Despite falling into an exhausted asleep way after midnight we somehow woke refreshed at six thirty... No alarm required. We had both slept so well and were again glad for taking this place over the vile place. We lazed in bed cuddling and chatting before finally venturing out of our cosy haven. We had decided prior to sleeping last night that we would head to the village of Vieng Xai (where the caves are situated) later this afternoon and stay here this morning. This would allow us to explore Sam Nuea today and do the nine am tour of the caves tomorrow morning, which would be preferable over the one pm one due to the heat. If you stay in Sam Nuea you will not make the nine am tour of the caves as the first bus is at eight am and rarely leaves on time. You are then only left with the option of the one pm tour, which I imagine as a result can get very busy.

We packed our things and left them in the room while we headed out to explore the town. We walked first to the river and crossing the bridge where we found a large food market. We headed in and instantly bumped into the Laotian couple from the bus, who were buying some food for their trip to the caves later. We went over and said hello and had a brief chat about our plans, they were pretty keen for us to share a private tuk tuk with them to head to the caves... This cost in excess of two hundred thousand kip or more. We kept explaining we would only consider it if it was cheaper than the local bus (which we thought was between twenty five and fifty thousand), we also explained that as we were staying at the village that we would only be paying one way so they would end up spending more and it wouldn't be fair. This was explained several times and he still kept asking if we we doing the tour at one pm. We eventually said our good byes and headed outside to the noodle soup stalls, where several women were shouting at us to eat at their establishment... I hate this as then I have to pick as I feel bad. We decided on a stall as there was a local women and her son eating there and asked us to join them. We ordered two noodle soups for ten thousand kip each and sat down chatting briefly with the women. Their soup had just arrived and I watched with surprise at the sheer amount of chilli sauce followed by fresh chilli paste that the young boy piled in his dish. He must have only been about nine years old... He also took half his mums noodles as well.

Soon after our dishes arrived and wow they were huge, we had two massive steaming bowls filled (and I mean really filled) with beautiful rice noodles, along with veg and a small quantity of pork and pork balls. I always give Steven my pork balls as he adores them and I'm not really a fan, they are pale grey balls of processed pork and you can sometimes buy them on sticks or even in the seven-eleven where they will microwave them for you. Anyway we munched our soup, which was soon joined by a huge bowl of fresh mint, basil and beans while practicing our Lao. After a long fight we finally finished the mountain of food in front of us and sat full and sweating.... Talk about set you up for the day. We paid the bill and the lady gave us cucumbers to chill our spiced mouths (we always add so much chilli) and said our thanks and good bye.

We headed out back towards the river where we found a quaint suspension bride with a lovely view before heading over towards the other side of town where the national stadium and most of the town lives. We passed a vast amount of very nice houses and realised just how much money is invested in this small town, which is one of the least visited 'main' towns in Lao. We could see a brand new Wat sat high up on a hill to the northwest and thought we should check it out... And work off our breakfast. We headed in the direction of the Wat coming towards the Lao and Vietnam materials that about four hundred meters from each other in this residential part of town. Here the homes were more 'traditional' Lao with lots of wood and such, we passed through with everyone (especially the children) shouting morning or hello in Lao. We smiled and waved before heading past a women doing some washing in her yard. She said hello and looked at us like we were crazy, as we passed her house in the direction of the Vietnam memorial drenched in sweat. We climbed the hill to find that the place was closed so admired it through the gate. We then headed back down before finding the even steeper road up the Wat on the hill top. We passed an adolescent boy who said hello before pointing us in the right direction. We carried on walking for a good ten minutes before we found ourselves at the top of the hill and walking passed a group of workmen all saying hello and how are you?

The Wat was only built recently and isn't quite finished so we could only admire it from the outside... This was fine though as the view alone was spectacular. We stood for a while before we headed back down... This time off the beaten track, which found us in someone's garden but was a lot quicker then the route up.

We then headed back through the residential area towards the Lao memorial a short distance a way... This was also locked so admired through the fence and was very pretty. We took some pics before heading back towards the main road to the right, once we were on the road we bumped back into the Lao couple and chatted again before heading up another hill opposite that once housed President Kaysone Phomihane. We wandered up along with a local girl who had some sort of disability that had resulted in a right sided weakness... She wanted to walk with us for the exercise. We headed up and the chap started on again about the local tuk tuk and would we be seeing the caves today with them.... Sigh. This went on and eventually we gave up and changed the subject, we walked to the top and admired the view and the statue of President Kaysone Phomihane and his previous house before heading back down and wandering back to our guesthouses (that turned out to be side by side) while listening to his tales of growing up in this town (they fled during the 'secret war) and how it had changed.

Once back at their guesthouse it transpired that his cousin owned it... He didn't know and they only realised when discussing their childhood and so on. He then spent ten minutes trying to sell me some woven cloth before again bringing up the tuk tuk. We said we were walking to the bus station (a different one from last night) and he was flabbergasted ...saying "that's four km away". We didn't mind especially as the tuk tuks were charging stupid amounts to get there as usual. We headed back to our room and collected our bags before walking past the guest house and saying goodbye to them.

We then headed on our way... It was a long, hot and very sweaty four km up partially uphill, we were very relieved when we eventually saw the bus station sign in the distance but this was short lived. On arriving we enquired about the bus to Vieng Xai (they leave intermittently through they day once at least six people have boarded). He said it was only us two and he could guarantee a departure as they hadn't seen much demand today. We sat down very deflated and waited... The local bus would cost us twenty thousand kip in comparison with way in to the hundreds for a private tuk tuk (he wouldn't tell us the price saying we would discuss later...mmmm). We sat hot, sunburnt, tired and deflated for and hour and a half before we asked if any local buses had gone that day. To which he stated that there was now five people so the local bus would go in twenty minutes at one pm?! What... I laughed and said I wished he had told us and save us worrying. One pm came and went and nothing happened... Then one thirty and almost two pm. By now we were just resided to the fact we would go went we go and at least we were going.

At this point I noticed a strange little man walking into the car park from the distance, he was dressed in low baggy jeans, puffy jacket with various tee shirts underneath and lots of silver and gold chains, he had a huge red baseball cap on and looked very 'gangsta'... He of course came straight over and sat next to me laughing and trying to talk to me. The local guy we were talking to said he couldn't interpret as he wasn't speaking Lao and was probably crazy. This was when I noticed his ring finger was missing and in its place a blue stitch that looked like it should have been removed a while ago. Eventually after chatting crazy to me for a good ten mins or so he left and wandered over the other side of the station. Around his time the driver was finally ready to leave... It was now about one forty pm. He said someone had left so there were less people so the price would go up, we asked how much and they never said instead having a debate in Laotian. Eventually we asked again and they said they wouldn't put the price up because the local people didn't agree... Sorted.

We climbed on the bus which had six of us anyway and set off arriving in Vieng Xai about forty five minutes later. As soon as we got off the bus we found a trio of westerners in an Indian cafe by the bus station... We headed over to see if they knew of anywhere nice to stay and they suggested a guesthouse about two hundred meters down the road, which was on stilts over a lake. We asked their plans and they said they were trying to sort transport back to Sam Nuea but were struggling so had arrange a lift with a guy at five pm costing two hundred thousand kip. We told them we had just arrived in a mini bus and it was only twenty thousand each so they could see if the guy is going back... I took them over to the bus and pointed him out. They came back a few minutes later all smiles as they were getting back for thirty each (included dropping them in town ...not four km out at the bus station). They thanked us and headed off... Our good deed for the day.

We walked down to the guesthouse on stilts and headed in... Here we were shown to a pretty basic room with no toilet door or sink, in fact it had a western toilet but no flush so you had to manually pour buckets of water down to flush it. The view was lovely and the guy dropped his price from fifty to forty straight away. The guy seemed nice and on greeting us had said "wow your so beautiful" ...aww shucks! Haven't had an effect like that on a boy for a very many years. Clearly the ego boost required a few weeks before my birthday. Especially as i had unintentionally burnt my firehead and was covered in sweat. We said we were going to check out a place and come back and he said that is fine... We walked about two km, realised how far it was and gave up heading back to the original guesthouse.

By now we were soaking, hot and thirsty... We dumped our bags and headed to the restaurant on deck where we ordered a beer and drank a huge mouthful straight away... Refreshing. We sat for a while admiring the view and reading before we decided to venture into town. It was my brother Stevens 21st today and I desperately wanted to send him the video I had made and wish him a happy birthday. This was a futile mission as there was no internet here... well wifi anyway. There was only dial up and the iPad isn't compatible... I admitted defeat and hoped he wouldn't mind too much although knew he would understand the lack of Internet here. By now it was five o'clock and Steven was hungry. We walked the short walk to the centre of the town and found the Indian where the menu although a little pricey for something's, seemed fairly reasonable. We ordered a potato curry, vegetable curry, two naans and a rice before watching the street outside. The restaurant across the lake from us was pumping with music and laughter indicating a celebration of some sort. Transpired that it was a Vietnamese wedding and there was also one carrying on across the street.

After a while our meal arrived, we were pleasantly surprised as the portions were huge and looked delicious... They weren't so much a particular curry like a bhuna or rogan josh but more a generic curry but tasty all the same. By the time we had finished we were stuffed... We then decided to head home as we were pretty pooped. On arriving back at the guesthouse we were welcomed by three guys doing shots and eating a banquet of local food. They beckoned us over and I accepted ...much to the dismay of Steven who was rolling his eyes. We sat with them and shared a shot of what we thought was LaoLao but was thankfully just vodka and a weaker Chinese version at only 29 per cent. We sat and chatted with them, which wasn't easy as our Lao was appealing and their English wasn't much better. However their answer to this was to keep topping up our shot glasses and making us toast. Eventually the guesthouse owner joined us and became a very handy interpreter, which was very welcome. For the next hour or so the shots kept coming and we were being force fed some delicious local food, which Steven would normally love but we were so stuffed from the Indian. There was beans with pork and ginger, a large bowl of soup, a huge silver holder if rice and a whole fish marinated in a beautiful sauce.

We nibbled some food and drank with them while chatting about Lao, jobs and normal things... One chap who was knocking back the shots actually said something very drunken but very true, he said "we all live on the same earth, we all are human beings, we are all the same with hands, feet and a head... Yet we sit here together and can't understand each other... Its crazy". This was very true and we all agreed while coming to the conclusion more vodka would help and despite our protests they wouldn't take no for an answer and three bottles later I couldn't stomach anymore. We chatted while I substituted my vodka with water (we were up very early tomorrow), while learning more about our drinking companions. The older (and philological) chap was forty five and Lao borne and bred, the two younger chaps were from Vietnam and aged twenty eight and twenty six. The three of them worked together in a brick making factory. Meanwhile the guesthouse owner was from Lao and works as an English teacher... He was twenty three, married and had a six month old baby.

After an hour or two we started feeling quite tired so bid our farewells and wandered off to bed... Apparently we were the only guests staying tonight so we had the whole place to ourselves. We fell into bed and fell into a deep slumber, which considering how loud the wedding was next door just shows how tired we were.