16/9/10 Having driven the long drive to Nong Kai to visit Vientiene, Laos for the day, we set off with our passports to immigration. Many many hours waiting in queues we took off with our hired guide, equipped with a 12 seater bus.

Our first stop was to a temple in Laos where we were asked to hire Laos wrap skirts (women) before entering. Bare shoulders were allowed but we were not to go Laos skirt free! Just to be rebelious, we jumped onto some bikes in our skirts!

Our guide thought we had vanished because we got distracted with markets. The guys found some screwdriver/torch gadgets and almost bought the market out of them. By the time we returned it was 3pm!

The next stop was the an arch in Vientiene, which was built to replicate the Arch de triomph, with a Thai flavour. Bruce, Lorraine, Colin and I climbed to the top and were amazed to see the market stalls set up inside.

Our last stop was at another temple. By then it was 4pm and we were shuttled back to the border to return to Thailand.

After more queues and forms, forms and more forms, we were about to jump back onto the bus over the bridge, when I realised that our Visa had the 30th of November on it. Our flights out of Thailand are for the 2nd of December, so this was something of a concern. Several of us tried convincing them to give us back our original date but to no avail. It seems that the Bangkok airport give you a 30 day visa, but once you leave the border it is revoked. Then when we came back to re-new our visa they only gave us 15 days. The thought of imprisonment or a fine only made us laugh. There is hope… we would drive to the immigration centre in the morning and try pleading with them. Watch this space!

All 8 of us piled into a 4WD and took off for Tha Phon, which should have been a 4 hour drive but ended up 5 or 6 due to a 5 car pile up on the road and 3 stops along the way (4 including the supermarket  at Petchabun). The squish in the car made for very cozy conversation and poor Peter (uncle) had to listen to our ‘are we there yet?’ pleas along the way.
To our amusement, the Tesco supermarket in Petchabun had everything under the sun you could ever want. We thought we were off to the country and all civilisation  would be gone!
Tha Phon is a little village with about 3,000 people in it. My uncles house is the recently built’mansion’ of the village. Each of us couples had  an enormous room each with queen size bed, ensuite and air-con. We got the best one because we are the favourites (!) It had a balcony looking over the mountains. The house is stunning and so is the area we are in.
Ahhh, the serenity!
For the equivent of $15Aus we got takeaway from the restaurant, enough to feed all 8 of us!
After a visit from some pommy characters (friends of Peter and Eiams) and another dose of Thai beer to cool us down, we took off to bed and woke to the sun shining on the mountains.

Our first day in Bangkok we were pretty weary. We met up with Eiam and Peter at our hotel for breakfast and enjoyed scrambled eggs and toast with a stiff brew of coffee. After much discussion, we decided to take a taxi to the markets where (wait for it) Colin was measured up for a suit for the wedding. He (we) chose a nice cashmere fabric and shirt which we will pick up when we arrive back in Bangkok in a few weeks time.

I had the choice of shopping with Lee, Lorraine and Eiam or going to the computer shop. Hard choice… but the computer shop won. I was so overshelmed by the centre I bought nothing! After lunch, we returned to our rooms on a ‘Tok Tok’ which is similar to an amusement ride at Luna Park. For just a few small dollars we were able to spin through the polluted traffic with the greatest of ease.

After freshening up at the room, which took quite a bit of effort as we had to be careful what we wore, we took a more civilised taxi accross to the Oriental hotel. The code of dress here was complex as we had already sent most of our luggage away to Tha Phon, where Peter and Eiam live. My taxi had Peter, Bruce and Lorraine and myself in it. We arrived to the beautiful hotel, managed to pass the scrutiny of the doorman and sat looking at the exquisite cakes and decor while we waited for the other group. After over an hour of this, the other group ‘spilled into the room with stories of getting lost and having to walk for several 100 kilometres.

It was then discovered that high tea (which is what we came for) was now over. We decided to catch a water taxi along the river. At this stage I discovered I had no SD card in my camera so had to resort to photographing with the ‘Hipstamatic’ app on my iphone.

Our next stop was home again and the groups in the taxis were the same as before. My group won the Amazing race yet again and arrived considerably earlier than the less skilled one.

The most difficult part of that day was having our ‘foot massage’ (calves and thighs with added shoulders and kneck) for an hour. Apart from the sound of Colin squeeling everytime they hit a sore spot in his feet, the experience was more than pleasant!!

The day finished off at a restaurant, where we dined outside in the cool air sipping Thai beer.

I don’t recall going to sleep or being asleep but I’m sure I did!