Tanned and relaxed, we’ve arrived fresh and raring to go at the last port of call on our mini-tour of Laos. Having only a fortnight to visit a country is always going to be a bit of a cram, but what we have seen has whetted our appetite for a future return. In the meantime, we’ve left the best of our Lao trilogy to the last…

We arrived here by air from Champasak (via Pakse) yesterday evening, and after a semi-surreal transfer from the airport in what could only be described as a replica of Hitler’s staff car, we arrived at our digs for our final four nights in Laos. As it’s Emma’s birthday, we thought that we’d finish our vacation in style and stay in one of the top hotels in the area; the Chang Inn.

Not content to have one of the nicest hotel rooms in the area, we decided to have her birthday dinner in one of the best hotel restaurants in town; the 3 Nagas. Since arriving in Laos, the food here has been a pretty safe bet. Practically everything we’ve eaten here has been perfect, so we thought we’d ok with the set menu in the town’s poshest nosh-house.

I’m not saying the food here was of poor quality by any stretch of the imagination. Everything we had here was amazingly well prepared and presented, and smelt great. However, after a fortnight of simple noodle and rice dishes, we weren’t quite prepared for the more adventurous stuff that we were presented with here. Out of the five courses we had, only two of them were something that we both liked and had no difficulty eating, and only because it was semi-recognisable as something else (as far as I’m concerned, bamboo is for pandas and furniture making, not soup).

Thankfully, the cocktails were wonderful; very strong, and went a long way to taking away the aftertaste of far too much chilli. Lesson learned here; always order off the a-la-carte menu, and order something you know if you’re hungry and don’t want to take any chances on your birthday.