After our Gibbon experience, we boarded a Mekong boat with new friends headed for the culturally rich former capital, Luang Prabang. The boat trip took two full days, with an overnight stop in a little river trading village called Pak Beng. The scenery was stunning, with steep green mountains on either side of the wide brown mighty Mekong River. Interestingly for us island dwelling Aussies, for the first twenty-odd kilometres we had Laos on our left and Thailand on our right!

It was a relief to properly stretch our legs by the time we reached Luang Prabang. From the moment we spilled out onto the quiet, shady riverside boulevard, we were convinced that this would be a great place to slow down and hang out for a few days. Easy to navigate on foot, with an abundance of cheap and tasty market eateries, friendly, easy going locals and some beautiful temples packed full of bright orange teenage monks, this was an easy place to lose track of time.

We spent the first few days hanging out with John and Kinara, the Aussie couple we had shared our treehouse with in Bokeo. They had already spent a couple of weeks riding mountain bikes through the Laos countryside, and were keen for one more ride out to the Kuang Si Waterfall, a 'mere' 30km away. In the mood for a bit of solid exercise, we were easily convinced. We struggled up the winding hills, and glided down, passing a few little smoky villages, with chickens, albino buffaloes and kids stretching out for high-fives.

By the time we reached the waterfall we were desperate for a dip. Unfortunately due to all the recent rain, the waterfall was more of a huge raging torrent. Most of the surrounding boardwalks and picnic areas were flooded, and for obvious reasons swimming was discouraged. We watched with awe at the amount of water coming down, and then waded out to one of the picnic tables for lunch.

Only a hundred metres downstream, we were pleasantly surprised to find an ethically run sanctuary for abused and rescued Asian bears. Set up by an Australian woman, the 'Free the Bears Fund' relies on donations to care for bears rescued from the illegal wildlife trade. The bears seemed to be living comfortably with a nice big enclosure and plenty of entertainment. Ideally they would be released back into the wild, but the sad fact is that even if most of them weren't already domesticated, they would most likely be hunted and killed in the forests of Laos.

Our Aussie mates were headed up to Kunming in China the next morning, so that night we all went out to a beautiful westernised but Lao-managed garden restaurant. We tasted Buffalo for the first time (that we know of) and washed it down with several bottles of the well-respected Beer Lao, made famous by the branded singlets sold to tourists all over the country.

While in Luang Prabang we also caught up with Andy, a well-travelled American who did the massage course with Jess in Chiang Mai, and currently teaches Yoga in Luang Prabang. Andy and his Lao neighbour taught us how to play Petang! This French-introduced national sport is like a cross between lawn-bowls and shotput. He also introduced us to a couple of local delicacies; Jaew Khwai (a dip made with chillies and dried buffalo skin) and Khai Phun (dried and seasoned river moss)!

To really appreciate the strong Buddhist culture in Luang Prabang, we decided to get up at sunrise one morning to watch the monks collect alms from the lay people. Every morning hundreds of them file out of the temples to do their rounds and collect food (mainly sticky rice) both for their breakfast and to pay respect to Buddha. It was interesting to see although we were careful to keep a respectful distance and not take too many photos.

It was interesting to see so many young monks, some at least as young as 10 years old. We since found out that it is expected of all Laos teenagers to give up their possessions and donn orange robes for at least a week, to earn honour and respect for their families. We were also told that sometimes children with attitude problems are sent to the temples to help calm them and instill personal discipline!

By night, the main stretch of Luang Probang turns into a night market, dominated by cheap eats and Hmong handicrafts. What made this market extra special was watching all the traditional Hmong and Lao people sit in front of their store, painting pictures, sewing bags and table cloths and cooking sweets.

Just as we were leaving, the whole city was starting to set up for an annual Buddhist holiday. The festivities started with a huge market day, where the usual night market grew to around four times the size. Curious by the loud speakers, foreign vegetables and excited teens dressed in their Saturday best, we walked through this mega-market, munching on some fried crickets, another local delicacy!

The festival was to finish with dragon boat racing along the Nam Khan River. Each village (or suburb) in the area can register a team, but the community needs to pool resources to pay for their boat, equipment and training. We watched some of the practice sessions, where a few teams even had matching uniforms! It was tempting to stay another day for the actual race, but it seemed like a very local event, and our time in Asia is running out, so we decided to move on.

Riding the bus out of Luang Prabang, we were once again taken aback by the natural landscape. For the first 4 or 5 hours of the journey, we curved around and in between a patchwork of majestic green mountains. Our only worry was the road. Steep sections of mountain had been cut to accommodate it, with little or no reinforcement to keep the hills in place. The result, particularly during the wet season, is a landslide every couple of weeks. Sections of road could be cut off for days, not to mention the risk of vehicles being nudged off the edge by a couple of tonnes of dirt and trees! We spoke to a German girl who had experienced it first hand...

Due to another slide, her overnight bus was blocked. At around 2am, the entire busload had to get out and scramble over the huge pile of dirt with all of their packs. Safely on the other side, they then had to wait for two hours in the dark for another bus to take them the rest of the way! Although we saw the consequences of many previous landslides, thankfully we got through landslide free and are now rolling safely along a much flatter landscape towards Vientiane.