Sorry its been so long since i last posted... not much has been going on. its just been work, and normal things- but in Laos.

I'm just starting my last week of work. i cannot believe how quick it has all gone! hopefully i will have produced something valuble that they can gain use from.

a few things I've been up to... went to a party at the Australian ambassadors house- not as glam as it sounds... Marnie the lady i'm living with owns a catering company and they needed some help running the bar! calling on all my years of experience in the Bay horse I 'managed' the bar just fine, serving drinks with one hand drinking with the other!! it was good fun- they had catered for 300, only about 120 turned up meaning there was plenty for us to tuck in to, and loads of wine to guzzle!

went out for lunch in a floating restaurant on sunday- very bazar experience. the boats looked like houses just cruising down the mekong. there were long tables inside, the food was ordered on the land cooked, served then the boat set off- cruised 30 mins up stream as we ate, then floated back down as we all lazed on the deck! following the hard work of our lunch Julia ( my house mate, a physio volunteer at COPE) went for a traditional herbal steam sauna and massage at the local temple at the end of our street. it was so relaxing. the sauna was a bamboo hut with a wood fire underneath and steam bellowing up through the floor. the smell was amazing, bamboo, charcoal and herbs. the steam was so hot at time it was almost burning. it was so refreshing to get outside in the warm evening air for Laos tea and mango shakes, before heading back inside for more steam. its less Claustrophobicthan a regular steam room and not as hot as a sauna- magic. this was followed by an hour of traditional massage, which involves being having you muscles squeezed! its a strange sensation... sometime less enjoyable than others.... and sometimes positively painful! overall a very relaxing experience!

I will be leaving Vientiane on Saturday crossing the Friendship bridge into Thailand... still not sure where i will head- either Cambodia or northern Thailand.

x