Thursday 19th October

Once again there was overnight rain, but less torrential and like yesterday the day dawned steamy with low visibility. By mid morning however it was brigtening and our friends had safely arrived so we headed out to the "Russian Market", a dense mix of ordinary market stalls (vegetables, meat, live fish, moped parts, books, clothes, bags) and tourist traps (wood, silver and bonework predominated).

A few purchases later we went back to prepare for the "cyclo-hash". Hashing is normally a running activity where a "hare" lays a trail with flour or chalk markings and other "hounds" follow shortly after to follow the trail which leads to beer at the end. Usually this is done by running/ walking. A cyclo is an old fashioned bike conveyance with a driver pedalling a passenger seat. Put the two together and you have 200 foreigners being chauffeured around through traffic with much amusement and chaos.

Once the "run" was finished we headed out on a sunset cruise on the Mekong with dinner at a huge venue on the edge of town.