One off the bucket list!!

Up early as we are ticking something off my bucket list!! We are going kayaking down the Mekong river for a few hours. The journey down was amazing and involved a few stops at some cool places. The first thing we came across was a wild elephant down bathing at the waters edge. It was a great thing to see and further down we came across more elephants this time with tourists climbing all over their backs(not so good), apart from a cute baby elephant playing with its mother.

The guide then decided to stop at a local village and show us around the place. He showed us the local school and temple, all the while kids followed us around laughing and joking with us. On the way back locals asked us to sit and have lunch with them(apparently it's customary in Laos) and so we accepted as we had our own food. There was about 15 of us including all the kids and it was an overwhelming experience. I tried for the first time river weeds that look disgusting but taste like pesto. We shared beer and chatted for a while before we jumped back into the kayak.

Our next stop was the Pak Ou Caves which is a really famous Buddhist shrine and sacred place. It was so cool turning up in kayaks and we were the only people who had done so. The actual kayaking was pretty easy and only encountered 1 or 2 tricky parts. It was then down stream to visit the very touristy whiskey village to learn about how it's made. It was rice whiskey and so involved using rice as the main ingredient. It tasted ok so we bought a bottle for less than £3. The rest of the village was just a big tourist trap so we left pretty swiftly.

We got showered and headed straight out for food as Alison was "absolutely starving"!!! We at last found where all the backpackers were eating. It was down a side street and was a one plate buffet for 60 pence and it tasted amazing. We ate so much food and I couldn't eat anymore but as per usual the nizz found room for an Oreo milkshake. Booked a bus and off to bed as I'm exhausted after doing so much paddling.