Laos

Happy New Year!! We've arrived in Laos and its New Year from 14th to 16th April in Laos and everyone is chucking water at each other, more on that later. After a marathon ten hour journey, we crossed the border from Cambodia which consisted of a small hut in some woods and then a drive of about 100 meters to another small hut which was the Laos immigration HQ. After that, we drove about 1/2 hour along next to the Mekong and then swapped to a small narrow boat to cross the river to our destination, which is Don Khong island. On the map we are at the most southerly point, almost on the border below Champasak. Don Khong is the biggest island on the Mekong being around 18k long by 8k wide, it amazing how massive the Mekong is, apparently it is 14k at its widest!
Laos is a bit of an unknown for most people I guess, the only thing we're ever told is that it's a really chilled lovely place and it definately seems that way so far. A few facts for you, its about the size of the UK, has a population of only about 6 million and has a communist goverment. During the Vietnam war the west side of the country was heavily bombed by the Yanks around the Ho Chi Minh trail and bombers on their way back from Nam would randomly drop any bombs they had left on Laos...nice. The currency here is the Kip and there are 10,000 Kip to the Dollar, which is 18,000 to the pound, but as everywhere here uses the dollar, thats how my mind works these days.
We are staying at a little $5 place called Pon's River Guest House. The main man around these very quiet parts is...Mr. Pon, he's a sometimes quiet, sometimes very giggly fellow who is always happy to help and his family make some fantastic grub, the best we've had for ages, Cambodian food wasn't all that to be honest.

Sam interjecting now...The National dish is chicken laap (but you can have any other type of protein instead)...consisting of minced chicken, served with fresh red chillis, lime, mint & coriander. Bosh it together with some sticky rice and a bottle of Beer Lao and you're in business. It is with great relief that I post this picture of Andy - alive. As soon as we arrived in Laos, he started complaining of aching joints and a fever...this continued for the next 48 hours and I had him diagnosed as having Dengue fever. Ever the drama queen, I was making plans to get him shipped to Bangkok for specialist tropical disease advice (their best hospital is called Bumrun, if you can believe it!?). But seriously, he was so hot, I thought it was the end. So, I took control of the situation (despite protest) and called in the local doctor. Anyone who has worked with me will know I'm always first in line to give the docs a hard time, Em will know this is especially true when a potential tropical disease is threatened. Anyway the "doc" arrived and pulled a thermometer from her handbag.
The helpful Mr Pon had disappeared as translator and I had to haul him back to the room. After several agonising minutes she declared that Andy's temperature was a mere 38 degrees and decided upon erythromycin! This was without examining him or taking any history whatsoever. Well, you can imagine my response. When I asked what I thought the matter was, she just giggled nervously and kept saying "erythromycin!" Anyway, we thanked her and sent her on her way. Thankfully this shoddy advice from a first year student nurse went unheaded and she didn't charge. Even more thankfully, Andy turned a corner in the night. Sorry about my fraught e-mails to Em & Heidi. We've since decided that Andy has developed photosensitivity due to the doxycyclin (malaria prophylaxis) and he actually just had a bad case of sunburn. He's now asking me to add that he had a virus aswell.

Anyway, back to the photo. After 4 days on the island, we were desperate to leave. So we took a trip to the waterfall. The journey there was more exciting than the falls themselves and commenced with us boarding the "ferry" on the motorbike. After some initial hesitation to pull on the brakes, Andy managed to stop in time before we landed head first in the Mekong. The ferry, as you can see is basically two wooden fishing boats tied together with some boards across them...safe! So, once on Laos mainland, we pootled along for a bit, passing through a picturesque village along the way. Being New Year, this actually means it's the festival of water...which gives the locals an excuse to chuck water (and sometimes flour) at anybody passing by. (James Smith, this is the festival for you!). Possibly not the best time to be riding a motorbike, but after a few wobbles (and five drenchings) we were there. Or nearly - a huge insect flew up Andy's sleeve and stung him in the arm pit - leading to more wobbling. The waterfalls were quite nice, not as impressive as we were imagining given they were the biggest in SE Asia.

Today we arrived in Pakse, about three hours North of the island. Seems like a very nice city - very clean and friendly. The New Year celebrations continue and we have been soaked many timed today. We managed to buy some replacement sandals and sunglasses for Andy (a monthly reqirement as he'll only ever spend $5 max on any one item, regardless of item) and were forced ;) to drink beer with some of the local ladies. Thinking we were safe in the supermarket, we were then showered with medicated talc (by the person working at the till!). Oh how we laughed. Ask us again in five days' time when they're still celebrating....