6/3/06: -11days

Location: Swinton, Greater Manchester, UK

Less than two weeks to go now. We've done most of the shopping we needed to do, pretty much all of our accomodation is now booked and I've even got Jane going to the gym more than once a week! Well, if we are going kayaking in Phi Phi, I don't want to be doing all the paddling
The issue with Tiger Airways is now resolved as they agreed to pay up for the flights we paid for that we shouldn't have.

We have just found out that there is a curfew in force in Laos, and foreigners are usually asked to show their passport if they are seen by the police. If they don't have their passport they can then be instantly clobbered with a heavy fine, or perhaps the term should be "kippered" with a heavy fine (yes, a currency based pun). This is according to the Home Office site, but they are pretty trigger happy when it comes to potential risks in countries populated by Johnny Foreigner. Well, not literally trigger happy, since this is the UK Home Office, not the CIA, but they do border on the neurotic. It also apparently means that restaurants aren't open very late, so it looks like Vientiane is hardly going to be a 24 hour party city. Then again, if travellers were supposed to go to bed sober at 10pm, God wouldn't have provided duty free shops in airports.