Mekong Hotel Savannakhet

... emerge from the coolness of their houses onto the pavement. Men were playing their Lao version of 'boule' alongside the Mekong river, and on the main street vendors were selling various barbecued meats and dumplings. <br>Undoubtedly it was a beautiful place to spend a day or two. Full of charm and character, with a relaxed atmosphere and heat to match the slow pace of life.<br>

... termites and other crazy insects. Throughout the walk we were sampling different fruits, berries, leaves and herbs from our trail. We even got to see a monkey. A cheeky monkey who snatched a banana out of Tin Tin's hand! Classic. It was really refreshing to be away from cars, motorbikes and built up places. After the one day we were eager to sign up for some more outdoor adventures in Laos.<br><br ...

... fix sated (we were even up money!) we headed back to central Savannakhet for an early dinner before boarding our overnight bus to Vientiane. The Deum Savan restaurant turned out to be an excellent choice; built on a bamboo platform floating on the Mekong, we feasted on Lao specialities including spicy salads, garlic prawns, pork curry and grilled water buffalo skin (not to be recommended ...

... man became more and more overbearing, sure that he had all the ideas to get us out of this pickle. It started to seem like one of those films where a group of strangers find themselves stranded together in a difficult situation, and as time wears on they all start wanting to kill each other! Or maybe that was just me... anyway I managed to restrain myself and after 3 hours of ringing and asking around we eventually found a local guy with a pick up truck who was willing to take us to ...

Barnaby and his friends hopped off the bikes and crossed the border into Laos on foot. He was told there was accommodation 100m away, so he declined a motorbike taxi (after 2 km he wished he hadn't). Barnaby didn't have any Laos Kip so all he had for tea was crackers.The next morning they ...

... it was still really interesting. One fact that sticks in my mind from that place is that during the secret war 1.1 tonnes of explosives were dropped on Laos per every person that lives there. After Phonsavon we jumped on a public bus (im never getting in a mini bus again) and headed of to Vang Vieng, everybody who goes to Laos stops here and its a love/hate kind of place. Personnally i hated the place, so did Tiley and Banj. The main reason for stopping here is to go tubing, which i ...

... on the way and pointed lots of things out. Seen sveral lizzards and things that looked like scorpians. Apparently there were cobra's around but we didnt see any luckily. We also tried a lot of the natural growing food that the locals eat, most of it tasted nice. There were some branches that you could chop open and drink the water from as well which was cool. We stopped by a sacred lake and had a picnic. Was ...

... bags out of the luggage compartment. He led us down to the other bus where a huge argument broke out with a woman on the bus. I realised afterwards that she must have been upset about her bus having to detour for a couple of foreigners. Our conductor went back to his own bus and left us there with nowhere to go. We clearly weren't welcome on the other bus but no one spoke English and we had no idea what was going on. Annette took the opportunity to relieve ...

... shadows on the building making for great photographs. We also took the opportunity whilst in Vientiane to indulge in a massage! At £6 for 90 minutes you cannot complain! Callum opted for a neck, back and shoulder massage while I chose a foot massage and traditional Lao massage. From here, we made our way north to the small town of Vang Vieng. It is not often that we truly dislike a place but Vang Vieng definitely won the prize, at no fault to the locals ...

... a pretty cool-looking almost French colonial style hotel. There were a few Westerners in the courtyard having a quiet ale. Once I saw the price of the room I grabbed it. Once again, a very good deal. One of the guys working there showed me the room, at one point making sure I saw the industrial switch next to the door. He gave it a flick, and a Godawful racket started up that sounded like someone cranking over a diesel tractor engine ...