Day 73, 77km: by Chris

Dense fog enveloped the jungle this morning and were we're woken by the pattering of drips from wet leaves hitting the tent. It didn't take long to burst out the the cloud into bight blue sky's on our way up the first of two hot 2000ft climbs on a badly potholed road. We had lunch next to a spring under a palm tree where I was harassed by irritating little flies which would buzz incessantly back and forth in front of my face and then punch me in the eye. (To be fair to the fly, this blow comes from my own fist trying to kill the exasperating pest). After the second big sweaty hill we rolled downhill, past children waving and shouting greetings including 'good morning' despite it being well past mid-day. At the bottom we found a guest house opposite the bus station that had a spider the size my palm above the shower and geckos on the walls.

 For dinner we ate noodle soup, as it is the only thing we have worked out how to order. Unfortunately, this is a small snack as far as I'm concerned so immediately ate 3 packs of biscuits and 6 bananas when we got back to our room.

In Laos, as in China, most of the time we have no idea what we are eating: