our last from laos- your right, we havn't been here very long

greetings from vientiane, capital of laos.

the wood camp would like to dedicate a special hello to the BIG G who has echoed our journey and just arrived in ireland having driven from epping green. we are most proud and hope she took a photograph of the monumentous 100 000 miles on her mile-o-meter just as we did.
we think that reeve may be jealous of the 'goodies' for kim; we too hope that she has lots of things waiting for us upon our return.

we are also here to wish a happy brithday to chris smith.
not entirely sure if she reads this blog.

for those of you who have not been especially mentioned and are feeling left out, the rest of the post has been dedicated to everyone.


it was all drama and suspense yesterday as the fickle hand of fate struck larry another heavy blow. i can picture the scene as if it was yesterday. as we were cruising slowly up another windy mountain road (apears to be the only type available in laos) daddy looked in the rear-view mirror and could only see half of trusty larry: we stopped emidiately to asses the situation and say that the towing bar was practically severed. daddy decided that it was best to simply drive on slowly and hope that we made it to the next town with a wealder before the enevitable struck; however, continuing up the hill we decided that it was best to stop and try to attach some form of splint.
our first splint was rather primitave (wooden plank used to support trailer table) and secured using only two webbing straps.
our second attempt was much better as we really got into the swing of things. during this second stop we hunted for some stronger wood but only found some weak bamboo. this is when inspiration struck and daddy suggested we take the extention legs from the gazeebo and use them on top of the wooden plank. the second splint consised of the wooden plank, four steel gazeebo legs and four lengths of webbing straps (all of our lengths of webbing straps).
this much sturdier quick-fix managed to get us into a large village where there was a wealder, using sunglasses for protection, who managed to weald on a few new bits to the towing bar.
problem successfully adverted
although the splint had held, the wood had split and the legs were bent.
our main concern now is how we are going to make the gazeebo higher when we get to camping on a beach in thailand.

the hastle of fixing larry once again ment that we were pushed behind schedule and had to drive in the dark looking for a place to stay for the night.
in our tired state and in the dark we only just managed to avoid a night in a brothel.

we drove in to the capital this morning after a breakfast at vang vieng, our intended stop last night, in a local haut that played inappropriate re-runs of family guy.
today, in the capital we have looked at the outside of some temples, the palace and the american embassy. we also arrived at the post office 10 minutes late but managed to procure stamps elsewhere.
dinner at the night food market was a particular joy as the food was lovely but, most importantly, i found it when daddy said i was going the wrong way.

we will cross the border into thailand in the morning and are preparing ourselves for a long wait (have brought cooked pork in preperation) into a country that has so far told us we need 5 copies of everthing. i look forward to it with anticipation.