Luang Prabang, Laos.

We travelled again by bus to a town in the north of Laos. It took us about six hours on the bus at times like this I wish I was flushed with cash so I wouldn't have to do another bus journey. When we finally reached Luang Prabang we where all pretty exausted. Well we arrived in the evening and it always seems harder to get somewhere to stay in the evening time. It's getting dark and we are always hungry on travelling days as we never get a chance to eat properly so needless to say our patients aren't the best . We finally got a place to stay with air-con and there was a huge quilt on the bed which was beautiful as we have been sleeping on hard beds with blankets we borrowed from air-lines along the way.

That evening we booked our flights to vietnam which cost us $120 which is about 95 euro's we couldn't fly diretly from Luang Prabang as the international airport was not opening for another few weeks so we have to travel back to the capital again to fly out.
There is a very big french influence here. We where eating baguttes until they were coming out of our ears.

We rented bikes to see around the town. I definatly think that this is the best way to see the town. Lonely planet have a walking tour maped out so we followed it loosely. The views in this town are amazing we just cycled and every turn there was something to photograph. Alan was in heaven.

We cycled accross this old bridge which is only in use now for cyclist and motorcycles. Which led us out of the city into the country side. It was very hot but lots of fun as we got to see a few local villages on the outskirts of the city. We stopped at a local market and bought water. Alot of the locals where staring at us as if we where mad cycling out into the country side in the heat just to look at nothing. I really enjoyed the freedom out there, even though the traffic in the city is nothing compaired to a city at home, it still felt great to get away from the noise.


The next day we got up at 7am to go on a baot trip. It was very early for us but it look interesting anyway. We set off with our tuna baguettes for breakfast and sailded down the river. We sailed for about one hour in which we took in alot of beautiful sites and then finally stopped at our first destinations. This area was home to, two very large caves"Pak Ou Caves". The first cave was very open, it had a great view of the mekong river and was full of statues of buddah all shapes and sizes. The second of the caves was about 200 meters up behind the first. This cave was much darker you need head lamp or tourch to go inside. When we got in there it was quite difficult to see anything you could only see the patch in which your tourch was shining at. Although when Alan took a photo with his camera the whole cave light up and you could actually see the scale of it. It was huge and it housed bats i'm not sure what kind but I did here other travellers mentioning fruit bats.

On our way back now from the cave we came across all sorts of insects there was this weird spider that was sitting at the edge of it's web waiting patiently for a fly or something to get caught so he could have dinner. Futher down the path we saw an army of Ants attack a worm and carrie him away it was quite nasty. When they get together there is no stopping them.

Back on the Mekong again travelling back up the same way we came beautiful views of the river banks. We stopped at 2villages on the way back first one being a weaving village Kelly you would have loved it, the second was a paper making village. They where very interesting though as usual we where just walking Dollar signs to them, which does get a little tiring.

That evening we went to the local ballet show it was local folk tales being played out in Dance. There was a nice atmosphere and the music for the show was played live by local musicans on traditional instruments.

The next afternoon we went to a local waterfall for a swim when we got there it was amazing the water was very cold at first but nice and refreshing. People where jumping from the rocks above the waterfall. We were there for about thirty mins when a few local Novice Monks came along and started jumping into the water with the encouragement from western lads. It was a really cool sight. There bright orange robes glowing amidst the mist of the spray from the waterfall.

We wher supposed to travel the next day but I was violently Ill that night and most of the next day, it was nasty. We weren't sure what I had but I passed it on to Donna and then Alan. Somehow steven managed to escape it. We travelled the following day I was feeling a bit better but on the journey donna started feeling sick and we stopped a few times to let her get sick. We arrived back in Vang Veng where alan fell Ill and just sat and watched t.v. for few days while we recovered. We had hoped to go tubing but it wasn't to be. Finally we where all feeling slightly better made our way the Vietiane and it was time to fly to Vietnam.