Thakhek

Putting the gruelling journey behind  us we checked into our hotel on the riverfront.(in fact we can see our previous hotel across the waters if we squint hard enough)

Its a lovely spot with a riverside bar from which you can enjoy the sunset accompanied by the rhythmic crashing of several tons of rocks being dumped in the river to form a new causeway.

Ahhh what price serenity eh?

We've been to Thakhek before, about 10 years ago. I remember the place as being fairly devoid of cheer. And dusty. So very, very dusty.

In the intervening decade it appears that nothing has changed. (Well I suppose that the traffic lights have but then, that's their job....)

Why on earth have we returned here then? 

Older readers may recall that JB enjoys monkeying around on a rock face or two and it just so happens that about 16km up the road there's a climbing site. Once he's over his jetlag he fully intends to bring out his inner Naked Ape (Although in the interests of decency we can only hope that he keeps his socks on)

It's not all despair though. The local (quaffable) beer, BeerLao is a mere 22,000 kip per pint, or around 77p in 'worthless Sterling'

Cheers!