We had a wonderful trip on a boat (quite a generous term) down the Mee Kong from the overnight bus from Vientiane to Pak Xe on Saturday. After much waiting, sharing an exceptional coffee with an Australian (G'Day Mate) guy who had been travelling since he was 18 (and not about to stop), and haggling to the point of walking away with the boat owner as the price went up, before finally reverting to more reasonable $4 each, we had the most spectacular 2 hour trip down a very different section of the Mee Kong. With little description beforehand, I would say that it may be been the highlight of the travel that we have done thus far.

On arriving outside the sleepy village of Champasak, we climbed up the vertical ladder strung together with bamboo, string and a faith in Buddha to arrive at a guesthouse who had no doubt done a deal with the boat owner. The other falang didn't venture further, and although the price was right, we walked into town a bit more to see what we could find. We found another guesthouse, a bit more expensive, but with concrete walls (we later learned from our Aussie mate the sound of (sweet, little) mice on the bamboo walls was driving him to distraction!).

Champasak, and indeed all of the Mee Kong from what we could see on arriving in the Champasak district in Pak Xe kept reminding me of the Northern Rivers of NSW. One didn't have to stretch your imagination too far to see Grafton, or Lismore or Yamba in the curve of the river, the tree lined streets, and warm air. Only the sight of the myriad of traditional boats fishing, the bamboo thatched huts on the bank and vegetable gardens brought one back firmly to SE Asia.

We explored the sleepy village in the afternoon by foot, and had some noodle soup for lunch in a local doorway. Served with plenty of salad greens ( mint, green beans, beansprouts and other things) it was a good dish for under a dollar each. Although I didn't intend to, having not slept at all on the overnight bus (my seat remained wedged upright, while close in front were fully reclined meaning I was in a cruel and unnatural position for the 10 hours), I just lay down for a minute and slept for a couple of hours in the cool of the air-conditioning. Later that afternoon I walked to the north of town while Bob chewed the fat and drank some Beer Lao with Steve. Although finding that if I was desperate for food or drink I didn't have to venture more than a few metres at most, I found a very serious, and quite professional Saturday afternoon of football being held between two proper 11-a-side teams. Of these, about 9 or 10 were wearing football boots, whilst the others were barefoot. All around 14 to 17 years of age, the (some in jersey) red team and the (no so many in jersey) green team had a good contest and I was sucked in to watching right until the end.

The following day (Sunday), we rented bikes, the ever present U-frame bike with 24" wheels that take over the streets in Lao, and rode out the the local attraction, Vat Phou. It was spectacular and quite a new 'discovery'; archaeological work only began in 1991, and it is still largely unaffected by restoration or tourism. Nevertheless, many Lao and Thai go to the site for Buddhist worship. Originally a Hindu and Khmer temple site dating from the 5th Century, steep terraced structures and massive stone temples work their way up the hill to the most sacred sanctuary where the sacred spring is fed into the holiest temple.

Fantastic intricate carvings of Ganesha, Nandi, Vishnisha and Dubbha were carved into every nook and crany, many still in excellent condition. This is the earliest known Khmer site, predating Angkor Wat, and an ancient road is just apparent leading it's way from the site of Vat Phou to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

We stopped on the way back at a local noodle house, ordering two bowls of noodle soup from the lovely old woman in my appalling Lao. We shared our table with two or three other woman eating, sharing all the sauces and chilli between us, fresh iced weak tea brought out for us to drink and on seeing how voraciously Bob cleaned up his bowl, a large bamboo steamer of sticky Rice was brought out for him to sate his appetite some more.

The cost? In total a massive 14,000 kip, or less than $2.

We had had dinner on both nights in Champasak and breakfast at a little eatery near the always dry fountain roundabout, eating excellent fresh food each time. We were keen to have some of the land lady's excellent Coffee before we left on the first available transport back to Pak Xe, and I presented her with the pillow that I had been carrying around since Bob bought two in the market in Burma (Myanmar), fearing the hard boards used as seats on the slow boats and buses. With great excitement, he had nervously presented his pillow and a large pack of dried seaweed ('river algae') on bended knees to the monks and novices as they did their morning Alms round. As with my dinner lady, it was accepted with scarily disguised joy, humility and a large helping of disbelief. Strange falang!

On a crowded Songthew we came to Pak Xe this morning, needing to change money and catch up on the internet before we head west to the Bolaven Plateau this afternoon; home of the best Arabica coffee plantations in SE Asia. The Laotian New Year celebrations are coming into full swing, similar to the SongLa in Thailand, everyone goes home to their home provinces for the extensive holiday, celebrated with maybe even more fervour than the Christmas/summer/New Year celebrations in secular Australia. Everything will close down from (at least) the 13th April to the end of the celebrations on the 16th. As this encompasses a weekend, another two days have been added, meaning potential lock down (particularly among banks and the like - there are no ATM's outside of the Capital) from the 11-12th to the 19th of April.