After our boat trip, it being cold and all, we needed a decent feed for dinner. A couple of local people we have chatted with recommended the Riverside Barbeque Restaurant & as it is located nearby we thought we would try it out. We got there early as it fills up fast. There are many tables, some overlooking the Mekong, and each as a curious clay receptacle fitted which, once you are seated, is then filled with large burning embers. An aluminium 'dome' is ...

An early start this morning - whipped down to the morning market for breakfast and then back to our Hotel to be picked up by the local version of a Tuk Tuk (this being a strange hybrid part motorcycle / part van that carries up to 9 passengers). Today we were off on a boat trip up the Mekong to visit a cave that houses a Temple. The boat was one of those low slung wooden efforts with a big motor and a full length drive shaft back to a small prop. The temperatu...

Hi again. We went to the morning markets this morning (obviously I guess) and have a very nice breakfast there. French style baguettes with bacon, egg, greenery and mayo, plus a large cup of Lao Coffee - which is like, but not as good as, Vietnamese coffee. We then thought it a grand idea for a gentle stroll down the nearest thoroughfare. Well, four hours later we found our Hotel again and although the exercise was accidental we did see a few of the many Buddh...

We went to the night markets in the Town last night. A large number of vendors there but in the end much of the goods on display were repeated over & over from one seller to another. It's actually a bit of work to stroll from one end to the other and back again. It's been suggested that a lot of the items are mass-produced in China and that's quite possibly right. Still, it's fun people watching and the food on sale is A1. A few photos we've uploaded wil...

After the self inflicted drama leaving Bangkok we had high hopes for Luang Prabang (which the locals seem to pronounce 'Long Prabarrng'). It is only a one hour or so flight to LP and as you travel over Laos it reveals some quite unusual geography - on our Flight Path the country seemed to consist of medium size mountains with many, many valleys and rivers. The rivers I saw may actually be only one or two as they twist and turn a great deal, following the topogra...