Monday 23 June 2008

Thursday 5th June


Currently in Luang Prabang soaking up the Laotian hospitality, and the monsoon rains every afternoon. England have lost the toss and are batting against NZ, I've got the commentary streaming in to my laptop as Aggers describes the gladiatorial action. Ahh, we've lost a wicket already so Michael Vaughan (My Lord) strides out to the wicket, sadly there are no spangly pads anywhere to be seen. You can't expect to beat a mediocre side like NZ if you aren't wearing shiny pads a la IPL, come on the Kolcutta Knight Riders, gold pads are the way forward they really are. All the best wear Platinum Party Pads, how can you possibly not score?! Forget flashing the Rolex, it's all about the leg guards.

Curfew
Had one too many Beer Lao last night and so was a bit fragile this morning. They have an 11pm curfew throughout Laos but no one told me and so it was lock-in-oclock. A great idea until I couldn't get back into my guest house. Luckily they had one of those annoying door bells that plays a tune, so a few rounds of "When the saints go marching in" later a little fella comes and opens the door which I obliging fell through as I was resting my head on it.

Didn't do a lot today, it rained most of the day so I did some more research about motorbiking around Laos and travelling to Siem Reap (Angkor Wat). I used the internet all day for 5000kip, which is about 30p whilst munching on freshly made cake again for 30p for a massive piece of apple cake, and carrot cake, and chocolate cake, I'll stop there!

Bumped into Ian and Miranda who now live in Tasmania but he's originally from Lancashire (near Garstang) and she's from Auckland NZ. Although they have children not much younger than me we seemed to get on very well, having shared a bus from Chiang Rai to the Thailand/Laos border and then a two-day boat ride down the Mekong. They are an interesting couple, Ian loves his photography, I could see he had a good eye for a photo. Miranda was very friendly. They didn't always see eye to eye on the accomodation front though, with Miranda prefering the more expensive places whereas Ian was happy with less.

My evening meal was a vegetarian all you can fit on a 4inch diameter plate buffet from the night market, you guessed it, it cost 30p. Should have taken my Alan Partridge 12 incher and really taken the biscuit.

Had a quiet night watching the ladies tennis semi-final at Roland Garros. I've decided I'm supporting Ivanovich as she is the prettiest and wears the best outfits. She won today, I eased into my first dark Beer Lao which at 6.5% tastes surprisingly good and is very easy going on the palate, which is handy as my course of Doxycycline has the annoying side effect of making your upper digestive tract burn, so knocking back anything can feel like your having your oesophagus scraped out by sandpaper. Nice.

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