We had a day of kayaking planned in Lam Nam Tha. But this was about the only chance we would get for the next few days to get some travellers cheques cashed at the bank, so Dave headed into town on a tuk-tuk (the lodge was about 6km from town) to check out the 'Lao Development Bank'. It was great! Whilst waiting to become a kip (Laos currency) millionairre, the bank's TV showed Chris Benoit applying a 'crippler crossface' to William Regal, which of course ended in the latter tapping out to this most fearsome of submission moves. LDC is defintely ahead of the UK in terms of in bank enterntainment.

Our guide for the day (Ghet) popped us into our shared kayak and we headed up the Nam Ha river. This river skirts a designated wilderness area / wildlife sanctuary and is one of the few
rivers left in Asia which is (largely) inaccessible by road. [We say 'largely' as we did manage to get a ride back in a truck after we had finished the day, but it was the first time in 4 months that the road had been passable - mudlsides and fallen trees had only that day been cleared away]. During the morning, Ghet spotted some local boys playing in a tree by the river and
they were keen to join us when they heard we were headed towards their village. With 2 of them added to Ghet's kayak, plus 1 to ours, it was 3 per kayak as we headed off again. We let our lad paddle us along at one stage - it was hard to say who was more thrilled - the cheeky young chap paddling awaym, or Dave at the rear, happy to take a rest and rely on child labour.

Lao folk seem pretty happy with their (quite poor) lot and it was smiles all around when we moored at the village. The kayak kids soon forgot about our earlier adventures and started a game of 'bowls' amongst themsleves whch involved propelling your flip-flop across the dirt towards a target. Innovative and skilfull, so it appeared. We bought some hand made paper and were even given gifts to take away.

Lao houses are traditionally built on stilts if at all close to the river (apparently the 'wet' season is very wet indeed. As soon as the children reach any size at all they seem to be looking after their brothers and sisters, as mum & dad were genrally working the fields in the middle of the day. They do get schooled though this didn't seem to be happening whilst we were around.

We headed off again, with, as before, Dave stering from the rear. By lunchtime the kayak had been capsized due to not avoiding a tree trickly placed in the middle of the river. After we had managed to unbend the (plastic) kayak from the tree (in fast flowing waters) and headed for shore, it was agreed that navigation might fall more naturally into A-Ms sphere of influence, and a swap would be made.

Ghet chopped down some humoungous jungle leaves which formed a natty 'spread' on which to put out the food which he had brought along. Peanuts, some tasty omelette, sticky rice, aubergine salad, some spicy tasty stuff made from bamboo and bananas were all good wholesome riverside fare. The local bananas are delicious - small and stubby, they usually look a bit bruised and manky from the outside. But they never are - they have a thick, dense consistency that is hard to describe, and a mild zestiness which brings kiwi fruit to mind.

Under the calm conrtol of A-M, the afternoon part of the journey was more serence. Late afternoon we were back at the lodge, having a Lao coffee as the sun started to set. Lao coffee is supposed to be some of the best in the world; at 0300 the next morning as Dave struggled to sleep, we wondered whether it was actually some of the strongest in the world too. It is
traditionally served with condensed milk. The cup is presented to you looking like an upside down Guinness, as the condensed milk only mixes in on stirring. Divine stuff.

The nextady we were on the 0830 bus to Luang Prabang. By 0900 we had managed to leave the town. We spent 30 minutes hunting for diesel, which is fauir enough if fuel is sparse. But, given that we tried 3 garages before finding that the 4th we tried (about 200m from the bus station) had fuel, we think there may be something that could be learned here about transport logisitcs. We expected the trip to take about 7 hours, but our guidebook had warned of the perils of poor bus and road maintenance. 2 flat tyres and around 10.5 hours later we arrived in Luang Prabang. 'Highway 13' along which we had travelled had been tarmacced (apparently it was not always so), but the word 'highway' seems over the top to describe what is effectively a
winding country road. Our bus was loaded with a variety of goods, so we had to clamber over huge bags of rice every time we left the bus (eg, toilet breaks, flat tyres). Lateish into Luang Prabang, we took a room for the night and soon after some tasty 'dried beef' and buffalo steak it was time for bed.