………..shouldn’t be a problem, should it?  Well, let’s find out.  We survived the long, hot, uncomfortable trip back and were glad that we made that decision because the elderly gentleman I spoke of earlier said he was there for five days waiting for enough people to fill a boat to Luang Probang (10 people).   Every day he would go with his wife to the river to be told not enough people and then the day we left there were twenty people on a boat made for ten so he refused because they were packed in like sardines…..and decided instead to come in the minivanwhere we were not that much different.  Returning to Luang Probang was a welcomed relief and we checked into the same hotel we had spent two nights previously and it felt like we had come home because they were so happy to us.   Kind of like when we come home from work and O’Reilly is all over us and thanks Cathy for the note and I’m glad he misses us as I was afraid after spending almost seven weeks with you and Keith he might never come back.  We’ve seen many, many dogs here so he does come to mind a lot but you can tell him we haven’t seen any as handsome and we really miss him(don’t worry Kathleen and Andrea, we miss you guys just as much!!!!)

Right, back to our hotel where everyone was so welcoming and it was so clean with loads of hot water and needless to say the shower was very welcoming.  After our cleanup we immediately went to the travel agency(one of thousands in this small city) to book our flight for the next day.  We were told there were no flights on Laos airlines but we could get out later the next day on Vietnam airlines but it would cost more and we agreed and our tickets were confirmed.  We decided to pay by visa but they did not have a machine(at a fairly busy travel agency!) and we would have to travel by tuk tuk to use the visa machine at head office which was five minutes away and pay a surcharge…….no problem, so off we went.  We left with a written confirmation that we had to review and sign and everyone was happy.

Another great meal, a good sleep and a hot shower prepared us for the day as we were planning on doing some more sightseeing as we were not leaving until 4:30ish.  But as Jim and I were coming out of our room along comes Marilyn with a very unhappy and stressful look on her face saying that the young man from the travel agency was at our hotel because there was a’little problem’.  Apparently there was a change and there were no longer enough seats on the plane for the three of us, just two of us could go and they would try and find another seat on Laos airline which yesterday had been full.  When we showed him our confirmation he just smiled, laughed actually, and said to please come to the travel agency and we promptly did.

When we get to the travel agency and show our confirmation which we had received about 14 hours ago where it said in large letters ‘confirmed’ he once again just smiled stating things have changed and just laughed……..we weren’t!   Not wanting to lose face and get upset we controlled our North American tempers because the day before as we were passing by a similar agency we could hear this very loud English speaking man being very angry over something he thought he was to get and apparently didn’t and it sounded horrible….we held our composure. Our little agent could speak some English and we were at his mercy because we had no usage of his language other than thank you and right then we were not too thankful.  However he told us this was not his problem, wrong use of words, and we communicated that it was in fact his problem, and ours, and he picked up the phone and dialed. He then gave it to me and someone at the other end said he was with the airline, things had changed and they could make arrangements for us to travel together on a later flight, not too much later, but it would have to be with Laos airlines………and remember this was the airline we had tried to book with but it had no seats yesterday!  Our little man at the desk just continued smiling and then said he would give us some money back, about $15 each and a new confirmation. What were we to do?  Obviously we agreed and we signed up again.  He laughed as he was counting out our refund in ‘kip’ and then laughed some more telling us he was a little short by about 8000kip…..which although it sounds like a lot was only about $2.   We just shook our heads and began to laugh ourselves and then he told us he used to be a monk.   That brought to mind, of course, all the research they have done on the impact of meditation on monks and how happy they are and I thought to myself I could learn a lot from this guy.  Before we left we had a brief conversation about the monks and asked him why he left.  He said he went in when he was around twelve and after 7-8 years he became interested in women and wanted to drink and have fun and laughed out loud.  I really liked the little guy but was uncertain as to whether we had been ripped off or not.   It wasn’t just the two dollars but we began to wonder if he got a better offer for our seats………..now that’s stinky thinking…..guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens at the airport because we didn’t have assigned seating….either time!

The rest of the day was ours to enjoy our last day in Laos and what better way to do it then to visit a wat, guess by now you know that’s a temple.  This one, however, was up quite a hill…..actually a mountain it seemed like when we were climbing straight up those three hundred plus steps in the heat.  But Wat Phousi was worth every step!  Not only did we get a good cardio workout but we got an unbelievable view of the city and the rivers……….as well as seeing many, many, many golden Buddhas.    My favorite was the reclining Buddha that must have been almost fifty feet and she looked so contented.  If I could have I would have laid down right beside her for a nap but I had enough common sense to know that this probably was not a good idea so I trekked on.  Next there was a cave that even I had to bend down so I wouldn’t hit my head and there were quite a few more Buddhas inside there.

Great hike, another good lunch where we shared a large beer, and then back to the hotel for a hot shower and  wait for our tuk tuk to the airport.   While waiting we were chatting about the great week we had in Laos even if it was, at times, stressful.  No one got sick and thank God Marilyn was with us because the bugs really liked her and Jim and I were almost bite free.      Well there’s our tuk tuk driver and it’s amazing how we have come accustomed to driving in the back of a pick-up truck………actually looking forward to it.  Vietnam here we come!