Vientiane to Tat Leuk: triple Amanda, waterfalls and indoor camping

---

Up before 7am this morning as I wanted to hit the markets nice and early. Walked all the to Talat Sao, which according to my guidebook was the most famous and was supposed to open at 7am. Got there about 7:30am and there were about two shops open. Not having the luxury of time on my side, I loitered around for a little while before calling it a wash and walking back to my hotel.

Stopped for breakfast on the way and got back to the hotel about 9:30am in time to finish up packing. Checked out and used the wifi in the lobby until I spotted a girl wearing a t-shirt that said 'crew' and guessed she was from Stray Travel. I was booked to do the southern part of Laos with a 'hop-on, hop-off' style bus company that only runs in Thailand, Laos and NZ. 

There were eight passengers in total, two couples and four of us solo travelers. A 50/50 male female split which is fairly unusual for a group tour (usually they tend to be female dominated) and mix of nationalities, NZ, Swiss, Canadian, English. Apart from our tour guide, I was the only Aussie. And if course we have our local Lao guide too as well as a driver.

However, to make matters worse, turns out that three of us are called Amanda. Tour leader is Amanda and one half of the English couple is Amanda. And of course, I am Amanda. And none of us are Mandys. 

Anyway first stop was Joma, a bakery to grab take away lunches, before a stop at the markets for our guides to buy ingredients for dinner tonight. Then onto Phu Khao Khuay NPA, a protected national park about two hours upside of Vientiane and where we would be spending our first night. Another brief stop to pick up beer and last minute provisions, before making our way to Tat Leuk, which has a waterfall, some areas for trekking and a visitors centre. The plan was to camp in tents inside the visitors centre for the night. Yep, you read that right, tents INSIDE the visitors centre. I guess after the down pour the previous night it was precautionary.

Grabbed our take away lunches and ate them down by the waterfall before a change into swimmers and I wander up to where we weren't likely to end up going over the falls for a swim. The water was quite chilly but the scenery was lovely. We really were in the middle of no where. There was no one except for us out at the falls, and the only other visitors we saw was a solo motorcyclist who stayed for about half an hour before riding on out. 

After a swim it was time for some card playing, eventually resorting to playing cards with head torches on. Another very good investment! Dinner was served out on the rocks and was a help yourself style meal with chop sticks to communal bowls of sticky rice, pork (I wouldn't usually eat pork but this was the nicest i have ever eaten) and noodles with veg. Way too much food! And it was great to see a few people struggling with chopsticks, made me feel better about my own chopstick skills. Before and during dinner there was plenty of Lao Lao (local rice whiskey) and of course the Beer Lao we had picked up on the way in. Then after some assorted games, including a flip cup one, it was off to bed.

---