The sun going down over the Mekong

We decide to stay in Thakhek for another night and maybe do some trekking into the National Protected Areas as we've heard its quite good.  The hotel can accommodate us but asks if we will move rooms as ours is booked ... our new room doesn't have one balcony but two and is huge ... result!  

Fred heads out to find an ATM while Andy is still getting up.  Its even hotter today and we wonder if trekking will be any fun at all in this heat.  We head to the information centre anyway which is, of course, closed for lunch.  Back to the hotel to cool off then we go back.  The two day trek sounds really nice but is far too expensive.  Its more than double what we've paid for any other treks, including in Nepal, and there are no groups we can join so with that in mind, along with the heat, we decide against it.  We spend the afternoon in our luxury suite ... Andy composing and Fred catching up with computer stuff.  

We're going to Savannakthet tomorrow on our slow journey south and will look into trekking from there.  In the evening we have a beer with an English guy, Paul, who is cycling through Laos and then a couple more beers with an Austrian guy, Andy, we'd met on the journey here.