As has been our usual trait of late, we awoke later than intended although it was still early. I took a refreshing shower and applied some itch relief cream as I had been ravaged during the night. Laura had not even been touched which suggested the blighters loved the taste of me. We strolled to the main intersection in town and tried the fabled buffet breakfasts which are on offer here. The spread was very impressive including, muesli with yoghurt, pancakes with honey, French toast, breads, eggs of various kinds, fruits and so on. This could all be washed down with Lipton tea or the treacle like Lao coffee. We tucked in being constantly bothered by the flies which were hovering around to steal some honey on our plates. It was interesting sitting eating breakfast while being surrounded by hens and cockerels making a racket, dogs after your scraps and even fat ducks waddling around like old women.

The breakfast was overall satisfying but we overindulged as usual but felt set up for the day ahead. We were planning to trek to the villages in the surrounding area and see a bit more of rural Lao. We set of just after nine am and laden with huge bottles of water descended on the old sandy path out of town... We passed the school, a few shops and homes before we were on our own with nothing but the incredible Lao countryside. Although early it was already increasingly hot and we were sweating in no time at all despite wearing hats and sun cream. We walked along the road, which meandered up and down and around the hills before we eventually came to the stream. In the stream there were local boys with snorkels on fishing or something and kept diving under the water in search of something. A bit further on we found our selves at a tollgate where we had to pay ten thousand kip each to continue our walk.

Just after the toll there was a cave, which we decided to venture into and explore... Partly due to interest but mostly due to the invitation of a cool and dark retreat for a few minutes. Inside the cave was very dark with very little natural light, this was not helped by our lacklustre torch which barely shone a foot in front of us. We used the flash from the camera instead and it actually worked a lot better... We were then able to explore a bit more and see deeper into the cave.

After we had finished with our adventurous exploration of the cave we headed back out in to the baking hot sunshine, where there was little reprieve from its immense rays. We walked on for a good ten minutes before we came to a sign suggesting we head off the main road and into the farm land... It had promises of villages and waterfalls and the temptation proved to be too much as we headed off down a narrow path into the bushes. We walked for a while through grassland, bushes and past water before eventually coming to a kind of cross roads... To the right the path continued over some fields and towards the hills while the left resulted in a stream with stepping stones. We decided to follow the stream and set off in the direction of it, I hopped over the stones and to the other side and watched in fits of laughter at Stevens attempt to cross the water... That boy seems to have lost his sense of balance recently.

Once we were safely across we continued on our way coming to some farmland with no one insight except some cows. The walk was so peaceful and we hadn't passed another soul in miles, we sat in the shade of a small grass roofed seating area (they are scattered all over and I assume they protect the farmers from the elements). Once we had taken some water and cooled slightly we persevered heading directly for the field of cows, who were grazing without a care in the world. We continued and soon found ourselves hearing some sort of music in the distance... This made us think we were close to a village and we tried to determine the direction of the sounds. We came past the cows and towards the river before we determined it was coming from the left.

We continued on and then in the distance we could see the outline of huts and a village in the distance. There was no path made but we could cross over the paddy fields, although we were slightly nervous about the potential of UXO in the area. We treaded carefully, mostly on the raised beds of the dried out rice field before we found ourselves nearing the village. We persevered and soon found ourselves at the edge of a village and being welcomed by the locals. We wandered in and took a slow walk through getting stared at continuously, we had been told the villages can be pretty touristy but there were no westerners in sight here and everything seemed very quiet and rural. We continued to walk for a while longer before we found the source of the noise.... A wedding. We passed by and found a restaurant nearby so thought we would go and cool down.

We walked in and past a group playing petang, which is a French version of bowls and quite popular here. We sat down surrounded by guys in hammocks and the cutest puppy ever before a lady appeared from the wedding asking if she could help. We asked if she had water and she said no... So we asked the price of the beerLao and she said fifteen thousand kip, with was nightclub prices as most places sell for ten thousand. We declined the beer and after a brief period of time people watching we decided to head back. We walked out and past the wedding where a guy was already hurling up after clearly way too much LaoLao, before we continued on admiring the sights and sounds of this rural village... Including animals walking around, women chatting while babies are tied to their chests and men chatting and smoking.

We left the village by the road rather than our ad hoc way of entering and soon found that the original route was much more desirable. The road added miles to our journey and provided no shelter from the now midday heat, it also went miles uphill then miles downhill, which resulted in us being both hot and breathless. We persevered while admiring the breathtaking landscape before eventually coming to a small sign directing us to another village an hours walk away. Steven was not interested and we were both pretty hot so we just continued on our way. A good trek up and down hill soon found us back at the place we went off road and a short while later at the toll booth. Behind the booth was a ramshackle looking place offering cold drinks so we thought we should check it out... Only to find them charging ten thousand kip for water... Ridiculous, I'd rather die of thirst.

We promptly left and carried on for another good forty minutes of so before we could see the familiar sights of the village in the distance... By now we were gasping and looking forward to an ice cold bottle of water on arrival back. We arrived back in the village where I headed right to go and put the fan on in our room and Steven headed left to grab a bottle of ice cold water then soon enough we were enjoying the coolness of our room with a bottle of freezing water... Lovely.

We spent the next few hours recovering from the heat by reading in the coolness of our room before we ventured out for dinner... We looked around but ended up back at Ning Ning's, mainly due to its amazing location, great food and cheap prices. Tonight I ordered the Tom yam and Steven the laap, which is a local Lao dish that is made up from minced meat and fresh herbs, spices and rice powder. Its served with sticky rice and is delicious with a very fresh taste... Kind of like a meat salad.

We enjoyed our meal before heading back to our room and chilling out with our books... We have totally fallen into the Lao routine of bed early and up early. Its especially easy in rural Lao as everything is closed by nine ish and there are signs around town asking for silence after ten thirty due to the early morning hours of the villages fisherman and farmers.