Thakek

21^st November

We left Kong Lor at the usual early house and headed towards Thakek.

This was another new stop that Stray failed to tell us about and to be honest, they could have done with missing it out! We checked in at the hotel and only had a few minutes to drop off our bags before we got back on the bus and headed off to do some activities. When we drove up to the hotel it looked pretty flash and at 110,000Kip a night we thought we would be getting a night of luxury. We were very wrong. They didn't know our group was coming so it was a mad dash for whatever they had available. Our twin room absolutely stunk and was filthy. The bottom of the bath was covered in rust and the taps were caked in limescale. I know we're in Southeast Asia and shouldn't expect a lot, but all our other hotels, hostels and guest houses have been cheaper, cleaner and generally of a much higher standard. To make matters worse, there was no mosquito screen and we were right beside the Mekong River! Our Stray guide told us that while he had never been to this town before his boss had told him there was nowhere else to stay so we decided to grin and bear it, well, Rory did, I just sat fuming on the bus!

It didn't take long to arrive at our lunch and activity stop which was nice but tailored to rock climbers so within about five minutes we had completed all the activities. After our lunch, a sort of chicken stir-fry with rice thing, I was nominated as tour leader and made the executive decision to go swimming! While there wasn't anything to jump off, it was nice being able to swim in relatively deep water!

After a good dip we went back to the disgusting hotel where Rory and I moved to a new room which was beside the karaoke room (yes karaoke is popular here and yes, I did spend the evening listening to Asian ballads) but it had a mosquito net. Unfortunately it was still dirty and there were three or four wormy centipedes in the bath! The room even attracted cockroaches which was pretty bleak but the internet did work so I was able to get on Facebook and see pictures of my brand new cousin/nephew! Massive congratulations to my wonderful cousin who has given us a little boy to completely spoil and who I can't wait to come home and meet!