Just as we were leaving Vientiane we met a Lao Melbournian in a Chinese vegetarian restaurant. We told him we were heading off in the dormatuk and he loved it but said that you can’t sleep in the back just anywhere in Laos, you need to be part of a village. He thought the best bet might be to ask at wats. So our first night out, as it was getting dark, we went to the bigger wat in the village we got to and asked the monk who was closing the gate. Without reacting he opened the gate, let us in and disappeared. The wat was right on the river and had toilets so this all worked out quite well. The local kids even dropped in for breakfast on their way to school. 
The next day we battled this dirt road to get to the only campsite we’ve heard of in Laos, beside a waterfall in Phou Kao Kwai (buffalo horn) protected area, with a good visitor’s centre. But the last 4km steep and deeply rutted and we had to double back.
So on to Paksan, where I spent a day putting in an application for an ‘enviropreneur’ course. The guest house had this impressive spirit house
We were aiming for Khong Lor cave where you go through a mountain on a river through a cave. This meant heading down route 8 which goes to Vietnam. On the way we met a Francois—a French guy on a bike who was cycling to Vietnam and wanted a lift. So then we had 3 people and 3 bikes. The bridges were a bit hairy on the tuktuk.
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