketch when Tao mixed whisky into our coconut milk and Taro dessert, instead of water (we'd poured the remaining Thai Lao from last night into an empty water bottle in order to transport it, and he'd obviously got this mixed up withe the actual bottle of water!) The three of us were in stitches for several minutes and even after the liquid had been replaced with the non-alcoholic alternative, the mixture still tasted vaguely of whisky due to the fact that the Taro had already absorbed some of the flavour!

We ate tonights meal in a small open sided room overlooking the mountains : morning glory fried with garlic and chillies, green curry, and a type of Thai cucumber with egg and thai herbs. The chief of the village joined us after the meal, as did the lady we saw making the rice whisky earlier, with her husband, child (who was held in a kind of large sling around the lady's shoulder) and mother. Her mother had visited us earlier on her own and was confiding in Tao about the fact that she did not have enough rice to feed her family. She was such a delicate little lady with a beautiful and interesting face. Full of kindness, she invited us to sleep in her home (as the school would be cold with the lack of outside walls to keep the wind out) but we declined as politely as we could, not wanting to put her under any further strain.

Ok, so our sleeping arrangements were not what you would describe as comfortable but that's part of the adventure of trekking. The three of us (Mia, Kai and myself) slept on a wicker mat in the room where we'd eaten, using our bags as pillows and with a couple of blankets each to keep us warm. Poor Tao slept on a wooden table in the classroom, because he was worried about snoring and keeping the rest of us awake. Bless!

Photo is Tao and Kai trekking through the beautiful mountainous Nan scenery.

Stunning mountains, broken locks and potent whisky!

All credit to Tao and Kai : the last couple of days were a unique, informative, amusing, and fascinating experience. Tao is a first class guide : very knowledgable, very funny, very interesting and a very personable guy. He went out of his way to make Mia and I feel welcome, to treat us as individuals and show an interest is us and our lives, as well as educating us about the lives of the Lua and Htin tribes, whose villages we resided at during our trek.

Ban Sapan to Ban Huay Tone

We began our trek by being driven in tao's brand new truck, to our starting point, Ban Sapan (Sapan Village). We had coffee and lunch before setting off on what would be a moderately difficult 4 hour uphill hike. We crossed streams (well, actually it was the same one - a tributary of the Nan river - 12 times), walked through forests, and up on to the dirt track that wove its way around the edge and finally over the top of the mountain that would lead us down to our first village, Huay Tone (meaning : single stream).

Unlike so many of the other treks i've been on (Nam Rin and Salawin Tours excluded), the walking was broken up with many stops, not so much to allow us to rest, but so that Tao could actually give us some information about the area or tell us a story or simply to allow the four of us to stop and talk for a while. The walking was also not rushed, to allow us to appreciate the landscape and the environment we were passing through. This probably pleased Kai as he was struggling with the hills more than the rest of us!

Kai had really come along as our cook and as Tao's friend but he's studying a Masters degree in agriculture, and forestry & environmental management, so he was a mind of information about plants and flowers and their uses. Mia is also a teacher, specialising in biology and environmental science so between the two of them i was able to learn a huge amount about the local environment and the vegetation which exists within it :

• Mimosa Sesitiva. Looks a little like a fern (probably from the same family). When you touch its leaves, they close up like a defense mechanism and stay like this for 10 minutes.
• Banana Flower. Useful for the relief of muscle pain
• Coriander leaf. Used extensively in Thai cooking. Dark green in colour and has long leaves with spiky edges.
• Elephant Screaming. A kind of nettle. Creates an itchy rash if you touch it.

When we arrived at the village, Tao bought us some coconut macaroon sweets from the village shop to replace the sugar we'd lost through hours of walking in the intense heat. The sun hadn't been shining but was still warming us intensely through the clouds.

The Lua Tribe

The Lua people originated from the Lawa tribe. They practice swidden agriculture as well as wet-rice cultivation and favour villages on the crests of hills. The women may wear costumes that have blue tunics and skirts to below the knees as well as a turban, but the men dress ordinarily.

We were to stay at the school at the top of the village, as the teacher was away on holiday. There was a minor glitch though : the teacher had forgotten to leave the keys with anyone in the village, so although breaking into the kitchen was essential (Tao says it's not the first lock he's had to break in one of the villages!), we persuaded him against breaking the shower room door as well!

The 4 of us had a lovely meal out on the balcony adjacent to the kitchen, sitting on a wicker mat around a small wooden table. Kai is an excellent cook, and it's not that the dishes he makes are complicated, it's that he knows which flavours taste good together and exactly how much to use of each ingredient. As i'm vegetarian, Tao made sure we all ate meat-free meals for the duration of the trek. Despite making me feel a little guilty, it was a nice gesture on his part. Mia certainly didn't mind : she was enjoying the food just as much as i was. It's quite strange when i dwell on the fact, but Mia is more than twice my age yet we got on fantastically, and she was an intelligent and interesting travel companion.

After the meal, when Tao embarked upon a blanket hunt, he returned with an invitation from one of the villagers. Although the majority of them were not very receptive to strangers, one family had not only answered Tao's blanket plea, but also offered us a room in their house for the night (sleeping in the school would mean no outside walls to keep out the cold) and provided us with matresses to sleep on. Furthermore, the head of the family produced 2 bottles of rice whisky (similar to Lao Lao and tasted almost as potent!) and invited us to join him and his family. So we did the rounds with the Thai Lao, accompanied by Mia's bag of cashew nuts and Kai's amusing 'drinking water out of a dog's bowl due to the shortage of glasses' antics!

Photo is of the view from the school in the Lua village of Huay Tone

Temple tour of Nan

The Nan Province

Only 25% of the land in the Nan province is arable, as most of the province is covered by heavily forested mountains : at 2000m Doi Phu Kha is the highest peak. The majority of the province's inhabitants live in the Mae Nam Nan valley and are agriculturally employed, growing sticky rice, beans, corn, tobacco and vegetables in the fertile river plains. Nan is also famous for its Som Sii Thawng (golden skinned oranges)

Nan is a lot larger and more comercialised than i'd imagined. I'd wrongly assumed that Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai were the only places of significant size in northern Thailand and that everywhere else was a (relatively) sleepy little rural town.

I cannot quite believe that - bustling city as it is - Nan remains almost untouched by tourism. It reminded me of being in Tokyo when i tried to find somewhere to eat breakfast this morning : none of the few eateries i did encounter had English menus and none of the staff could speak English. I tried to use the Thai for the foods i know but that unfortunately received a "no have" response or no response at all! I was shown the food on offer in Mui Mui but there were dubious meat looking chunks floating around in all of the dishes and i didn't want to risk accidently becoming a meat eater again!

Through some effective advertising around the city, i subsequently found Hot Bread, which is actually only a couple of minutes walk from Nan Guesthouse, where i'm staying. It's only a small establishment, but it's got lovely wicker tables and chairs in a semi-outdoor setting, and is decorated with plants, artwork and books. The menus are in English, the food is a mixture of Thai and continental, the staff are friendly, and you are serenaded to the sounds of traffic in one ear and Tracey Chapman in the other.

Fortuantely they hire bikes out too, which saved me having to go on another walking tour around Nan's city streets. As Nan seems to have an abundance of temples i decided to take a tour of a selected few of them :

• NEUNG : Wat Phra That Changkham Woraviharn. It's main features are the sculpted upper halves of elephants adorning around the Chedi, a Sukhothai influence. Stones were found on the site with ancient Thai scripts written upon them, relating to the alliance between the kings of Nan and Sukhothai when Nan was still and independent state.
• SAWNG : Wat Hua Kuang. Houses a group of religios buildings that reflect genuine Lanna style. The department of Fine Arts declared it a National Historic site on the 12/08/1980
• SAAM : Wat Phumin. Nan's most famous temple is celebrated for its cruciform bot that was constructed in 1596 and restored during the reign of Chao Anantovorapitthidet.
• SII : Wat Phayawat. An ancient religious site, it has rectangular Chedi bases on which Buddha statues are placed around the Chedi structure.
• HAA : Wat Phra That Kao Noi. This pagoda is situated on the top of Khao Noi Hill, Ban Khu Nai, 2 kms. west of the centre of Nan. The hill is 800 feet high and offers a great view of Nan and the surrounding valleys. There is also a large gold walking buddha image which overlooks the valley.
• HOK : Wat Ming Muang. Also the site of the city pillar, Lak Muang. The inside of the temple is elaborately decorated with modern murals showing various aspects of Lanna life.
• JET : Wat Sunatan. Enshrines a Buddha image known as Phra Chao Thong cast by a king of Chiang Mai in 1450. A grand celebration featuring a spectacular firework display takes place at this temple every year during the Songkran festival.
• PAET : Wat Phra That Chae Hang. This is the most sacred wat in the Nan province. It features a 55 metre-high golden Chedi containing a holy Relic from Sukhothai.

Whilst wrestling with the lock on my bike up at Wat Phra That Chae Hang, I was approached by a Swedish lady called Marianne (Mia for short) who recognised me from the guesthouse. We chatted about sightseeing in the area and she mentioned that the landlady of our guesthouse, Lyette, has a good friend who is a tour guide and asked if i was interested in joining her on a trek with him. What perfect timing! I'd just about given up all hope of doing a trek here, as, for the second day in a row, F.U tours (the company recommended by Lonely Planet and the only tourand trekking agent i've seen in Nan) are sorry, they "no have people."

After eating dinner at Hot Bread (where incidently they make the most gorgeous lemon juice drink), i returned to the guesthouse to have a chat with Mia and our guide-to-be, Tao. The 3 of us got on fantastically so i have good expectations about this trek. We start tomorrow at 9am, for our 3 day, 2 night trek into the very north eastern part of the Nan province.

Photo is of chedi at Wat Phayawat, Nan

Back in Thailand . .

After I'd crossed the Lao/Thai border back into Chiang Khong and boarded the bus headed for Chiang Rai, I contemplated what I'll miss about Laos . . .

1. Lao coffee. Both Arabica and Robusta are grown in Laos, on the high flat ground of the Bolivian Plateau, a region which is renowned for producing some of the best and most expensive bean on earth. If you drink it true Lao style, you drink it with sweet (or condensed as we know it) milk in place of milk and sugar. James will agree with me 100%, it's one of Lao's true gems . .
2. Sticky rice and chilli paste.
3. The absense of 7-11 stores!
4. The abundance of cats. Laotians respect and love their cats, and unlike their dogs, they won't be serving cute little kitty up for dinner!
5. The jovial greeting of "Sabaii-dii" from every Lao child you pass
6. The remoteness. Places like Nong Khiaw, Muang Ngoi, Luang Nam Tha and Muang Sing are (at present) very much unaffected by tourism and remain very rural once you leave the main street(s)

What I definitely won't miss :

1. The lack of ATM's
2. The lack of street stalls selling ready to eat fresh fruit. This is compensated for by the number of street stalls selling dough-based deep fried sweets, which don't look as good on the hips as pineapple and papaya!
3. The currency

Arrival in Chiang Rai

I'm warming to Chiang Rai : I think you have to get to know the place, which I didn't allow myself time to do the first time around. Whilst wandering Chiang Rai's streets, I found myself walking down Jet Yot Road and found some lovely eateries (had lunch at Siam Corner) along there, and the road which runs parallel to it, Phahonyothin Road. These two streets are also lined with bars, the Night Bazaar runs off Phahonyothin Road, and the bus station is only a little further. The guesthouses listed in this vicinity are a little more expensive but in retrospect the extra 50-100THB would have been a worthwhile investment.

I walked to Wat Phra Kaew (the city's most revered temple) in the afternoon. Legend says that in 1434 lightening struck the temple's stupa, which fell apart to reveal the Phra Kaew Morakot (Emerald Buddha), which is actually made of Jade. After spending some time in Vientiane (Laos), the national talisman is now housed in the temple of the same name, in Bangkok.

Also worthy of a visit is Wat Klang Wiang, which is not only a beautiful temple in itself, but the grounds of the temple are also very serene : there are many colourful flowers and plants and a pond containing turtles and (at least one) catfish!

I continued on to the Hilltribe Museum & Education Centre, primarily as it's the location of PDA Tours and Travel (all profits from the tours here goes directly to community development projects within the local villages) and I was interested to see if there were any tours woth me sticking around for. Unfortunately the only one running tomorrow, interesting as it sounded, was a tour in which you are driven to and from your destinations. I prefer to be a little closer to the environment I'm surrounded by as well as merely the attractions within in, so it didn't really appeal to me and my walking shoes.

I did, however, have a look around the museum, which I'd thoroughly recommend to anyone who's got an interest in the hilltribes, their customs, culture and beliefs. The 6 tribes explored here are Hmong, Akha, Karen, Lisu, Lahu and Mien. There's also a large section on the history of the Opium trade, which makes for interesting reading.

In the evening I wandered around the Night Bazaar (which sells a variety of handicarfts, jewelry and clothes, as well as having plenty of food stalls and a large seating area) and ate at a restaurant right opposite called Aye's. It's a popular place, has heaps of atmosphere, outdoor and indoor seating areas and very efficient service. It's also one of the few places open at 7:30am for breakfast (as I discovered the next morning!)

Chiang Rai to Nan

I picked up a book from a second hand bookshop I found last night just off Phahonyothin Road, called "Off The Rails In Phnom Penh" by Amit Gilboa. Informative as they are, the concept of reading my Lonely Planet guides countless times had begun to lose it's appeal quite a few weeks ago . .

This novel is based on the author's experiences when he spent some time living in Phnom Penh in 1996/1997. I'm in no doubt that the city has seen a lot of changes in nearly 10 years, but I'll be interested to learn about the structure of the city and its people before these changes came about, so that I have a means of comparison to use when I visit. I'll also be interested to learn how, in 1996, Cambodia and its citizens were recovering from the effects of losing between 1 & 2 million, of its population of around 7 million, to starvation, disease, overwork or execution during the Khmer Rouge genocide. Hardest hit were professionals : teachers, doctors, skilled workers, monks and artists - essentially all the people that contemporary Cambodia desperately needed in order to rebuild its shattered economy, society and culture. Even at the time of writing "Off The Rails in Phnom Penh", the city was still in a state of civil unrest. The author explains how "disconcerting [it was] to have combatants within sight and within gunfire range of [his] porch."

I had intended for my 250THB purchase to be an intellectual accompaniment to my beer Chang for the next few evenings, however as soon as I opened the first page as the bus pulled out of Chiang Rai bus station, the author - through this fantastic piece of writing - managed to intrigue me, capture my attention and imagination, and pull me directly into the "dark heart of guns, girls and ganja" that is Phnom Penh. Before we even reached Nan, I had read the last page of the novel and I was back on the rails : back to the sounds of a struggling engine, crunching gears, and Thai conversation; back to the sights of the back of a wrinkled blue leather seat stained with stale chewing gum, windows plastered with flamboyant posters illustrating an animated Thai rock band, and glimpses of hills, trees and the odd village we passed through; back to the growing awareness of the fact that I couldn't feel my arse and my neck hurt due to having my head in a book for the last few hours!

Photo to follow

Lazy days and overcrowded buses

According to the laminated brochure which rests on the wicker tables at KNT, I have seen the majority of Luang Nam Tha's attractions already. I contemplated visiting the sacred forests near the Black Tai villages, which are basically the village cemeteries. The Black Tai bury the dead under small houses stocked with items they will need in the afterlife. However, I decided that wandering around a forest full of dead people was not really on my list of priorities when I came to Laos!

Instead I wandered to the Black Tai village of Tong Ja Tai, which is situated on the banks of the Nam Tha. I found a pleasant spot of grass by the river, soaked up the sun for a while, wrote this journal and watched the Black Tai children playing in the water.

I had a late lunch at Heuan Lao Restaurant before completing the only other task on KNT's list that I'd not yet accomplished. I climbed the naga staircase on the hill behind the Hongthaxay Hotel, to the north of Luang Nam Tha. I was a little early for sunset but from the top of the hill there's a good view of Luang Nam tha town and the surrounding valleys.

Luang Nam Tha - Huay Xai (60,000KIP)

I dropped by the bus station yesterday to check the times of the buses down to Huay Xai today. There was a whiteboard with Lao script on it but next to the words "Huay Xai" was written "07:00" and "09:30", which I assumed to be the departure times. However, when I arrived at the bus station at 6:30 this morning to buy my ticket, I was informed that 7am is the time you have to show up to be guaranteed a seat on the bus; the bus doesn't actually leave until 9:30!!

When I returned from the market (where I bought some bananas and strange coconut/rice sweets for the journey) at 7:15, the only remaining seats were plastic chairs in the aisle, and sure enough all of these were taken by 7:30! The bus ended up departing half an hour early, at 9am, although I'm not even sure why it had to wait around for an hour and a half when we couldn't physically fit any more passengers inside the vehicle.

The journey was a tough one : when I'd read that the road was in the process of being improved, I didn't realize the work was being carried out along the entire stretch from Luang Nam Tha to Huay Xai. The roads were very uneven and very much unfinished, so much so that there was so much dust around we had to keep the windows shut. With the absence of fans inside the bus and a seriously overcrowded vehicle, you can imagine how unbearable the heat was.

On the plus side, the road to Huay Xai weaves it's way through some picturesque mountains so there's some beautiful scenery along the way, if you can see it through the dust being thrown off the stony surface beneath!

After hearing stories from other travelers about how gruelling this journey is and that it takes at least 10 hours, I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Keo Champa bus station (2km from Huay Xai) after just 8 and a half. At 5:30, we'd arrived at just the right time to watch the sun setting over the Mekong from our tuk tuk, as it transported us to our final destination of Huay Xai.

I checked into the Huay Xai Guesthouse and went for a bite to eat at Nutpop. I'd been tempted to try this place due to it having a "long Lao menu" according to Lonely Planet. Indeed it has but unfortunately not much of it is in English!

Photo to follow.

Drug deals, dirt roads and pagodas

I had a very odd encounter over breakfast this morning. An Akha lady approached me whilst I was finishing my coffee in The Banana Cafe and attempted to sell me the usual Akha wares (wrist bands decorated with various beads and painted seeds). When I said no she discreetly opened her shoulder bag to reveal a huge bag of weed, which she offered me instead! It didn't really sink in at the time just how surreal the whole experience was : member of local village tribe operating a shady undercover drug deal in street cafe! It was reminiscent of James's arrival in Laos when he was offered opium or women (or both!) at every corner as he walked the streets of Luang Prabang.

After my surreal breakfast, I hired a bike for the day (10,000KIP) and firstly cycled up to the Hmong Village of Hat Yao. According to the information in my Lonely Planet guide, it's an E.U Co-operative where the villagers sell a range of handicrafts - textiles, basketry, jewelry, and some clothing - at fixed prices. However I spent a good 30 minutes wandering around the village and couldn't find these handicrafts being sold. I even asked a couple of the villagers using the Lao word for 'shop', but I simply received vacant looks in response. So I can only assume that the village project is now defunct . . .

I subsequently began the 9km journey to That Phum Phuk, a large stupa atop a hill surrounded by rice fields. When it was originally built in 1628 it was the most respected and famous pagoda in the Nam Tha district. However, during the 2nd Indochina war, a bomb explosion knocked the jehdii (Lao name for Buddhist stupa) on it's side, where it remains undisturbed. In 2003 a new stupa was constructed and dedicated beside the ruins of old, and it is this gold structure that can be seen from the incredibly uneven dirt road running south from Luang Nam Tha.

The journey was well worth making, as much for the scenery and slices of village life along the way as for the actual stupa and the views from the top of the naga staircase that leads up to it.

After stopping off at The Boat House Landing Restaurant for some more of my favourite chilli paste (Jeow Mak Ken) and sticky rice, I cycled east across the Nam Tha to Ban Pa Sak. This is a Tai Dam village where you are - supposedly - able to observe Tai Dam silk weaving in action. Unfortunately when I arrived there wasn't a lot of action going on : the weaving looms were all in place but the weaver was fast asleep beside her loom!

If you don't mind the bad roads (which can be a little painful on your arse and the palms of your hands), Luang Nam Tha is a lovely area to cycle around : it's very flat, the scenery is very lush and green and there are many villages scattered around the town within a 10km radius, which is easily accessible on two wheels.

Luang Nam Tha Recommendations

Best food (and at very reasonable prices as it's off the main drag) : Panda Restaurant

Other recommendations :

Banana Cafe : you always see the same faces in here so it's a great place to strike up a conversation with fellow travelers. For food, the service is reasonably quick and the portions are large. Their menu also features the most original spelling for scrambled eggs that I've seen so far : "sceembli egg"

KNT : you can grab a bite to eat, check your emails and do a spot of shopping, all in the same vicinity. Fantastic!

Photo is of That Phum Phuk and surrounding rice fields, Luang Nam Tha.

Trek to the Sida and Lenten tribes

Luang Nam Tha

Luang Nam Tha is a mountainous province which is home to 39 different ethnic minorities. It is also home to the Nam Ha National protected area (NPA), a 2224sq.km area of dense evergreen and semi-evergreen submontane forests, which is home to many species of animals and birds. 22% of the province's population are Buddhists, with the majority of the population practising various forms of ancestor and spirit worship. Luang Nam Tha itself is a major trading centre for commerce between China, Thailand and Laos.

Here in Luang Nam Tha i had to settle for another one day trek as yet again there was a shortage of people signed up for a 2 or 3 day excursion. The trek on offer was to the Sida tribe, the same one Joy undertook a few days beforehand, and which she had thoroughly enjoyed.

Today got off to a bit of a bad start : i arrived at the Green Discovery office to pay the remaining balance on my trek and the price had gone up overnight from $18 to $24. Obviously i disputed the difference, and was informed that $18 is the price if there are 4 or more people participating and there are only 3. I pointed out that i wasn't disputing whether or not $24 was the correct price, but that the price i was quoted was $18 and i should not have to pay for the salesperson's mistake in quoting the wrong price to me. Maybe it's years of working in sales and customer service that makes me more intolerable to bad customer service, but as a salesperson, you cannot quote a price to someone, make a sale based on that price and then put the price up and expect your customer to be happy with it! I even offered to meet the guy half way and pay $21 (which is what he should have done for me at the very least) but he wouldn't budge. I had to pay an extra $6 or lose $10 (which was the deposit i'd paid). So reluctantly i paid the extra.

The other 2 people on my trek were a young couple, Andy and Kylie from Sunderland (just in the UK!), who'd been travelling since December the 2nd and had already passed through Malaysia, thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China before arriving in Laos. After travelling Asia, they're off to Australia on a 12 month working visa, and this is all part of a 'career break' with Barclays Bank! The lucky b*****ds are still getting paid bonuses and they left their jobs in October!

There was a lot more walking involved in today's trek, the majority through a jungle environment, with the cover of a variety of lush green plants and trees. We crossed several streams, one of which i managed to fall into when i lost my footing on the makeshift bridge! After about 3 hours of moderately tough walking, we stopped for lunch by the side of a small pathway leading to the Sida village which we would visit afterwards. Our guide Si laid out some banana leaves to use as a table and chairs and we shared a meal very similar to yesterday's : sticky rice and accompanying sauces and dips.

At the village we were allowed to walk around for a short time, the three of us all captivated by the sight of several recently new born puppies struggling to walk very steadily on their tiny paws. However the majority of our 1-2 hour visit was spent sat up at the school. Our guide did encourage us to ask questions but i would have preferred a more thorough tour of the village and some time to simply witness these people interacting with each other in their natural environment. For about half an hour our guide was actually asleep in the sun whilst Andy, Kylie and i discussd the concept of drinking snake blood and eating your dog!

The last 2 hours of the trek were mostly downhill and finished up at the Lenten village of Ban Nam Di, 6km north east of Luang Nam Tha. The villagers practice the art of bamboo papermaking. They turn bamboo into pulp along the banks of the Nam Di adjacent to the village, and then spread the pulp into thin sheets over square cotton screens to produce a rustic papaer on which they record religious literature. The paper is also used extensively in the handicraft industry.

I did enjoy the trek but our guide, conscientious as he was for the most part, had only worked for Green Discovery for 3 months - and it showed. We arrived back in Luang Nam Tha at around 4pm so i spent a couple of hours sat outside in the sun at KMT (handicraft shop/internet cafe/eating establishment) drinking Lao coffee and watching the world go by.

Photo is of a basket weaver at the Sida village, Near Luang Nam Tha

The Akha experience

Today was great fun, but unfortuantely, due to the other three guys on the trek (an Israeli, a German and a Frenchman) needing to catch the last songthaew back to Luang Nam Tha, our trek was cut short by the best part of two hours. In my opinion they shouldn't have booked the trek if they weren't going to be around for the duration. At the very least, Joy and i should have been informed about the situation upon booking the trek ourselves.

Negative aspects aside, we had a good crowd of people, a reasonably well-informed guide, Kiaow, and some fantastic Akha children, which was one of the highlights for me. We caught a songthaew to the first Akha village, where our guide gave us some backround information about the various Akha tribes in the area and about the structure of the village. We had a good bit of time to wander around the village and to capture the curious but wary children on camera.

Kiaow explained to us that if we wished to photograph any of the adults, we must ask permission first, as some of the villagers are very reluctant to let you photograph them due to their animist beliefs. Animists believe that there is a spirit inside all of us (our Khwan) and some think that by taking a photograph we are stealing that spirit from them.

We trekked to the second Akha village through forsets and rice fields. Here the children (as most of the adults were out at work in the rice fields) were a lot friendlier and more openly curious about our presence. Joy and i initiated a game of 'paper scissors stone' with one of the boys, counted to 10 with him in Lao and then began to talk to him in English, broken with the occasional Lao word or expression. Once the rest of the children spotted this, they all began to crowd around, wanting to join in.

The children's interest was really arisen when our guide was talking us through the details of the Akha attire and customs. He proceeded to point at my lip piercing and talk to the children in Lao. Presumably what he was explaining was that my piercing is representative of my culture, just as their headdress/clothing/jewellery are of theirs. Either way, they were completely absorbed, even more so when i poked my tongue out at them to reveal my psychedellic tongue bar. Stefan (the Frenchman) also had his tongue pierced so the next few minutes consisted of the children poking their tongues out at us, us returning the gesture, the children making faces of disgust and saying "eeurrgh!", but wanting us to do it all over again! We then injected a bit of education into the fun, teaching them the English names for parts of the body, almost to the point where we had a bit of a song going.

I really didn't want to say goodbye to these kids, nor they us. They followed us all the way down to the bottom of the hill which lead us out of the village, waving and shouting the generic "Sabaii-dii!". We eventually bid farewell to their smiling faces as we crossed the stream and continued on into the forest on the other side.

The walk to the third village consisted of some tougher uphill trekking, but without the shade of the trees as they had all been chopped down (through encouragement from the government) to make way for the planting of rice and rubber trees. The third village was a Hmong village, dirtier, chubbier children but oozing charm and fighting for their space in front of the lens.

We walked a little further from this village to have our (late) lunch by a picturesque little pond, before catching the songthaew back to Muang Sing. Joy and i decided that as the trek had finished early we'd catch the songthaew with the guys, so she would be able to leave for Huay Xai the next morning and i would (hopefully) have an extra day trekking in Luang Nam Tha.

We got back to Luang Nam Tha around 5pm, checked into the Darasavath Guesthouse ($2 each) and went out for dinner at the Manychan Restaurant.

Photo is of one of the many adorable little Akha children we met on our trek, Muang Sing.

The long journey from Vang Vieng to Muang Sing

I got up early this morning (even before the staff at my guesthouse were awake so i had to leave my key and $6 under the front desk!) with the intention of catching the first bus of the day up to Luang Prabang, as i know how difficult James said it was to find accommodation when he first arrived. I should have realised, as the bus companies seem to have done, that i was in the party capital of Laos, as the first bus didn't leave until 9am. So i had an hour and a half to kill, which i chose to spend at the Organic Mulberry Cafe grabbing a spot of breakfast and reading an interseting article on anarchy, which was handed to me by a traveller sat at the only other occupied table in the establishment.

The bus journey was by mini bus (as it appears that public buses do not run the Vang Vieng - Luang Prabang route) so $8 and 7 hours later i was back in Lunag Prabang - for the third time! I was not really in the mood for socialising this evening but the Japanese guy, Endi, who i was talking to when we stopped for lunch, decided to jump into the same tuk tuk as me, check into the same guesthouse and then ask me out to dinner. As i was only in Luang Prabang for one night, it seemed rude to refuse. So we ate at a restaurant right opposite the bakery on Sisavangvong Road, with the bubbliest, dizziest, and most enthusiastic waitress i've had the pleasure of encountering.

Luang Prabang - Udomaxi - Luang Nam Tha

I shared my breakfast table this morning with the tiniest little kitten. He hopped up on to my lap, paws on the table, peered over my bowl of noodle soup and stayed there until the cafe owner spotted him, picked him up by the scruff of his neck and deposited him rather carelessly into a back room.

When i got to the bus station, it soon became apparent that there was no bus directly to Luang Nam Tha from Luang Prabang : it involved a change at Udomaxi. Due to getting off the bus at the 1st toilet stop, i lost my seat and had the pleasure of being stuck on a small plastic stool in the aisle for the remainder of the 5 hour journey.

This was followed by a 2 hour wait at Udomaxi and another 4 hour bus journey to Luang Nam Tha (total cost 63,000KIP), which meant arriving at our destination at 8pm. Luang Nam Tha is not very well lit at night so i chaecked into the first guesthouse i spotted, The Bus Station Guesthouse ($3.50 for bamboo hut with private bathroom). I managed to find somewhere to eat (The Panda Restaurant) but the only internet cafe i'd seen on my way in had shut down by 9pm - as had most of the town.

Luang Nam Tha - Muang Sing

Had a bit of a wander around Luang Nam Tha's Morning Market before catching the Songthaew (17,000KIP, 1.5hrs) to Muang Sing. I checked into the Thi-Lu Guesthouse for $2 per night (not quite as cheap as sharing with James in Muang Ngoi but for the equivalent of 1.12 i have my own private bathroom, albeit with a very cold shower!) and then sampled their restaurant food for lunch. I had Mak Kaew, which is a local peppery chilli paste with vegetables for dipping and sticky rice. It's the only restaurant in Muang Sing that serves this dish (apparently) and i shall be asking whether i can buy some to take with me!

Muang Sing

Muang Sing sits on the river plains of the Mam La, 10km from the Chinese border. Muang Sing is a traditional Thai Lu and Thai Neua cultural nexus as well as a trade centre for Thai Dam, Akha, Hmong, Mien, Lolo and Yunnanese. The town itself is dominated by Thai-Lu (30% of total) and the surrounding hills by Akha (45% of total).

This afternoon i did a walking tour of the town, a town which i expected to be over-run with tourists due to the fact that it seems to be earning a reputation among travelers as THE place to go trekking in Laos. However once you leave the main street, Muang Sing is incredibly rural : little bamboo huts with thatched roofs, women washing their hair in the street with a huge wooden bucket of water, little children staring at you like they've never seen another foreigner before, and the older ones approaching you to practice their English and wanting to know everything about you. There wasn't another tourist in sight until i reached the Muang Sing Tourist Information & Trekking Guide Service Centre.

I had planned to do a 2 day trek here but the agency, in a bid to protect the environment and control the impact of toursim on the local villages, will not run treks AT ALL unless the appropriate number of people show an interest. Even then, they will only run treks to certain areas on certain days. No-one had shown an interest in a 2 day trek for tomorrow and in keeping with the eco-tourism bid, there was only one 1 day trek on offer.

Whilst enquiring about the trek, i got chatting to an Australian lady, Joy (who i'd imagine was a bit of a hippy in her day) who was also interested in the same trek. For $10 we both decided to go ahead and book it, went for coffee together afterwards (oh how i love Lao coffee!) and i joined her for dinner later at the Viengxay Restaurant.

Photo is of a typical street scene in Muang Sing.

Tubing down the Nam Song

Full day trekking, Caving and Tubing with Riverside Tours

Cost : $15 but I think it drops to around $10 if more than 4 people sign up

I did contemplate exactly how exciting the whole experience would be on my own but on the other hand, I didn't have a lot of choice based on the limited time I had in Vang Vieng.

To be completely honest, I'm not sure Riverside Tours should be in the Lonely Planet guidebook. I enjoyed the tubing immensely but the remainder of the tour was hugely let down by the fact that my guide only had a limited grasp of the English language. My questions received replies but rarely answers giving me the information I'd requested. Maybe I was spoilt with Dam at Nam Rin Tours in Mae Hong Son (Thailand) but the purpose of a tour guide is to provide you with a bit of backround information about the places you have come to see, to inject a bit of fun into the day and to satisfactorily answer any questions you pose. A good tour guide will totally enrich the experience for you. All mine kept telling me was how "beautiful" everything was, a fact I'd already been quite capable of noticing myself.

Firstly we visited Tham Hoi and Tham Loup. Tham Loup was the more interesting of the two, with some impressive stalacmites and stalactites. we then went on a short trek to reach Tham Nam (water cave), so named because a tributary of the Nam Song flows out of its entrance. The water was shallow enough to be able to wade through the cave, but dragging yourself through the tunnel on a fixed rope whilst sitting in a huge inflatable rubber ring was a lot more fun!

I had lunch at Ban Tham Sang with a group of others (2 Canadian guys, 2 Swedish girls and an English guy) who were on a kayaking trip, and I started to wish I'd done kayaking instead . . .

After lunch we had a brief look around the Elephant Cave (a cave which contains Buddha images, a Buddha footprint and an elephant shaped stalactite that gives the cave it's name) before walking (it could hardly be called a trek) to one of the local villages to watch women doing embroidery and children scrambling around on a bamboo raft on the river.

We then caught a Songthaew to Phoudindaeng Organic Farm (near Vang Vieng) to complete a 3km tubing trip down the Nam Song. Tubing down this stretch of the Nam Song has become so popular with backpackers passing through Vang Vieng that several 'bars' have been set up along the banks of the river.

Tubing is an extremely fun and chilled out way to spend an afternoon : floating down the Nam Song in the blazing sunshine to the sounds of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Bob Marley. On the journey downstream you'll see crowds of people queuing up to do 'water jumping', which basically involves climbing a bamboo ladder up to a platform and then swinging like a trapeeze artist over the river before deciding at which point you want to let go and make your impressive splash in the water.

There are also tourists who have succumbed to the incessant shouts of "Beer Lao, Beer Lao!" and are sat on the banks of the Nam Song enjoying their liquid refreshment and watching their fellow tubers float on by. Residents of the scattering of guesthouses (i.e. bamboo huts) that have been set up right on the river as you get closer to Vang Vieng, are sunning themselves on their bamboo balconies. There are fishermen (and women) wading through the water with their nets, and then there are the Lao children playing in the water. You get the odd Lao child clinging on to your rubber ring or trying to pull you down stream, and then asking you for money for doing so! The little entrepreneurs!

Final thoughts on Vang Vieng

Come here for the stunning scenery that surrounds this little traveler's mecca. Come here if you want to follow the hoards of other tourists and spend your days tubing or kayaking down the Nam Song. Come here if you want to be able to drink well into the early hours of the morning (the bar owners do not close their doors until you are the last person to leave!) or if you want to spend your evenings getting high with friends in one of the numerous bars serving space shakes and pizzas, or simply selling bags of the herbs they sprinkle on top of your Margherita! Don't come here if you want to escape tourists (Vang Vieng is riddled with them!), westernisation, football or episodes of Friends!

Photo is of two Lao women with large melons!

Arrival in Vang Vieng

Vientiane - Vang Vieng (4.5 hrs 20,000 KIP)

The first thing i noticed when i arrived in Vang Vieng was the stunning scenery that provides a backdrop to this little town. The second thing i noticed when i left the bus station was that i'd walked on to a construction site! This is 10 times worse than what i saw in Luang Prabang : there are huge gaping holes between the road and the pathway (if you can call it a pathway!), there are huge piles of rubble, half-dry cement, and the continuous noise from the construction vehicles which occupy every road in this very small town.

The town is a strange mix of traditional village life and extreme urbanisation and westernisation : almost every cafe (and there are plenty of them) is advertising western food and when you look inside they are filled with Westerners fixated on the T.V in front of them, watching endless episodes of Friends. Lonely Planet did not lie!

Seeing not a lot else to do in this town other than join this zombie nation, i decided to take a walk over to the other side of one of the bamboo bridges that cross the Nam Song. For this priviledge i had to pay 2000 KIP! Over the other side of the bridge was a sign to Lusi cave (2km). I followed the arrows directing me on a pathway through ricefields and towards the limestone mountains that surround Vang Vieng. After approximately 30 minutes of walking i came to a small opening through some trees. I paid my 5000KIP to the guy at the entrance and proceeded to begin a very precarious climb up some rocks and very unstable bamboo ladders. In parts there was a sheer drop below the rocks and no safety fence, and if i'd have lost my footing i may not be here to tell the tale.

At the top , yes there was a stunning view of the countryside surrounding Vang Vieng but not a cave in sight. I'm not sure what kind of con was going on here with the non-existent cave but it certainly wasn't a very safe one!

This evening i followed Lonely Planet's recommendation to eat at The Organic Mulberry cafe. However, not only had they run out of mulberry shakes at the Mulberry cafe but the waiters didn't seem to know whether they were coming or going : i ended up with about 4 drinks when i'd only ordered one! Moreover, the food took about 40 minutes to arrive, although it was very tasty when it did eventually do so.

After eating i booked a caving, tubing a trekking excursion for tomorrow and went in search of a bar that didn't have a T.V, and a very empty search it turned out to be. All the pretty little drinking establishments i'd seen earlier on down by the river seemed to have already said goodbye to their last customers. My best option seemed to be the Keomani Restaurant, a popular bar with seating on the floor, mood lighting provided by little paper lanterns, and the words Magic Mushrooms grafitied flamboyantly on the wall. However, what really sold it to me was the fact that the chilled out music was playing loud enough to drown out the football on T.V.

I spent the evening in the Keomani getting drunk to the sounds of The Red Hot Chilli Peppers with a long-haired German hippy called Dominic, and eventually stumbled back to my guesthouse at 3am, contemplating the fact that i had to be awake for an activity-filled day within the next 5hrs!

Photo is a view of Vang Vieng's limestone mountains, as viewed from the other side of the bamboo bridge.

10 hours on a bus to the 'Sandlewood City'

Vientiane

Vientiane means 'Sandlewood City'. It is actually pronounced "Wieng Chan", Wieng means 'city' or 'place with walls' in Lao and Chan is the Lao pronounciation of the Sanskrit "Chandana', meaning 'sandlewood.' Vientiane was originally one of the early Lao city states that were consolidated around A.D 1000. It has since been controlled by the Vietnamese, Burmese, Siamese and Khmers, before becoming a French protectorate in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century Vientiane was named the capital of Laos and it remains so under communist rule today.

I took the very enduring 10 hour bus journey down to the capital, complete with the normal random toilet stops by the side of the road when there's a village only a few kilometres further. I spent half the journey sat on the back seat next to (what was presumably and hopefully) the security guard on the bus, who's gun was laid across his lap, the piston facing in my direction. For the second half of the journey i had to tolerate a Lao guy (who squeezed himself in between me and the man with the gun) continually falling asleep on my shoulder. After moving his head on about 20 occasions, only to have it return to my shoulder as soon as the bus turned a bend, i simply had to let him sleep, as every other seat on the bus was occupied.

Once i arrived in Vientiane i had a quick scout around for an ATM but with no avail, so i spent the evening aimlessly wandering Vientiane's streets, thinking about how much i detest the Lao currency, and finally retiring to my bed - early.

The Lao Currency

Even though USD are legal tender in Laos, you are always given your change in KIP, and the majority of Exchange booths will only issue KIP in exchange for USD travellers cheques, so pretty soon after entering the country you will find yourself having to deal in KIP. The lowest denomination KIP note is 1000, which is equivalent to 6p; the highest denomination KIP note is equivalent to 1.12. so this creates 2 problems :

1. You always have a huge wad of money with you, even if you're only carrying 10 pounds
2. Due to the fact that you always have a huge wad of money with you, it gives you the misleading impression that you actually have lots of money, when really you only have 10 pounds!

Eureka!

The international ATM in Vientiane is on Pangkham Road, on the same side as the vegetarian cafe 'Just For Fun.' The only glitch is that the maximum withdrawl at any one time is 700,000 which is approximately 40 pounds. As a result of this i had to make several visits to the ATM and subsequently incur several commission charges.

With my money situation sorted, i grabbed a mango shake at Just For Fun and formulated a plan for the day. I walked up to the Lao Immigration office to extend my 15 day visa : with the detour down to Vientiane, the logistics of me making it up to Muang Sing, doing a trek AND making it out of the country before the 22nd were nigh on impossible.

Visa Extension

I made my application just after 9am, and it was ready for me to collect by 3pm. It costs $2 per day but if you're paying in KIP they add a nice little commission charge on top.

As i was in the district, i walked across to the Morning Market. There are hundreds upon hunderds of silk woven scarves and skirts for sale but not much else in the way of handicrafts. The food, however, was fantastic. I had one of the tastiest noodle soups i've eaten whilst in Laos for just 8000KIP (45p)

One thing i've noticed about Vientiane is the heat. When i left my guesthouse at around 8am it was the same temperature i've been used to in the middle of the day. When i walked up to Patuxai (a large monument resembling the Arc De Triomphe in Paris), it was almost unbearable. It's not a particularly attractive building but you can climb the stairs inside for a good view of Vientiane from the top of the monument.

Pha That Luang

Pha That Luang is, according to Lonely Planet, "the most important national monument in Laos." It's a symbol of both the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignity. As well as the impressive temple here, it's also the site of a huge Bodhi tree. So if you read this James, i've collected you a better and greener bodhi leaf!

Wat Si Saket

Wat Si Saket was built in 1818 by Chao Anon, making it perhaps Vientiane's oldest surviving temple. The interior walls of the cloister are riddled with small niches that contain over 2000 silver and ceramic Buddha images. Over 300 standing and seated Buddhas of varying sizes and materials are situated on the long shelves below the niches, most of them sculpted in characteristic Lao style (Calling For Rain or Contemplating the Bodhi tree postures). The grounds of the Wat are planted with coconut, banana and mango trees.

Haw Pha Kaew

Once a royal temple built specifically to house the famed Emerald Buddha, Haw Pha Kaew is now a museum of religious art. Built in 1565 by command of King Setthathirat, the Siamese stole the emerald buddha in 1779 and installed it in its current place of residence, Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok.

Final thoughts on Vientiane

For a capital city, it's a pleasant enough place and not without character. However, it's not the place to come if you want to see an accurate depiction of Laos : it's very cosmopolitan in the sense that it's very difficult to find Lao food here, unless you eat at one of the outdoor markets (Full Moon Cafe does pretty good Asian fusion food). The streets are lined with upmarket cafes such as Sticky Fingers and Jo-Ma, which wouldn't look out of place in any European city. One of Vientiane's merits however, over somewhere like Luang Prabang, is that it's not over-run with Westerners. Even in the area between Sethathirit Road and the Mekong, where all the guesthouses are situated, it's very rare to see Lao people outnumbered by tourists.

Photo is of Naga headed Buddha under the Bodhi tree at Pha That Luang, Vientiane.