The following day was we continued to celebrate M’s birthday at a local Thai restaurant for breakfast. We had Tom Kha Gai and pineapple fried rice and enjoyed an amazing view.

Overnight, the river was stained a terracotta colour. The locals said it was the first time it had it had happened and the rumour was that some construction upstream had caused it. In any case, we were glad that we weren’t tubing in the river that day.

A shop in town carved figures from stone and also personalised them with a stamp on the bottom. We got our company logo carved into an elephant figure for only about $20 including the personalisation. He carved the logo backwards from a sample of our business card and it was ready to pick up later in the day. What a legend!

Lunch was only ok, but at least the view was good. My laap was way too spicy and the green chillies were finely chopped and resembled the green beans which were also finely chopped. The Koala got a pasta stir fry dish.

BBQ and rotisserie meat outside a restaurant surely is a good drawcard and we picked this place for dinner purely because of the beautifully roasting meats outside.

We both ordered chicken bbq dinners but when we realised that the chicken on our plates wasn’t the chicken on the bbq, we ordered an extra serve of bbq pork. We were already full from dinner but we gave it a good crack. The Koala wrapped up the leftover pork in a napkin and blessed a stray dog with it on the way home. That dog would have thought he hit the jackpot.

At 8am on the final morning, when we bumped into a group of happy men drinking on their way to the Organic Mulberry Farm Cafe for breakfast. All the girls in our group declined the kind offer of a shot, but the man in our group was happy to oblige.

One of the best places to eat in Vang Vieng for breakfast, lunch or dinner, is the Organic Mulberry Farm Cafe. The menu is pretty extensive and they have lots of shakes and juices as well. Here’s a mulberry pancake, a curry, a laap and a mulberry shake.