Tuk-Tuk to the Road. Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent

at Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang and Luang Nam Tha en route to the Chinese border at Boten.

      One final thing: I forgot to mention the food market we stumbled upon at Phimai the other night. Among the gastronomic delights on offer were crispy fried frogs on skewers, toad-in-a-bag, still-gasping fish and, best of all, pigs’ willies. While I recoiled and retched violently at the sight of the last, Jo whipped out her camera and zoomed in for the close-up. Delightful.

      Over to Jo…

      

So, here we are in our luxury hotel, with the most comfortable beds outside of England. Breakfast this morning was an interesting experience. I was just about to tuk in to my plateful of pastries when I noticed that my plate was moving ever so slightly. I was sober and not high on Coke (the liquid variety) at the time and the motion was caused by some ants—not the one sitting at the table, but the small black ones with lots of legs. I went back to examine the pastry plate more carefully and found there to be quite a few ants. I then decided to add some sugar to my cup of rather tasteless Lipton Yellow Label tea and found a little critter in the sugar bowl as well. I avoided the ant and added my sugar, before I informed the hotel staff. Is this really the sort of thing one expects from a five-star establishment? Anyway, breakfast was quite a feast and made a pleasant change to rice and American pancakes.