Vientiane

I stayed in a cheap guesthouse in Vientiane that laid on breakfast from eight til eleven, every morning. At eight a few hopeful guests sit in the lobby, where instant coffee and hot water are supplied. About a quarter of an hour later plates begin to appear with toast and  fried eggs, about one plate every five minutes. Then plates of fruit. The lobby begins to fill up. People sit at the tables outside. At about nine o'clock they bring folding tables out, then a big bowl of rice. Later a big steaming bowl of green thai curry appears, with chicken and vegetables. Half an hour later a big bowl of salad joins the rest. Then gradually little plates of sticky rice cooked in coconut milk with mango and miniscule pieces of cake arrive. It is an intensely social affair.

Bus
I took a bus to Paxsan. Every seat was full. Then more passengers got on and were provided with plastic stools in the centre isle. In the suburbs we stopped and vendors climbed in selling bread, meat on sticks, fruit, drinks, magazines. They squeezed past the people sitting in the aisle shouting their wares. Then just as suddenly, they all piled off. Further along the road we stopped and people got out to pee and more vendors got in. These stayed with us until the next stop where half the bus got out to pee and the vendors disappeared.The bus played Lao pop music videos for the first hour, then a Lao comedy show, that had the whole bus roaring with laughter.

This is the first bit of flat countryside that I have seen. It's mostly rice fields, which are dry and brown.

I got out at Paxan, which is just a straight bit of road with a few houses on either side. There seem to be three guest houses and one restaurant. I went to the bus station where a tuktuk said it would cost me fifty thousand kip to go to Lak Sao.

On the trip to Lak Sao I met Sebastioan and Janes, who persuaded me to get out at Ba Na Hin and join them on a trip to the famous seven km long cave. Later we met Francesco, who took us to his guest house and told us about a local Italian restaurant."How come," we wanted to know "there's an Italian restautant in this tiny place?" It turns out that an Italian company are building a dam near here. The wife of one of the engineers decided to open a restaurant, because she was bored. And of course all the Italian workers come to her restaurant after work to drink. At ten thirty she puts the shutters down and has a lock in.

We ordered a litre of wine and big plates of pasta.
Next day we went to the only restaurant we could find for breakfast. It was the greasiest, most disgusting breakfast that I have had since I've been in Laos.

Then we caught the tuktuk to the cave.
The tuktuk went to the market to pick up some boxes of groceries and a sack of rice. Then it turned back on itself, picked up a box of eggs, two crates of beer and some more groceries and two people. We continued. We stopped for a woman with a sack of rice. We stopped to pick up four containers of petrol. We picked up more people, who put mysterious objects on the roof. There was a bag of catfish (still live) under the seat. By now we were fairly squashed between boxes, bags and containers and several Lao people, who left the tuktuk gradually, taking their provisions with them. It took two hours to reach the cave.

A river runs through the cave. We had to take a long tailed boat, which stuck in the shallow water frequently, obliging us to get out and walk in the fast-moving river, on pebbles that shifted under out feet.

One boatman sat at the front of the boat, miner's lamp strapped to his head, acting as headlamp for the boat, illuminating the way for the boatman at the back, also wearing a miner's headlight and steering the boat. Every time the boat grounded we had to get out, and the boatmen pushed the boat along the gravelley bottom, sometimes up rapids.

At one point we came to an illuminated area with stalactites and stalacmites where we got out to climb up the bank and explore them. Sometimes the cave opened into cathedral tall areas, sometimes passing through narrow passageways. There seemed to be a network of tunnels, passageways, caverns, eventually coming out into luxurant vegetation.

We stopped at a boat landing and climbed onto the bank. Under the trees there were stalls selling buiscuits and crisps, alongside tables and benches. The boatmen were drinking Lao Whiskey. We ate a few buiscuits, drank some water, then back in the boat for the return journey, this time missing out the illuminated stalactites.

The journey back in the tuktuk was very cold. We gradually got colder and colder, eventually arriving frozen.

Next day we caught a couple of busses to Thakek, where we met a tuktuk driver who took us to a beautiful guesthouse. We hired him for the afternoon to take us to yet more caves, one absolutely full of stalactites with a lake at the bottom. Then he took us to a beautiful lake, at the foot of limestone karst formations. Sebastian went swimming while we watched and took photos of him.