Water water everywhere

It seems like there has been a water theme this last week or so, rivers, boating, waterfalls, swimming and monsoon! We hung out for a couple of nights at Nong Khiaw a little spot on the Nam U river, we had a bungalow right on the edge complete with hammock and room service breakfast (only $12 per night) amazing, although all these rooms come with extras like gigantic mosquitos, often ants and always gheckos! Some young lads we met out walking took us to a waterfall for a swim, off the beaten track where halfway there I remembered the UXO (unexploded bombs) but stuck to old footprints and instead just had 5 leeches to contend with at the end. We took a boat down river to Luang Prubang, where it joined the now huge Mekong river. Photo of me having dinner over looking the river and of the town from the big hill. Quite a tourist spot, a UNESCO site. We hired a motorbike and visited a lovely waterfall, nice swimming spots, also a bear rescue centre nearby with lovely little sun bears, they have been rescued from illegal animal trading - originally captured for bile extraction for Chinese medicine, so badly treated... Then off to Vang Vieng, a long bus ride due to the monsoon rain and really bad roads over mountainous terrain. It rained here for 3 days varying in intensity. Photo of Trevor (doing some secret training Pete.L.) on his pink one speed bike complete with bell, shopping basket, foot stand, mud guards, poncho and umbrella! All those extras he will surely require once home. So we just went out & got wet, explored some huge caves that where lived in during Indo- China war, visited more waterfalls and read two books. We found a lovely place to stay on the outskirts of town, the centre is yuk, all touristy and caters for backpackers who come here to go tubing down the river basically on a pub crawl, lots of bars on the way. All the eating places in the centre sell western food and play re runs of friends on tv. Not our cup of tea...currently in Vientiane the capital city, we can see across the mekong river to Thailand. Biked all around yesterday, photo of the Patuxai monument, built from cement given by USA intended for an airport runway.. also visited the
C.O.P.E centre, we r in good company, Hillary Clinton just visited there recently, it is a centre that deals with supporting the victims of UXO and makes artificial arms and legs and has rehab etc. Very interesting, and lots of sad stories. An amazing 80 million bombs are still unexploded here, about 260 million were dropped on this country during the Vietnam war, a war this country was not even in. A war legacy that continues. Blue sky today, heading south to the Kong Lo caves.