Luang Prabang is a small town in northern Loas. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site, this means it is a.) quite expensive (in Laotian terms) and b.) full of tourists, however, it is an absolutely beautiful place. It is a French Colonial town, which is heavily reflected in both the food and the architecture in and around town, it is very interesting to se a local teak house stood next to a very French looking townhouse with wooden shutters etc! Because of the UNESCO status it means that any development that is undertaken has to fit in with the other buildings which will stop the town from being ruined.

Our first full day was spent wandering around the town to give our legs some use after being stuck on a boat for the past 2 days! We looked at both rivers - the Mekong and the Nam Khan. We also went around the towns oldest Wat - Wat Xieng Thong which was good, although expensive (again in Laotian terms). One thing we have noticed is the Loatian people have cottoned on to the tourism and there are small charges to go into many things - they have to get money from somewhere and the tourist dollar it seems is the easiest to get. From here we continued along the banks of the Mekong and went to a little tea/bookshop followed by a free museum. The Kopnoi museum was very interesting- all about local Laos traditions, the best of Laos food and how to buy crafts ethically, there seems to be a lot of this here, the L'Etranger bookshop loans books to locals for free and helps buy books for local kids too.

There is a hill in the middle of the town that we climbed for sunset - the views were beautiful. There is a Wat on top of the hill too and apparently Buddha's footprint. We took a Beer Lao up to share, this is a great drink, one of the nicest beers we have had for ages - really tasty.

After getting up at 5:40 am we bought some sticky rice and waited on the side of the road to wait for the monks to come and collect their daily alms - it has been done here for many years, both locals and tourists fill the monks bowls with offerings of food and money. It is called Tak Bat. About 100 monks make the procession and all their bowls are very full by the end. We felt it would be good karma to give to them. One interesting thing we noticed is some street children were carrying carrier bags and some of the monks gave them some of their food. It was quite an amazing thing to see, even though there were lots of tourists you still felt that you were doing something positive.

After breakfast we hired a tuk-tuk to take us to the Tat Kuang Si waterfalls. On the way it started to rain and it got pretty heavy so we stopped for shelter at a local village, we sheltered in this concrete barn with some children playing. It turned out they were tearing half a wing of a cockroach type insect and then pushing it into a straw and laughing as it span around in circles on the floor! They then played hopping games - I couldn't resist and had to join in, they found it extremely funny. This continued and I managed to get them really hyped up and excited by a game of tick - I was of course always it! Nearly an hour had passed and I was pretty exhausted - the rain had also stopped so we continued on up to the waterfalls.

We paid another entrance fee and the path took us past some rescued bears and a rescued tiger - nice to see them being looked after better than they had been. A 5-minute walk from there and we reached the first waterfall, the water was the most amazing turquoise colour. We continued passed all the swimming holes, it was so quiet, nobody in swimming we had hoped for this by going in the morning. The main falls were really beautiful, lots of little cascades before a major fall plunged about 35m over a cliff, beautiful. We went up to see it from the top - were there was a good view of the surrounding forest. On the way back we stopped at the most idyllic swimming hole with rocks and a rope swing to jump in from, it was so much fun and really nice to swim in the water it was cooling after the walk.

After a relaxing afternoon we went out for a few drinks last night to say goodbye to Rolf and Nicole lovely people we have been traveling with since the boat trip. We were given a round of free Lao-Lao which is the local firewater, apparently its rice whiskey. It wasn't too bad, at all. This was followed by a few beer lao, we had a nice chilled night in some lovely bars that seemed very up-market in all aspects apart from the price - we were not complaining!

This morning we were up earlyish to get the bus to Vang Vieng, it was the best bus ride we have had for ages, our minivan wasn't even half full so it was really comfy to rest and look at the beautiful scenery and small villages we passed through. We have a lovely bungalow on the river here with a cracking view - we have put our new hammock up - perfect for relaxing! Tubing tomorrow - we will fill you in on the details soon.

Lots of love

Andrew and Sarah xxx