Laos - Day 5

Vang Vien - waterfall and swimming

Excited about getting a little bike riding in today, Emma B, Laura and I organised some bikes and went and had breakfast at an organic cafe on the edge of town.

Sylvia had left to go to Vientienne early, and Rune and Kathryn went on a caving tour for the day.

After breakfast we moved out of town on a dirt road, through little villages, over a river and around mountains, heading towards a cave (sorry, forgot the name).

There was a strange Thai guy that kept following us and stopping when we did, and then if we held back, he'd stop and wait. We were friendly at first, but then got a little suspicious, and we eventually managed to shake him, but not before we started freaking out a little.

We arrived at the most amazing lagoon and emersed our hot bodies in the very cool aquamarine water. Fresh!

After a luxurious swim we went and took residence in one of the huts along the lagoon and decided to chill out and rest for a while. Lined up like sentinels, we all shut our eyes and rested, taking in the smells and sounds of our gorgeous surrounds.

Then I felt a little tweaking of my toes. I looked up and there was the little boy we'd seen wandering around earlier. He giggled to his heart's delight when I looked up at him. He couldn't speak, and at first I also thought he was deaf. But it became pretty clear later on that he could hear, he was just mute. And boy he was gorgeous.

I looked around at the girls napping and saw what a good shot it was, so I pulled out the camera and started snapping.

The camera sparked a keen interest from our new little friend. And so I gave him the camera. These photos are the outcome of the next couple of hours with our little mate and some of the photos he took. He took to the camera like a fish to water. This is only a selection of the photos. They're an amazing insight into what a little kid sees.

We grew hungry after a while, and wandered over to the restaurant-cum-kiosk and shared our meal with the young boy. I wish we knew his name. But he couldn't tell us.

After food he started looking through our bags and pulling everything out. He found a small make-up bag and started applying makeup like a pro - from foundation, to mascara to even lip liner, that he used to brush his eyebrows. We then spent the next ten minutes rubbing it off his face with moisturiser :) He also found some money and found that very amusing!