day 209, Vientiane

Slept like the dead which was incredible, was really nice to have a proper mattress and duvet plus being inside as opposed to in a wooden hut on cushions with blankets. We had a leisurely breakfast, said goodbye to Kiwi Anna who was moving on then split up. Some went to the national museum, me I went to the Lao Immigration office in order to extend my Lao visa, filled in the form, dropped my passport off and have to pick it up tomorrow. On the way back stopped off at the dingiest mall ever to pick up a pair of headphones as mine broke and buses without music is a living hell, then ended up at a park in the shade to continue reading Sheepshagger which I’m really enjoying though can be quite hard going. Meandered back to the hotel to meet up with Graeme and M, they fancied Lao food though we all had our hearts set on Indian so split up, met up again with the additional the others as well as the Dutch girls Lise and Lizzy, took a tuk tuk 10minutes away and went to the circus! It was a competition between Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, and it was fucking brilliant. Was a bit of a shame that we came on the awards night, so we had to sit through an hour of people coming out and being given flowers, sore arses approached though when the show started was really impressive, plus no animal acts so all was good. The first act had something I hadn’t seen before, there were some kids on motorbikes that parked up, laid on the seats and each had a kid laying on their feet while they kicked them around and somersaulting which was fab. Walked back to the BeerLao music zone where they have a big stage with a DJ to see in the NY, had a few drinks, a boogie, we were all on the big screen which was cool, it had the shittest DJ in the world who chose to stop the song and just speak shit, then that closed down around 11:30 so went to a club round the corner which had a really good live band and this lass belting out the tunes, had a bit more of a boogie then turned the corner and went home, on the way hunting for chicken though had to settle for drunken magnums from Toby the night porter which were shared then crashed out.

the kids with their backs on the bikes threw around the other kids to each other , was awesome