Tubing

On our last day in Vang Vieng we checked out early and headed into town and a rented a tube to float down the river in. Tubing as it’s known is the ‘done thing’ in Vang Vieng. The tubing company dropped us back near the farm and we hoped in the river with our large black tubes and floated back to town. The river didn’t have much flow in most places and we needed to get back pretty quickly to catch a bus to Vientiane.

The general idea with tubing is that you make a day of it. There’s bars at certain parts of the shore where you can stop and have a beer. Many of these also have swings and flying foxes that you can fling yourself off into the water. Basically the you hold onto a padded piece of wood above your head which is attached to a cable. You launch yourself off a platform into the middle of the river, letting go and dropping into the water. These are great fun and you can drop from very high up on some of them. On one occasion I didn’t drop when I should have and went flying back towards the platform. The local in charge tried to grab me but couldn’t get a grip so I ended up swinging out again but didn’t have enough momentum left to make it to the place I was supposed to drop from. I’d have to drop in an area with more shallow water instead. You’d think I’d be crapping myself thinking I’d break my neck or something but it was actually all very calm. Every time I’d hover over the safest part to drop the local guy would yell ‘jump, jump!’ and after a couple of times I let go. I landed safely. Just a couple of metres away the water got really shallow and there were rocks so it was good timing!

Back in Vientiane later that afternoon we checked into a guesthouse and had dinner with a couple we’d met on the bus ride before calling it a night. The next morning we were flying to China at 6:30am so it was a 4am wake up. Ouch!

Organic Farm

A few hours after Chris and Nicola left Don Det Peach, Tess and I left too. We were making a boat/minivan trip back to Pakse. Tess was heading back to Bangkok then on to Malaysia so we said our goodbyes. Peach and I caught an overnight bus to Vientiane. We got there on a Tuesday but the earliest available flight to China was Friday. Rather than hanging around in boring, ugly Vientiane we headed to Vang Vieng which was a town about 4 hours bus ride north.

In Vang Vieng we stayed outside town on an organic farm. The room was very overpriced for what it was. The owner of the farm was called Mr. T. He was a very community orientated bloke who ran various projects to help local people including collecting money to help run a local school bus. So we didn’t mind coughing up the cash since we knew it was being put into good causes.

The was an English school in a village a few minutes walk away and we volunteered our time there one night. We sat in on a couple of lessons and helped the kids out with their exercises. There was a class for primary aged kids and another for seconday school kids. It was good fun and after class the kids came up to us and shook our hands and thanked us for coming saying “Thank you. See you tomorrow”.

The class was being run by an English girl and and an Aussie guy. They were staying on the farm too. We also met another , originally from Sydney, who was staying in a mud brick hut on the farm whilst writing a novel.

Here’s a shot of her hut.

The next day we decided to volunteer to do some work on the farm. We spent a couple of hours weeding a lettuce patch before the heat of the sun took its toll. We spent most of the rest of the day reading in the farm’s restaurant or swimming in the river which boarded the farm. In the late afternoon we helped sort silk worm cocoons in another part of the farm before Peach realised she was allergic to them and started sneezing.

Don Det

After a of nights on Don Khong we headed to another island a 1.5 hour bike ride away called Don Det. This was a location right up there on Matt & Liv’s highlights of Asia list so I’d been looking forward to it. The island itself was much more scenic than Don Khong. There were many restaurants along the shore that looked out on an amazing view of the surrounding islands and river.

The main road in the town was a dirt track made muddy by the recent rains.

We checked into some bungalows where Tess had been staying for a few days. We hadn’t seen her since Luang Prabang. With the great views and relaxed atmosphere I could easily have spent a few days lazing around on Don Det. But it wasn’t to be. Nicola had had it with the insects that were constantly bothering and biting her on all sorts of body parts so she and Chris decided that they’d move on to Cambodia the next day. In Nicola’s defence the number of insects that would hover around restuarant lights in the evenings in the south of Laos was insane. You couldn’t drink a beer without a couple of insects going for a swim in it. Every few seconds you’d have to shoo some away from you. Insects don’t particularly bother me and I rarely get bitten by mites or mozzies. In general I just put up with them. My policy with insects, as with most things, is that since they can’t harm me then there’s no point getting stressed about them. Unfortunately Nicola didn’t feel the same way. She hated the bugs and freaked out whenever they touched her. The bugs knew this so they gave her more attention that anyone else. She and Chris were often suffering from bites. Sometimes Nicola’s own hair would freak her out since she’d mistake it for some kind of bug. Hahaha. Nothing I said seemed to help. It was really very funny to watch her trying to deal with the bug onslaught though. The last straw for Nicola came not long after we’d arrived on Don Det and a daring ant bit her private parts. This was quickly referred to as a “mingery”.

Peach and I decided to leave the next morning too. Our time was running out so we decided to head back to Vientiane and fly to China rather than head back up north and enter China overland. Time was of the essence.

One of the last things we did with Chris and Nicola was write a song. We scribbled down all the sayings that travellers often hear from locals whilst in SE Asia and strung them together into a tune. We called it “Kop Jai Li Li” which means “thank you very much” in Laos. We’d been talking about writing a song ever since the party in Tadlo when we’d arrived back to our guesthouse from dinner and the locals were singing karaoke. One of them handed me the microphone and I sang the only Laotian words I could think of along with the melody – which happened to be “Kop Jai Li Li”. Since then singing those words had become a regular thing between the 4 of us so we wanted to expand it into a song. I came up with a simple chord progression for the music and over dinner we scribbled down all the sayings we could think of to use as lyrics.

When we got back to our bungalows the insects had invaded our porches so we headed into Chris and Nicola’s bungalow and gave our new tune a couple of run throughs. It worked a treat. We all found it very funny and were extremely proud of ourselves. I think Nicola might have recorded a version on their camera so with any luck it’ll end up on YouTube.

Early the next morning we said our goodbyes to Chris and Nicola as they headed off to Cambodia. It was sad to say goodbye to them. We bonded really well during our time together and know that we’ll remain in contact. In fact just a couple of days ago they were passing through Melbourne and went to our friends pub for a meal. I got to talk to them on the phone there and it was great to talk to them again. They’re off to make a new life for themselves in NZ now. To Chris and Nicola I have only one thing to say: “Kop Jai Li Li”!!

Bike Marathon

The bus from Pakse dropped us near a series of boats that could take us to our first 4000 islands destination, Don Khong. We hired a boat to take us across to the island then started the typical accommodation tango – walking all over the main street of the island looking for somewhere to stay. All the time I was cursing my backpack and trying to think of things I could turf. This happens all the time. Nicola has a 35 litre pack and Chris has a 50. This compares to my 75 and Peach’s 55! And they’re moving to NZ forever. We were both so jealous of how little they carried. How can we have had so much more stuff than them? Of course I’ve usually got 6 or more books on me so that’s a big part of the problem.

When we finally found a place to stay that suited everyone’s needs I was in agony from carrying my pack for so long. A shower and too much tiger balm had me feeling a little better. We all grabbed dinner before going for a walk to see what else the village offered. In true Laos style there was jack all happening so we hit the sack. It was only about 8:30pm.

The next day before I awoke Peach had gotten up and decided we were moving hotels. Apparently our room was haunted or something. Whatever. So we ended up at Mr. Pon’s which is where Chris and Nicola were staying.

We thought it would be fun to hire pushbikes and go for a ride. We found out that there was only one real main road and it did a circuit of the island. Apparently it was 35km around. For some reason this didn’t bother us and we headed off in good spirits. I don’t think any of us thought we’d actually do a full circuit of the island. I think we expected there to be a short cut back. But there wasn’t.

We set off ill prepared for such a long ride. Since it looked like it might rain Peach & I left most of our stuff behind since we didn’t want it to get wet. All we had was our wallets and some water. Chris and Nicola had a bit more stuff but not much. Luckily they had sunscreen but it was nearly empty so there wasn’t enough to last the whole ride. So we all got a little sun burnt, Peach and Nicola particularly so. The weather alternated between rain and sun. The bikes we hired were simple single geared units that were quite pleasant for a meandering ride but no much chop for much more. During the ride we were never really sure of how far we’d gone or how much longer there was to go.

Despite the distance and the temprimental weather we had a good time to begin with. There were many houses and farms that we passed and the locals, especially the kids, would wave and yell hello to us as we went past. About 2/3 of the way through we came to a little village and decided to stop for a drink. Peach also bought her and I a bamboo hat to help protect from the sun and/or rain. We were all very hungry by this stage but decided to keep moving.

Stopping for those few minutes turned out to be the worst thing to do. Afterwards the girls really struggled to get the energy to keep going. As we left the village Peach threw a tanty when she couldn’t get her hat to stay on properly. She was also convinced we were lost. At the village the road forked. We know one road would continue to hug the shore and eventually get us back home but two different locals we asked told us the other road was the best route. Peach was convinced we were cutting back across the island instead of heading for home. This combined with her lack of energy meant it was all tanty systems go! For much of the rest of the ride we’d split from Chris and Nicola. I spent the ride trying to coach Peach whilst Chris did the same with Nicola. At one point Peach threw her bike on the ground and sat with her head in her hands on the side of the road. I lost my temper (which is an extreme rarity!). As I saw it we may as well keep riding rather than sitting on the side of the road in the pouring rain especially since last time we stopped to rest it did more harm than good. Peach got back on the bike eventually but it was a snails pace for the rest of the way.

Some way further down the road I recognised a cell tower that I’d seen in the town and letting Peach know this landmark was on the horizon provided some comfort that we were heading in the correct direction after all. Despite this she again collapsed. This time it was out the front of a house. Local villagers saw her and came over to see what the problem was. There was probably 15 or so people standing around in the rain as I tried to explain that she was OK but very tired from the ride. An old man who was one of the first on the scene called out to a girl who fetched some leaves which he crumbled up. He indicated Peach should smell the leaves so she did. One man spoke some English and he told me that we were only 1km from our guesthouse. After a few minutes Peach got back on the bike and after thanking everyone profusely we were on our way again.

Shortly thereafter we arrived at Mr. Pon’s. Chris and Nicola arrived a few minutes later. We were all pretty buggered and for the second night running we were in bed before 9pm.

Get yer motor runnin’!

Peach, Chris, Nicola and myself left Tadlo, sans Darren, and caught an early bus back to Pakse. After checking email, going to the bank and having lunch we headed for the bus station to catch a bus to the 4000 islands. The 4000 islands are in very wide section of the Mekong. Some of the islands are just big enough for one person to stand on whilst others have people living on them and are big enough for farms and villages.

We got to the bus station to catch the 2pm bus. When we got there we found out the bus was actually a large pickup truck with bench seats in the back which was packed with people and produce. I’ll take a guess and say there were probably 20 people in the back including us. Peach, Chris and Nicola got a seat on a bench inside but I picked a spot at the back on some rice bags that were tied to the bumper. All was well at first until I realised there was a basket of freshly caught fish tied to the roof and that fishy liquid was dripping on me. No problem. With a bit of adjustment I was able to avoid the dripping and still dangle my legs out the back of the vehicle. As we took off I pumped Jimi Hendrix on my ipod. It was the perfect soundtrack. As ‘All Along The Watchtower’ started I thought of that great scene from the movie ‘Whitnail & I’ where it’s playing as they head off on their road trip. I spent the whole 2.5 hours or so of the trip looking out the back and grooving to tunes. The lush tropical greenery reminded me of Vietnam war movies and TV shows like ‘Tour of Duty’. It was probably my favourite journey of the trip so far.

Here’s a shot of the inside of the truck we were in.

Here’s the truck after we’d gotten off it. The basket at the back is the one that was dripping on me.

This was my view for most of the ride.

Tadlo Relaxo

We spent the next 3 or so days in Tadlo. Like most of Laos there’s not really much to do but it was good fun chilling out and getting to know Chris and Nicola. The rainy season had well and truly started so it rained everyday for a couple of hours or more. There was only about 4 places to eat in the village and it didn’t take us long to do the rounds of each of them. We spent a lot of time sitting around playing games, shooting the breeze or taking afternoon naps. We also met another guy called Darren who briefly became the 5th member of our group.

On one day we went on a tour of the local area with one of the restuarant owners, Jom. The tour was pretty boring which was a shame since we all really like Jom. We did get to see a plantation with pineapple, coffee and other fruits but none of it was in season which detracted from the experience. We visited a village that produce a lot of amazing weaved fabrics – they looked great and it was interesting to see how they were made but at the same time they were trying to do a hard sell which I didn’t care for.

Here’s a pic of one of the houses in the village.

We visited a local market. Being a big market fan I loved it. There were all sorts of creatures for sale as food. Frogs, eels, bugs etc… Jom offered to take us to another market where we could buy a snake and he’d cook it for us that evening. Usually I would have jumped at the chance. I’ve always wanted to ‘eat the snake’. I didn’t go for it though. I reckon I’ve got to do it in a proper restaurant where it’s on the menu and I can eat its still beating heart and drink its blood. Hmmm…

We visited a waterfall that was much higher up than the one where we were staying however it was much less impressive since a power station that had been built near by diverted most of the water away from the falls. The views were tremendous though. By this time it started raining. We were sitting in the back of Jom’s pickup and it had no roof. The others decided to tough it out in the back but I jumped in the front. Darren was already in there and we were all a bit miffed that he didn’t offer his seat to the girls. Pretty soon it was bucketing down so we called the tour off and headed back to our bungalows.

Tadlo party rockin’

So we found ourselves on a road basically in the middle of nowhere after the bus from Pakse dropped us off. Tadlo was a couple of km’s away. There was one guy with a tuk-tuk sitting in the restaurant where the bus dropped us. Porter’s 5 forces of competition say that when there’s a lack of suppliers in the market (in our case tuk-tuk drivers) that they have the power and can demand higher prices. This is exactly what happened. We bargined hard though but he didn’t budge. Despite not really feeling like the walk we put our backpacks on and made off as if we were going to hoof it. It was all a bluff though and it worked.

A few minutes later we were in the sleepy tiny village of Tadlo. After looking around for a place to stay we all ended up settling a lovely place with bungalows set in the forest. The restaurant run by the bungalow owners had a great view of the amazing local waterfalls. See the picture below.

After grabbing some food we all retitred for a a nap. A few hours later I woke up and forced myself outside. I can’t remember being so lethargic ever. The others were still sleeping so I headed down to the restaurant to find there was a party going with a bunch of locals since it was a holiday for Buddhas birthday. A huge P.A. was set up along with a synthesizer and some microphones. There were 20-40 locals sitting on long tables eating and drinking and having a great time listening to each other sing karaoke. They weren’t serving food to guest though so I set off to another guesthouse to get some food.

Later on everyone else awoke and we went out for more food together. On the way back the party was still going and by this stage the locals were all well and truly drunk and dancing around to latin tunes they were pumping out of the P.A. system. Chris and I grabbed a couple of Beer Lao’s and we all hit the dancefloor. We soon got our groove on and we were the hit of the party. It was so surreal partying with these locals, dancing to latin music, with amazing waterfalls as a backdrop. We couldn’t believe we were here and had a laugh that just 24 hours ago we were probably just getting on the bus in Vientiane.

“Forget Vientiane, it’s rubbish”

The quote that is the title of this post was a hand written note that a friend from Melbourne had written prior to me leaving. Mary – you were spot on! As mentioned previously Vientiane was not in the least bit exciting. We didn’t do one touristy thing while we were there. We hung around there just long enough to get our Chinese visas. We paid double to get them in 24 hours rather than wait 3 days. We didn’t realise how good our timing was since the next day it was a Chinese holiday and the embassy was closing for a week. Whilst we were in China we met someone that got stuck in Vientiane waiting for the embassy to reopen. He had the same feelings as us towards the Laos capital and spent most of the time hanging out in his hotel room. Rather than doing this Peach & I discovered a restaurant that served awesome food and then gave you free internet. So we spent a lot of time there. We also spent a lot of time trying to figure out what do once we got our passports back from the Chinese embassy and we could hightail it outta Vientiane.

After lots of to-ing and fro-ing we decided to continue heading south towards the famed 4,000 islands. Then if we had time we’d head back up north later on and check out the parts we missed before overlanding it into China. The main reason I never tried to make plans on this trip was because things always changed. This time was no different – as you’ll discover in future posts.

We got our passports back at about 4pm on Tuesday and were booked on an overnight bus to Pakse, the main hub of the south, 4 hours later. Not soon enough. We were supposed to be picked up at our hotel at 8pm. By this time on the trip we expected some kind of drama everytime we had to catch a bus. Almost as if scripted our pick up time came and went. Peach dashed down to the agent who we booked our tickets through a couple of times and he assured us everything would be ok, he called the driver and there’d been some mistake. Sure. Whatever.

Eventually a tuk-tuk big enough to fit about 10 people showed up to take us to the bus station. The bus was due to leave in 15 minutes and we were 30 minutes away. The tuk-tuk was almost full and the people inside it informed us that the driver had done about 3 laps of the city picking people up.

There was one particularly funny English guy sittng across from us. As the ride dragged on we got talking about how we’d hoped to go trekking up north but had to come to Vientiane instead. This guy’s response was “Well, you know, trekking. It’s a lot like bum sex isn’t it?” Everyone in the tuk-tuk just stared at him, shortly followed by bursts of laughter. What a random comment? He went on to explain that he felt that some people try bum sex and really like it, and for other people it’s not for them. He and his wife had been on a horror trek in Thailand and decided trekking wasn’t for them. I didn’t know who this guy was but I got a kick out of his perspective. Plus he was piss funny. I didn’t know it then but we’d end up spending the next week or so travelling together and I can honestly say they were our favourites in terms of all the friends we made in Asia, and there was some quality competition!

The guy in question was Chris and his lovely wife was Nicola. They were both English and travelling through Asia on their way to settling in NZ. As luck would have it they sat behind us on the bus to Pakse. We continued our conversation there and quickly discovered some remarkable similarities between Chris and I and Peach and Nicola. It was as if we were a mirror couple.

When we reached Pakse in the morning we parted ways only to be reunited some minutes later as we ended up on the same tuk-tuk. Peach and I had heard Pakse was just as shit as Vientiane so our plan was to head across town to another bus station where we’d get another bus 4 hours to a tiny place called Tadlo which we’d heard great things about. Chris and Nicola were going to stay in Pakse for the night and then continue heading south. We managed to convince them to come with us though and we all ended up at the other bus station.

The bus station was a large dusty area with some shonky looking restaurants and food sellers. We had an hour or so to kill until our bus so I grabbed a noodle soup. The others weren’t so keen on the look of the hygeine. They had bananas instead.

Luckily I’d managed to sleep quite well on the bus – the VIP buses in Laos were even more luxurious than the ones in Thailand. As a result I didn’t mind the next 4 hour bus ride to Tadlo on a rattling, unairconditioned public bus. After a ride through some beautiful scenary the bus dropped us on a corner in the middle of nowhere. Apparently Tadlo was a couple of kilometres walk away.

Is there a doctor in the house?

The day after the epic interview adventure my constant headache was, well, still constant. We’d planned to head further north to an even more remote village that was supposed to be even more beautiful and was only accessible by boat. Given my condition though we reluctantly decided to catch the bus 4 hours in the opposite direction back to Luang Prabang so I could see a doctor. I hadn’t taken pain killers for a couple of days so I was getting used to walking around in throbbing pain – but it was probably a good idea to play it safe just in case my head was about to explode.

The bus ride was fairly uneventful and when we got back to Luang Prabang we checked into a hotel then headed off in search of the international clinic. When we got to the clinic I spoke to the nurse on duty and although there were some problems with language I managed to discover that since it was a Saturday all the doctors weren’t working. They’d be back on Monday. Given this why was the clinic even open? This I was not able to determine. I was able to find out that if I required a CAT scan I’d need to go to Vientiane.

So the options were:
1) Hang out in Luang Prabang, which was lovely but we’d already seen, until Monday. See a doctor and take it from there.
2) Save time and head straight to Vientiane. We had to go there eventually to get our visas for China. At least then if there was something seriously wrong with me they had better facilities.
3) Screw medical attention. Tough it out and head back up north.

I really didn’t want to hang out in Luang Prabang. So we saw a travel agent about options for getting to Vientiane. As it turned out we could catch a flight there in a couple of hours. Faced with an overnight bus trip with a throbbing head or a 45 minute flight it was an easy decision: fly.

In Vientiane a few hours later I realised why so many people had told me to avoid it if I could. It’s a shithole. It’s dusty, noisy and ugly. To its credit Vientiane probably had the best food I had in all of Laos.

After checking into a hotel we got a tuk-tuk through the dusty streets to the main hospital a few km’s out of the centre of town. Just before we got their out tuk-tuk broke down, haha! So we had to hoof it the last few hundred metres. Gold.

At the hospital a doctor asked me a bunch of questions and said I’d be better of going to the international clinic. Ok. the tuk-tuk was back in action so we headed back to the centre of town just a few hundred metres up the road from our hotel to the international clinic. By this time it was probably after 9pm. I was too late to be consulted by a doctor but I could see one the next day, Sunday. If needed I could get a CAT scan on Monday.

It was time for dinner. There was a great Indian place near our hotel and we ate a bucketload. I hadn’t had Indian for ages so I was loving it. I should probably mention that despite many days of pain I actually didn’t think anything serious was wrong. Call it my enduring cock-eyed optimism or plain stupidity. You decide.

The next day, surprise, surprise, my headache was still there. Before going back to the hospital I went to an internet cafe and did a spot of self-diagnosis. According to the wisdom of the internet since I wasn’t having seizures, vomitting or experiencing blurred vision I probably had nothing to worry about. I also found out that there’s loads of people that live with constant headaches for years at a time. There’s no way I was going to be having any of that.

At the clinic I saw a doctor. I was invited into the consultation room whilst he was still finishing up with another patient. Maybe he felt the language barrier meant that there’d be no doctor-patient confidentiality issues. When the other patient had gone he asked me a series of questions, mostly the same ones the doctor in the hospital had asked me the night before. Coincidently they were also aimed at determining if I had any of the symptons the internet had warned about.

He got out his tools and did a bunch of tests. Blood pressure, breathing, eyes, ears, throat etc… Then he pronounced that the cause of my headache was an infected throat. What was most surprising about this was that my throat hadn’t been sore once in the last few days. Hmmm. I mentioned this and he didn’t seem to think it was a problem. Apparently it was probably causing me mild discomfort but I hadn’t noticed. Apparently I’d probably also had a mild fever at times too. That was a bit more likely but I’m still not sure. Anyway, the good doctor subscribed me a heap of drugs. Antibiotics. Made sense. Antihistamines. Dunno about that. Paracetamol – enough to take one dose every 4 hours for a fortnight. Crikey!

Within a couple of days I was feeling heaps better and after a few days I was back to normal. So mabye the good doctor was on a winner. Regardless of what he thought there was no way I was dosing up on paracetamol every few hours for a couple of weeks. So I ignored that piece of advice. In fact I’ve still got some of the paracetamol left today.

Long distance job interview

After a few days in lovely Luang Prabang it was time to move on. Peach and I took a bus 4 hours north-west to Nom Kheow. We left Tess behind. Things had never really recovered from Peach & Tess’s falling out back in Thailand and from this point we pretty much went out separate ways except for a couple of brief path-crossings.

Nom Kheow is a very small village up in the mountains of northern Laos. It’s set in a valley with a river running through it and is surrounded by mountainous peaks. There’s just a small handful of places to stay – mostly bungalows along the river. The view from our bungalow in the mornings was incredible – a massive mountain with mist around it and the river in the foreground. There were hardly any other tourists around and there wasn’t much to do but kick back and relax. I had no problem with that.

Here’s a shot from the porch of our bungalow.

One thing that was causing me a problem though was a nagging headache that didn’t seem to be going away. By the time I got to Nom Kheow I’d had a headache non-stop for about a day and a half. I had been dosing up on pain killers but they didn’t seem to be having any effect. Peach blamed the Laos whiskey that I’d taken to having shots of at regular points throughout the day in Luang Prabang. I didn’t know what it was. It was a good thing there wasn’t much to do in Nom Kheow because with my throbbing head I didn’t feel like doing much.

The next day the headache was still there. I decided to stop taking pain killers and tough it out. At 4pm that day Peach had a job interview for a position in London. She’d sent her CV off on a whim a few days earlier for an entirely different role and the company had asked her to interview for a much better role that would have been a great step for her career. Having not had to think about work for so long Peach was very nervous. To try and help this we’d spent much of the previous evening going over the job description, anticipating potential questions and formulating appropriate answers.

There were only 2 internet connections in town but unfortunately these were dialup connections so doing the interview via Skype wasn’t an option. We sussed out that there were only 2 phone lines in the town capable of making international phone calls. Early in the morning the power went out. This meant the phone lines were down too. As the day ticked on the power didn’t come back on and the locals we asked had no idea when it would come on either. We had to come up with a contingency.

We thought of buying a mobile phone from the one guy in town that had a few old models for sale. We also thought of catching a bus back to Luang Prabang. Eventually we arranged to borrow a mobile phone from a girl that worked at a restaurant we’d eaten at a couple of times. It was a prepaid phone and we had no idea how much international call rates would be so we played it safe and loaded it up with $US25 worth of credit. After a successful test call to Australia to make sure it could make overseas calls we were set to go. All this time we were also trying to figure out how Peach would actually get to London to start the job, assuming she got it, since they’d indicated they wanted someone asap and we were in a remote location 4 hours from the nearest main town. I’ve managed to sum up this contingency in a few lines but let me assure you it took a good couple of hours or more and all the time my head was still aching.

By the time it came for Peach to make the phone call to the company in London I was in agony so I crawled back to the bungalow to lay down whilst she went to a bungalow attached to the restaurant to go over her notes one last time before making the call. I noticed as the clock hit 4pm that the power came back on – not that it was any use to us now!

I was surprised when Peach came back to the bungalow 20 minutes later. It turns out that despite all out planning we’d converted the time in London incorrectly – we didn’t thing to consider that the UK had adjusted to summer time. Bugger! It turns out the person who was to be interviewing Peach was in another interview. The receptionist told her to call back in an hour and try her luck then.

Finally the interview did take place but Peach didn’t think it went to well and she didn’t end up getting the role. On the positive side though she now had a revamped CV and lots of interview preparation material that could be used next time. Also we had a great adventure figuring out how to make the phone call in the first place. When we gave the phone back to the local girl it still had the best part of $US20 on it – this was a small fortune in Laos. The smile on her face was priceless. So despite I gave the experience a big tick.