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Published: June 13th 2014
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hi everyone
We left Tha Kek and headed in the pouring rain for our home stay at Ke Champhong. So it was another long boring journey on our bus, passing miles and miles of paid fields and villages which all start to look the same after a while lol
We first needed to get lunch as there is only one restaurant on the way and previous experience has taught stray that the service was slow. We stopped off at a local street vendor for a baguette but her choice of fillings did not float my boat so Paddy and I headed over the road to the restaurant we had tea at the evening before. We paid moe and had to wait longer for a lovely club sandwich and chips lol.
So back on board the bus we travelled to a local market to stop off and get supplies for our evening meal at the home stay and breakfast the next day. As we were there about 20 minutes so we went all went exploring. The market was massive and I spotted a gangam style toy doll which reminded me of our bus driver we have affectionally
called Elvis as he wears glasses and has hair like the 1979s Elvis lol. We also saw stall selling baby chicks and ducks and frogs! Oh and it was still raining so we had to paddle through water ankle deep in places!
Once back on the bus with supplies we headed to turtle lake. To get to turtle lake we had to negotiate some very bumpy roads full of of holes so it was another bone shaker of a ride lol. The lake is very close to a village and the locals hold the turtles in great regard and are classed as sacred animals so can never be harmed or killed as it will bring you bad luck.
You can feed them if you can entice them out of the water. They like to eat rice or fish snax. We were in luck and got to see two up close. We also walked along the pier over the lake and fed them from above. There were about ten of them which came to the surface but the fish kept eating the snax before the turtles could get a look in. They have faces which
remind me of moles with tiny eyes. They have soft backs and when you touch them they feel like a rock which has moss growing on them. We also stopped here for lunch.
After visiting the turtles we said our goodbyes and headed to our home stay village which is known as monkey village, oh joy more monkeys lol.
We arrived in the bus on the far side of the river and had to take a very shot but precarious boat ride to the other side. We landed safe and sound and dry and headed up the bank. As soon as we got there about 15 monkeys came out of the under growth. Older ones, younger ones and mums with a baby clinging to them. We stopped to feed them bananas bought earlier on in the day at the market. I didn't feed them just looked on at the evil menacing creatures, rats that can climb trees. Sorry readers but I just don't like the pesky things.
We then had a wander round the village, visited the local temple and then headed back to the boat and a return river crossing
back to the bus, we then drove to our home stay for the night.
The home stay was in a village actually near the monkey village. It was a large two storey building and we had the ground floor. There were mattresses, pillows and blankets laid out on one side of the room for us to sleep on. We had plastic chairs and metal folding table to use when dining. At the back was the kitchen equipped with a sink and two BBQ burners similar to the ones used in Luang Prabang when the girls had their Laos BBQ. This is also,where the toilet and shower (if you can call it that) were located. No wifi but electricity.
Boon our stray guide said he would cook us tea so we just set up the tables and chairs, got some beers in and just relaxed until dinner was ready. Sticky rices which is a staple diet in Laos, spicy but not too spicy squid soup, pork and stir fry vegetables and morning glory which is a green veggie which is a cross between sprouting broccoli and cabbage or spinach, anyway bit was all very nice
and was followed by dragon fruit which I has a white flesh the texture of kiwi and has tiny black seeds in like kiwi. it has a sweet taste but also sour like a lemon and is very nice.
After dinner we tided up and closed the shutters to keep the bugs out as we had the lights on and they attract all manner of flying and crawling paraphernalia! Initially we didn't have the mosquito nets out but after some rather large flying insects came in, one looking like a cockroach, although we were assured it was a beetle of some kind, and Pauline and I screaming out and expressing our frustrations we rolled out the mosquito nets, and spent the rest of the night under them. Why Boon didn't suggest this in the first place I don't know grrrr!
Anyway we sorted out the nets, got ready for bed and hit the sack as we had an early start. Before bed I had a 'shower' as the shower head was missing so it was a trickle of cold water coming out of the shower hose. In the night I got up to use
the loo only to find the back door open and lots of dead flying insects all over the wet floor and a beetle and earwig thing in the sink. The cleanliness of both the loo and shower left much to be desired and overall the cost of the home stay was the same as a hotel and more expensive than the hostel I stayed in at Vientiane, so thought it was very poor value for money and will be feeding this back to stray. An experience to say the least but not one I care to have again any time soon.
None of us had a descents nights sleep and around 2am Pauline and Boon got up to visit the house next door to see if we could watch the opening match of the World Cup between Croatia and Brazil but sadly they didn't have the right channel so we all went back to sleep.
We were up at 6am and Boon cooked us scrambled eggs with onion and we had baguettes, coffee and bananas for breakfast and left around 7.10am
Xx
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