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Today we slept late (nice!) and didn't leave the hotel until about midday after arranging our bus tickets to Vang Vieng with the guy who speak English at our guesthouse. After the short walk into town, we stopped at one of the street stalls for a baguette. Still find it a bit strange that baguettes are so big in Laos, but then the French were here for a long time. We also had a delicious shake each - banana and Oreo for me and banana and Nutella for Laura! Then we caught a tuk tuk to one of the local monasteries on the edge of town. The monks' living quarters were out of bounds but we could wander around the rest of the site. We saw the three golden stupas which aren't very golden anymore after years of erosion, followed by a very grand temple containing yet another huge Buddha. There was also a temple that's only unlocked for a week each year around Lao New Year for people to worship in. We also had a look inside the carriage house; the enormous carriage inside holds the huge funeral urn that used to be paraded through the streets following a royal funeral - quite a sight!
After the monastery, we caught another tuk tuk back to the hotel. We had been planning on a swim in the river but Laura wasn't feeling well so we just spent the afternoon relaxing in the air-conditioned room! In the evening, we did wander down to the Nam Khan river and crossed the rickety bamboo footbridge that's only there during the dry season; in the wet season it just gets washed away! We were heading to Dyen Sabai, a restaurant we'd heard good things about. It was another garden-style place and was very relaxed and welcoming. We had a fantastic platter of Lao food - Mekong river weed, pork with sesame, Luang Prabang sausage and aubergine dip…delicious! We've definitely had some amazing food in Laos so far although it doesn't have the same reputation as the food in other south-east Asian countries - it should! After dinner, we had a look at the stack of board games in the corner and finished the night with a random game of Scrabble! I won't say who won but Laura came second.
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