9th February 2009

Excited about leaving Laos we headed off early to the bus station to catch the 9.30am bus to Nong Khai, Thailand. We arrived in plenty of time at half past eight and headed towards the ticket counter, which was clearly labelled Vientianne to Nong Khai. Confidently we asked for two tickets for the bus, but we were slightly bemused at the answer we received. We were told that we could only buy a ticket at the time the bus was leaving (9.30am), this seemed slightly odd as surely the bus would have left by the time we bought our ticket. It was clear he was not going to move on his decision, so we moved away from the counter. Suddenly all became clear when we were approached by taxi touts offering a more expensive route to Nong Khai, the ticket clerk clearly had connections and a financial interest with these drivers! Luckily for us there was a change over in shift and we returned to the counter and purchased our bus tickets in a very straightforward manor. This did not really help with the bitter taste of Laos already on our lips.

Our long wait for the bus to leave gave the local monks and school children a great opportunity to practice their English with Adam, while Clare sat and avoided all eye contact, clearly not in the mood for a chat. During the lessons we were asked for our phone numbers and were also offered a guided tour of Luang Prabang. We are not sure if we'll be taking them up on this generous offer, but declining without insulting their country was a difficult one.

The bus journey was a short one, which entailed crossing two immigration check points, one leaving Laos and the other entering Thailand and then a quick journey across the friendship bridge. It's amazing how these confusing things become clear when you get there.

Before we knew it, we arrived at Nong Khai bus station. We had no accomodation booked here, as our mobile phone had mysteriously stopped working, but we had a shortlist of two places that looked good. So we jumped on a tuk tuk and headed to our first choice, Mut Mee Guest House (www.mutmee.com). Very luckily for us, they had one bungalow available, so we hastily checked in. The bungalow was very nice, our own veranda and even a four posted bed, but the downside was that we only had a scoop flush toilet. We'll let you work out what a scoop flush means, but hey, you can't have everything! The resort itself was nestled in between trees on the bank of the Mehkong river and overlooking our favourite place, Laos. The guest house had it's own restaurant, but the biggest bonus was the free wi-fi. Just as well really as you had to buy your own toilet rolls, they were even listed on the breakfast menu! Our stay here was mainly for us to recharge our batteries and to research the next stage of our travels, which was good as there wasn't much else to do here.

The night we arrived happened to be a Buddhist holiday, so that evening we headed to the main temple in town to witness the local traditions. This entailed people lighting incense sticks and walking around the temple three times at dusk, we would like to of had more information on this, but nevertheless it was fascinating to watch.

Our first full day was spent updating our blog on the iPhone, as we had got quite behind it only took around four to five hours!

We stayed here for three nights and on our last day we decided to visit the local tourist attraction, a modern art Buddhist sculpture park, Salakeawkoo. We enjoyed it here, it was full of huge sculptures of serpents, Buddha's and even dogs riding mopeds! On the way back to the guest house we stopped off at the bus station to buy our VIP ticket to Bangkok and also visted a tall Wat on the bank of the river. We climbed up many steps to the roof of the temple to see an enormous gold Buddha and to also enjoy the views over Nong Khai and the river.

On our last night we went on a sunset cruise down the Mehkong river, this would've been quite romantic had it not been for the stench of the river that the boat churned up every now and again. We did however enjoy this and we can now finally say that we've been on the mighty Mehkong.

Nong Khai was a nice and quiet town, although maybe a little too quiet for us, as most of the bars and restaurants closed at 8pm. Mut Mee had great potential of being a pleasant stay, had it not been for the lack of privacy in the bungalows. There was also a very odd mixture of New Age, Raiki and meditation types with a handful of Internet nerds thrown in to the mix.

A long journey awaits us tomorrow, to get to our next destination, Trat.