Lorna’s alarm clock didn’t go off, and I didn’t have one, but we were both awake anyway so it didn’t matter. We met Sue and Steve at the lodge and were just deciding what to have when Meo arrived saying: “GOOD MORNING BREAKFAST SETS COOKING EVERYONE HAVING SAME”

and she was gone. None of us were planning to order the ‘breakfast set’, but we didn’t dare to argue. When Charlotte arrived we negotiated and managed to secure banana pancakes all round for tomorrow.

The boat was a small dragonboat, the traditional style with a very long propeller shaft and exposed engine that you find all over Thailand. We donned lifejackets and took a tour of the resevoir, including the topmost part of a monestary building, one of the only bits of a flooded village still above the surface of the water. The dam project had turned the village into an underwater ghost town, with only two strutures protruding slightly from the waters. It must be quite a sight for scuba divers, although Charlotte said she didn’t think anybody ever dived here.

The boat docked in a small Mon village. Obviously a big party had been enjoyed by all the previous evening, as there was litter EVERYWHERE. We checked out the temples and bought a few things from the handicraft market, then took a long walk back to the lodge via a wooden bridge – the longest in thailand.

Back at the lodge, I was hot and the lake looked very inviting, so I walked down to a less weed-infested area with Sue and Steve. My first step into the water wasn’t very successful – the silt was like quicksand, but once I was in it was very refreshing. In fact if anything it was too warm – the top 10cm or so of water was really quite hot from the sun. I couldn’t convince Steve though.