Ice-cram pasta...

No idea which direction= accomodation???

It was a struggle but we managed to leave Mae Salong this morning and the reason as to why it was a struggle was due to the nice cool temperature it is here and the amazing bargain room we had a Little Home Guesthouse. But it was time to once again go somewhere new and a little closer to the Laos border. So we caught 2 sawngthaews to Chiang Saen and were dropped off by the Mekong River overlooking Laos without a map or anyone close by who could speak English… We did strike lucky though and find Chiang Saen Guesthouse, which was written in The Lonely Planet. But to be honest is run-down and has what we call as ‘Lonely Planet Syndrome’ (aka as soon as they are listed, the owner cannot believe his/her luck and stops looking after the place) and could do with a smiley face, but it’s ok for a night or 2.

My ice-cream pasta... vile!!!

Absolutely starving we then went out to find something to eat and came upon a small restaurant that had what looked to be a tasty menu and as my tummy still wasn’t great, I ordered some mushroom pasta, thinking it would be bland and simple, so basically just what I needed. It didn’t however come out like this and instead the richest and possibly most bizarre and disgusting thing I have ever eaten, or tried to eat. They had obviously seen a photo how mushroom pasta looks like and cooked it looking like a carbonara, but it had a very strange taste and after a couple of mouthfuls we worked out in the sauce

Wendy the Wok lady

they used vanilla ice-cream! Chris thought it was hilarious and kept winding me up about it resulting in me gagging loads until I eventually moved it as far away as possible from me! Yuck. So completely put off food I continued to be hungry until the evening when we went out to the market and had 2 courses of tasty Thai food for both of us all for just over £1. Bargain!

Mae Chan, Thailand