Slight Change of Plan

In order to get to Laos we had to take the train from Bangkok to Nong Khai then take a bus or taxi to the border from there, our journey didn't start too well as i had made a song and dance about how we should travel sleeper with fan only as it was perfectly cool enough with the breeze from the open windows, when we booked the tickets i picked the cheapest ones insisting they would be fine

then on the day we were leaving i decided to prove to ben that the drinking water they give you at street stalls is perfectly fine by drinking some

by about 3pm i was feeling decidedly sick and starting to worry that the train would be like an oven and i would have a large amount of egg on my face

luckily for me food got rid of the sick feeling and the fact that we are westerners meant we hadn't even been offered fan only berths, so even though i picked the cheapest tickets they were still in aircon! 

when we got on the train we found our seats and there was an american guy sat in one of them talking to a thai lady, he asked us if we were going to Laos so said that we were just for a few weeks, i really didn't want to talk to him but he was obviously waiting for me to ask the question back so i very politely asked if he was going on holiday and he responded:

"oh no i live in bangkok, i've been living here for 20 years, i have a house here, i might go to laos in a couple of weeks and if i do i'll take the train but i live here, so thats ok"

i gave him a look which i hope said "what are you talking about you prat" and looked away

it turned out he wasn't even staying on the train - he'd just got on with his friend the thai lady probably hoping to see some backpackers to impress with the fact that he lived in thailand

anyway after he'd left and the train set off we got talking to the lady who was lovely and started telling us all about her son who lives in Nong Khai near Mut Mee Guesthouse and does yoga classes and how if we wanted to we could stay with him!!!! we thanked her and then went for a few beers during which we decided we would stay in Nong Khai for a few days and find this guy and do some yoga - but stay in a guesthouse!

we groggily arrived in nong khai after very little sleep on the morning of the 27th and headed for Mut Mee Guesthouse which turned out to be the most wonderful place, all sorts of rooms from cheap bunks in a dorm to a super fancy gorgeous double room with aircon and private balcony which of course we took!

then we found out that the lady's son doesn't actually teach yoga and the people that do were all away on holiday so we decided to drink some beer and ponder the situation

whilst doing this we met Jen who had also just arrived and spent a nice afternoon chilling in the lovely gardens of Mut Mee by the Mekong then at about 4pm Jen suggested we go and see a sculpture park! We were a bit shocked as normally after a journey we like to take a few days off to recover but we decided to give this crazy "doing things" a go

the sculpture park is about 10mins outside Nong Khai and is basically the creation of a slightly nutty rich "mystic" guy who in the 1970's created a park of stone buddhas and hindu gods, he also created a series of sculptures called the Circle of Life - to see them you have to enter "as sperm" by walking through a tunnel signifying being born then you walk clockwise round sculptures representing such things as childhood, love, marriage, work, old age and finally death and nirvana

it was a crazy place made even more weird by how huge the sculptures are- you can see the size from the picture with ben and jen looking tiny in the corner! this also meant that when the sun went down it all got a bit spooky

so we headed back to the guesthouse where we saw an advert for an all you can eat hog roast!!!!!!!!!! oh yes people you heard HOG ROAST!!!!!!

there was delicious meat, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, gravy AND apple sauce!!!!!!! sweeeeeeeeeeeeet although there was almost trouble as the all you can eat was a bit of a lie and after everyone had only had one helping it was virtually all gone, thankfully ben was quick off the mark and when he went for seconds he got enough for me and jen as well! otherwise we might have had to spend the rest of the evening walking round town looking for another hog roast, hardly the actions of people who have had all they could eat!

on the way to the restaurant we walked through a small park where a group of middle aged women where doing a sort of upbeat tai chee to a thai pop version of honky tonk woman! most entertaining! 

so Nong Khai was fun but during the afternoon we had decided to leave the following morning with jen and head to Vientiene rather than wait around for the yoga people - we are nothing if not adaptable!