Back in Bangkok, just for a couple of days to prepare for our trip to Laos. Travelled back on the rattler from Hua Hin, aircon class this time, so we were only half an hour late back into Bangkok as opposed to the normal hour and a quarter.

Tried to get laundry done, but honestly there's just no Widow Twanky around when you need one, so we decided to make do with the thousand t-shirts we still have left, and frankly once you've lost your sense of smell with this fluey-bug thing we've both had, personal hygiene loses it's importance. We had to get our Vietnamese visas this time round, because the next two times we are in Bangkok before we go are both weekends, so we handed over our passports with trepidation and the promise that they would be back by 5 p.m. the following day - our train to Laos left at 8.30 p.m., so we didn't have any room for error. Then I packed up my gorgeous new fake Mulberry bag (see blogs passim) together with unwanted items from my overloaded bag and sent them back home. Surprisingly they came to 5 kg, so you would imagine I am now skipping around with a suitcase that weighs less than a satchel full of feathers, strangely that is not the case. I think I must have heavy wheels or something. Brian is still resisting the urge to offload any of his stuff although he is definitely struggling. We filled up the 'spare bag', now known as the Cardini and took it round to our next stop in Bangkok in 2 weeks time, the 'Dream' Hotel, it looks very swanky and there was even an ageing rock star type (hair about 25, face about 110), in baggy pants, lying around the hotel pool, bizzarely and unashamedly plucking chin hairs with a pair of tweezers and a magnifying mirror. What sort of a world are we moving into?????

Went back to MBK (shopping heaven, trust me) and picked up our new glasses, I'm loving mine but they take a bit of getting used to as I've finally got varifocals so I teeter down stairs like some old granny. Bri keeps forgetting and goes striding off so I have to call him back and lean on him while looking straight ahead. Apparently you get used to them. Let's hope so. Bri looks super cool in his new glasses but he doesn't want to wear them out so he's keeping them in the new case until they go out of fashion.

Bri then went home for a little lie down (or so I thought) but when I returned to our hotel room I discovered he had decided to take matters into his own hands on the laundry front and washed all his underwear (and, kindly two of my socks, sadly not a matching pair), forgetting that he has just spent a week trying to get one pair of socks to dry - nothing dries in this humidity. After a sleepless night fretting about his damp smalls he had a eureka moment at about 6 a.m. and spent the entire morning attacking them with the hairdryer while I scowled in the corner muttering. The room swiftly turned into a mini sauna, the aircon packed up and we were perilously close to checking out time, would he succeed? In the nick of time he perfected what he know wants to be known as the Brian O'Toole Method of Sock Drying Perfection - place open sock end around hair dryer nozzle and press 'on', the sock will fill with hot air and expand like a little black cotton balloon, steam (lots of steam) will be forced from sock, 30 minutes later sock (one) will dry, room will fill with hot air, water will trickle down 5-star mirrors, check out of room and leave country.....