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Hi everyone, The evening we returned from our boat trip we washed and changed and went out again for supper. It has to be said that the selection of places to eat is somewhat limited but we managed to find a very decent family run restaurant and also managed to eat there for 3 nights on the trot. Kerstin and Toni were very kind to me and we enjoyed all our time together, they are alot of fun and I was lucky to have met them. That evening we were discussing plans for the following day and Kerstin was keen to take a cycle ride around the island, I think its about 32K around. When you are the "third" person you can feel a little "in the way" at times and although I was never made to feel this way I was concious that sometimes people naturally want their own space. I have never had a problem with this and suggested that I might take a motorbike out. "Ah, not a sports person" says Kerstin, well just let me say that both of my new friends are clearly very fit and I have not ducked too many challenges since been away. So, fired up to cycle around the island, on the now familiar crap bikes, where your knees hit your chin, your chest is compressed due to the seat to handlebar ratio, no gears (and in my case, not brakes), a saddle set at a jaunty angle and hardly any air in the tyres, I set off in the opposite direction to the others. No it doesn't take much working out that if you cycle round an island and your friends go in the opposite direction, you will bump into them at some point or another. Well, I cycled and cycled and cycled. No sign of Ms 'Jan'-Ette Ulrich (Kerstin) or Toni, not that is until I was more than two thirds of the way round and came to a little market place where I could buy some much needed water and a bite to eat. Lo and behold who should turn up just in time for lunch! It was then that I found out that all that my feisty friends had done was taken the road which cuts through the island! GIRLS!! I thought that after lunch Kerstin would set off at a sprint and compltete the circuit in record breaking time, but no, the three of us cycled the bottom third of the island. We did enjoy taking a dirt track beside the river and seeing the Island's families close up. To cap the day off we were withint the last Km of our guest house when ten tonne tessie got a puncture, no not me you fools, Kerstin! Actually, she probably weights 7 stone soaking wet but that is not the point. We cycled the last little bit with Toni carrying Kerstin on his pannier rack, Kerstin holding her bike alongside and me on my squeaky, grinding, chain-mashing jallopy taking pictures of them from behind.
We had a really good day but I was so very very glad to get off that bike! Perhaps Kerstin now understands why I was going to take a motorbike as when we got back to the hire centre we swapped bikes and K & T when off down another track. She later confirmed that it was the worst possible piece of cycling equipment that she had experienced so I felt quite good about suffering for 32K! Now where did I put that Blisteze!
It had been a very pleasant 3 days in the South but I was now headed for Northern Thailand again and K & T were off to somewhere nice for Christmas and will be in BKK when I return there in mid Jan so I sincerely hope that we can meet again.
We headed off with Mr Phoumy to one of his luxury Cruisers for the short trip across the Mekong for the last time. We were not on the same transport back to Pakse but we did manage to meet up that evening. Once back in Pakse Town I headed straight for my hotel and then showered etc and went out again. I met with K & T later and we had a final meal together before going our seperate ways with the promise of getting together in BKK as us International travellers refer to it!
The following morning I had an early bus to cross the border between Laos and Thailand and then onto Ubon where I had to wait for 1 day to catch my flight to the North. I will update you on this next time. Take care,
Chris
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