Yoga, cycling, more waterfalls, lush beaches and dodgey indians......

---

After our mega chilled day yesterday I woke up bright and early so decided to take my yoga mat out as had kind've neglected it a bit the past week and found a lovely quiet spot overlooking the Mekong and got a good session in, the weather was so hot even by 10 am it really felt like a good work out that i needed after all the cakes and wrong foods lately...... I then finished with a swim in the Mekong as it had felt more like a bikram session with the intense heat! I swam out to the neighbouring island again when what do i see on the way but the goats that had gone missing the night before stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere, poor things, all rather bizarre, as anyone not knowing about our 'goat' thing back home will probably think for all the goat talk , but sorry, it has to be said, ha! And after all the goat talk in Ibiza earlier this year then finally seeing this sight in the Mekong was pretty random ;-P

Well after that great kick start to the day i went back and we both hired out bikes again and attempted to find what we hadn't the time before, then some slight madness starts to kick in, we spot a monkey tied up by the Mekong so Karen strokes it and it takes a bite out of her, aaargh..... Luckily she's had the rabies jab but still not good, so we cycle back to the town and ask for advice in the chemist, apparently the monkey is well known there and not known to have rabies that's a relief but Karen buys some special soap to help clean the wound anyway.... We then set off again, take 2..... hmmm these waterfalls had better be worth it if we ever find them,ha!

This time when we get to the bridge at Don Khone we actually see a map that does slightly help us 😊 We head for the temple first, took some photos, did a bit more yoga and hopefully didnt corrupt the monks too much but ended with some meditation just to end on a slightly righter note than we started in there, but yoga is spiritual and so we thought why not ;-)

We then carried on our bike ride and FINALLY found the waterfall! Now this was almost as impressive as the one in Luang Prabang, for those of you on facebook i've finally uploaded some more pics to go with our stories here, it's times when it comes to waterfalls that i wish i had a more expensive digital camera as i couldnt really capture just how amazing they were, but i had a good shot, and i can definitely say that Laos has the most amazing waterfalls i've ever come across...... It was well worth persevering with our bike ride that was fun enough anyway......

We then carried on to a beach we'd heard was cool - WOW, another breath taking moment, it's unbelievable how unspoilt this place is, a huge beach with the rapids flowing at the bottom, i braved a brief swim but didnt stray too far from shore and then settled for a 'mud' looking bath further inland which was fun..... I could've stayed chilling all afternoon but it was our last full day and we wanted to explore more of the island so we went on our way.....

We spent the rest of the afternoon cycling past paddy fields and local farms (no goats today tho ha!) Actually there weren't any on the island on my morning swim or on the beach earlier so wondering now quite what's happened to them........

Anyway back to our cycling!!! We somehow managed to get lost in the maze of paddy fields, although passed more water buffalo and more wildlife happily playing amongst each other, we realised sunset wasn't far off and had also hit rough terrain, hmmmm, now this isn't good! Thank god these bikes are made tough as im really surprised neither of us managed a puncture!! Well luckily we finally found our way out of the maze and back to the bridge, we cycled back along sunset side of Don Det so we didnt miss the sunset.....

Yet again our last day in an amazing place and sad to be leaving tomorrow, have kind've got used to living life like it was probably lived 50 or so years ago, and even got used to our primitive bathroom!!! Although by now our loo had got slighlty blocked and so with the staff not speaking a word of English it was just as well we were leaving in the morning rather than trying to explain this....... od dear!

We decided to have Indian again, only this time the restaurant seemed to have gone downhill rapidly in the space of 2 days!!! The first really long wait we'd had and when it arrived i reckon it had waited longer than we had as it was pretty much cold, aarghh!! Not good, the keema naan is also quite suspect and im not too sure where the meat is from, im now starting to worry if that's where our poor goats got to ............. Oh dear!

Well things then get pretty grim as Karen is sick as a dog off her Indian near enough soon as we're back, i seem to have been lucky and escaped it, but guess i did have my dose on the plane over so now we're even ;-) She's not good though so not a great day to be heading to our next destination - Pakse tomorrow, still i do the usual packing and hope she's feeling better in the morning, apart from the food disaster it had still been a great day and am yet again sad to leave this beautiful place.....

---