Who said "You cannot teach an old Muntz new ..."

Well Kitty is having a 'little' difficulty' with the currency. I told her to buy a $2 calculator but she refused "I am good at maths !"she replied. But not with BIG numbers. In Laos anyone can be a millionaire. A really good meal for two can cost 100,000 Kip. But this is about $10 Australian. Kitty cannot cope with a 100,000 expenditure for a meal. She has to think 10,000 or 1000. Result - total confusion. We withdrew 1, 1417,000 Kip the other day. Kitty counted it out assuming it was 17,000. No - she cannot cope with these big numbers.

But we have had a win with hiking. Kitty refused to buy thongs or sandals. Until we did a day hike across MANY rivers. Taking shoes and socks off every 10 minutes was a disaster. She tried walking barefoot across streams but needed a guide to hold her up and she looked as if she was doing a Stephen Hawkins impression when crossing streams. Today she gave in and wore thongs (maybe in a week it will be sandals).

Today we hiked, caved and tubed. A day trip (including a chicken shashlick and rice lunch) cost $11 each - and only 5 in the group . Superb scenery, walks and tubing into deep subterranean caves, and a leisurely 2 hour tubing down the river to Vang Vieng. The backpackers LOVE tubing. Lots of bars (the alcoholic kind) on the way, and water swings, flying foxes etc .

Our hotel in Vang Vieng (the Sivixay) was nice and cheap - $6 a night. All hotels in Laos are spotless but this one was very noisy. Hang the cost - today we moved into a $15 p.n. guesthouse (the Grand View - very appropriately named) on the river. Spotless, meeeting the RL test, and with superb views of the mountains and the river . The sunset from the balcony was stunningly romantic - it is a pity Kitty was sound asleep and missed it ! Photos in Kitty's post.