Kop Jai Lei Lei (Thanks a Lot!)

Its been a while since the last post and quite a lot has happened, so lets bring you up to speed in a relatively quickish fashion.... yeah right.

After leaving Luang Prabang we arrived in Vientiane at dusk (just for a change!). We made our way to the Riverside Hotel and booked in for a couple of nights, it was a decent place with satellite tv and air-con although a touch overpriced. But still, after 10 hours on the (not so) VIP bus - although we did get a free hot lunch en route - it was worth it. We were pooped so headed over the road for pizza before falling into bed. That night niether of us slept well, both of us felt a bit ill.

Next day is when the fun began, we decided to find another hotel which was cheaper than the Riverside to spend the next few days, so we wandered around town in the baking heat (100 degrees!) and didn't really find anywhere we wanted. In the end we found a fantastic place right next door - the Douáng Duane hotel, where the rooms were quite palacial and breakfast was included and free internet, and it was still cheaper. We reserved a room for the following day.

Back at the Riverside that afternoon, the "slightly bubbly"stomachache I had turned into some "quite hurting now"cramps accompanied by what my Dad would call a case of the 'small French farmhouses". This continued all night and wasn't helped when the most almighty storm happened that night and meant that the walls and windows seeped in rain water through every available gap in the walls. Towels and mop eventually collected from downstairs were put to use and eventually the room was dried out. Marie was useless and lay unhelpfully on the bed with her own stomach ache.

Thank goodness the next day we only had to venture next door and not traipse round town in the 100 degree heat with our bags. Both of us spent the day doing a sort of relay race between the toilet and bed, never before has a comfortable room been more appreciated and thankfully, as cheap. By the next day, another poor nights sleep, Marie had recovered and was quite chipper although I remained in a state. By now, we had abeen in Vientiane for 4 days and only seen about 2 streets, the walls of the hotel room felt like they were shrinking. So, pooey bum or no pooey bum I was determined to head out and see something new, I went for a walk in the evening (it was slightly cooler) and had look around the town. Its nice place, not really very big or much to do but it had a good feel about it and it was good to get out.

I found the local swimming pool on the journey so we headed there next day to try and cool down. It was okay, a bit rough around the edges (literally) and we didn't stay for long. That was about all we could manage before heading back for the hotel. In this time we have watched EVERYTHING on HBO, and we're now watching this weeks selection of films for a second time.

We decided no matter how i was feeling it was time to move on soon, so we planned to spend the next day and the local Water Park - Marie was very excited about this as she has been wanted to go to a water park since the beginning of the trip and this is the first one we've bee nable to get to. My stomach felt better so we heading there one morning arriving half an hour after it opened. It was the worst experience of the trip so far.

Issues with the water park:
1. We were the only people there.
2. Only two slides were turned on for us and you had to go down face first (I went on a couple of times and it was good, but Marie was having none of it!)
3. The slides were really dangerous looking.
4. The swimming pool was really murky and not clean
5. The Tube ride (Maries favourite and the real reaosn for going) looked like it had never been opened.
6. The hire of a ring as not a "deposit"but a non-refundable payment.
7. It was just rubbish

We left after about an hour, consigned to fact that at least we were only about 5 pounds out of pocket for the whole ordeal. At least we'd tried. It was fate telling us it was definately time to leave Vientiane.

We decided that rather than head through southern Laos heading towards Cambodia, we would cross back into Thailand and head to Koh Mak, our favourite island from our visit two years ago which was also convientantly close to the Cambodian border. So after checking out of the Douang Duane we got the "International bus" from the bus station and headed over the Friendship Bridge back to Thailand and the town of Nong Khai. After a lovely air-conned lunch and walk around town we got a sleeper train to Bangkok (and had a really good night's sleep - bottom bunks are definately worth the extra 50p). Thankfully my bowels had returned to a much more normal level of comfort as the day went on.

We had possibly the shortest trip to Bangkok, arriving at Hua Lamphong train station at 9.20 and getting a bus to Trat from Ekamai bus station at 10.30. This was the same trip we did two years previously and just like before we piled off the bus before Trat in the middle of nowhere and went to the tourist office for a songthaw to the pier. When we said "Koh Mak" to the lady she gapsed and looked at the clock, pointing all the time. It was 15:45 and the last boat went at 16:00. Before we knew it we were in a songthaw flying along the backroads and managed to do the 45 minute journey to the pier in 25 minutes, getting to the pier at ten past four. The boat had waited as the lady at the counter had rung them to let them know to expect us but as soon as we were aboard it left, and an hour later we arrived on Koh Mak.

Marie had liked the sound of the Lazy Days resort in Lonely Planet and that was a guy from there to meet the boat at the pier so we went with him to the resort. Once we arrived we were told they only had one room left and it was 2,500 baht per night (50 quid!). This was a little above our budget so we declined and headed off down the beach in search of Monkey Island where we stayed last time.

The beach was much longer than we remembered, it was still really hot and of course, the sun was just beginning to set as we arrived - exhausted! - at Monkey island. They had rooms with in our meagre budgt so we booked a night and eneded up in the cabin next door to where we were last time.

People often say you should never go back to places you really like as you'll only be disappointed. This actually was dead right, we realised that actually, Monkey Island wasn't that great a place. They've changed it around a bit so it wasn't the same, many more cabins then before and the bar had been enlarged. For a holiday it was great - a bit like posh camping, but we know we can get better for a our money and get a lot more comfort, so we only stayed one night. Also, the fan was no good and gave us no respite from the heat and there was a band on in the bar (4 metres from us) which went on until gone midnight. We didn't get the best sleep and were up early next morning looking for new digs.

We went to Baan Chai Laay - further up the beach and booked 5 nights in a one room house(!) on the "main'' road, just back from the beach, breakfast included and much much bigger. In the day it looked great and we were happy with that.

More disappointment followed though, as sand flies are a bit of a problem at this time of year so you can't really sit out on the beach- or in our favourite hammocks (a german couple actually shouted at us for sitting in them!) and then we found the sea full of jellyfish so couldn't go in there either. So without being able to go on the beach, or in the sea we ended up back in the cabin which was like an oven and really uncomfortable! Does it sound like we're moaning too much?? Read on...

At night-time it was got worse, not only was the room was a bit grubby (misc drops of poo in the corners and so on) and just didn't feel too secure. Plus it was still stinking hot (the guidebook we realised advised against travel to this area at this time of year because of the heat!) and we didn't get much sleep again.

In fact, we had a bit of a mini crisis in terms of the whole trip and what we wanted to do, how long we wanted to be away and so on and we came to the decision to finish up in Vietnam rather than plough on through China just for the sake of it. It will be much cheaper to come back from Vietnam too. China is a trip in itself and we should treat it as such - why spend 4 or 5 days covering thousands of miles by train just to get to Beijing to fly back???

Once we had made this decision, things seem to get a bit easier and we were able to enjoy our next few days a bit more. We spent the next day on the internet and hiring a golf buggy which got our spitirts back up and had a good day. But the room was getting us down and after a nother tortorous night we asked for an upgrade to an aircon cabin. They didn't have one that night but gave as another fan to help combat the heat - they were so good about it and friendly that we couldn't tell them we had paranoia about creepy crawlies and things that go bump in the night so ended up pretending that we would use the extra fan and then snuck off to the poshest hotel on the island - the Makathanee Resort a couple of doors down.

It was a great decision although I've never paid for two lots of accomodation in one night before. We got the cheapest room but it had aircon, sat tv and a pool. Well worth it as we spent all day there too and also got another breakfast included next morning. After breakfast number one, we checked out and went back to our place (like we'd never been gone!) and had breakfast number two! No need for lunch! After the food, we moved to our new aircon cabin (right on the beach!) and had a much more enjoyable couple of days, in fact we had a lovely time in the end, sleeping and eating, and drinking and hiring the golf buggy again to go exploring!

We lasted the 6 nights on Koh Mak in the end, (we didn't think we would at the start!) and booked a bus to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. It was quite an eventful journey which I'll save for next time as this is far too long already, save to say though we are now in Phnom Penh and its bonkers! Only been here one night so far so still lots to see.

Until next time......