Nigel: So we left Vang Vieng to go to our next port of call, a place named Luang Prabang. We had read that this place has the greatest amount of remaining French influences in Laos and we had also heard from other travellers that it is a really nice town, so we were hoping for a good time. When you walk around the town you notice a lot of cafe's and restaurants. The most interesting one that we came across was a place on the other side of the river. We got given a leaflet regarding the place, which mentioned that from where we were staying you had to get a boat across to the restaurant. To get to the boat you have to climb down the side of the river bank, which has no proper stairs and you just hope you don't slip in to the water. Then you have to get on to this rickety old boat, that one sudden movement and we would have capsized. Luckily neither of them happened and it was well worth the trip.

A big event that takes place in Luang Prabang is the collecting of the alms by the resident monks. You have to get up very early to see this take place but it is an amazing site to see. There are around 300 monks that walk around the streets collecting from the locals and they are dressed in their orange robes and have small brown and silver collection pots. We were told that they would be walking past our hotel at around 5:30 in the morning so we were up very early. We also heard that you can offer food to the monks if you wish. So when we got outside there were a couple of ladies that were selling sticky rice and sweet coconut mixture wrapped in banana leaves. We bought 2 tubs of rice and 2 baskets of leaves and waited for them to walk past. They didn't start walking past at 5:30am, so I sent Alison off to go looking for them and to gee them up. We did eventually see them coming up the road and it was just a procession of orange robes. We were a bit unsure how much of the rice to give, so we watched a couple of locals first. They were praying to the food before they gave it and they were only giving small amounts. They were very quick as it is just one monk after another. We started off well giving small amounts to each one, then fatigue crept in and it all went down hill. First of all we would give some to one monk and then about 3 or 4 would walk past with out receiving anything. Then instead of small pieces of rice we were getting big hand fulls and chucking it into their pots. It was not long before we were the most popular due to our generous portions. The consequence, however, was that our food didn't last long. The whole process lasted about 2 hours but our food only lasted 20 minutes. The monks then go back to the places of worship and offer the food to the gods before eating it themselves.

Alison: Whilst in Luang Prabang, we noticed that there was a lot of elephant trekking trips on offer. We had thought about doing this before in Thailand but it was quite pricey over there. The prices in Laos were a bargain though so we decided to go for it. We booked a full day trip that involved a few different activities with the elephants as well as a trip to the local waterfalls. Having never ridden an elephant before, we were both a bit dubious about the safety of it. For the initial ride through the jungle, we first had to climb on to a platform and walk across the elephants neck to sit in a chair on it's back. It was a little unnerving when we first set off because you wobble about a lot. The situation wasn't helped by our poorly behaved elephant! A guide sits on the elephants neck and guides it using verbal commands and nudges behind it's ears. This is known as mahooting. We were going to learn to mahoot later in the day but we weren't confident with our elephant because even our guide was struggling! It took ages to get in to the jungle because the elephant wouldn't go until it had been to the toilet but once relieved, he seemed to behave a bit better. After the jungle trek, we went to the river to feed and pamper the elephant, and to practice mahooting. This was terrifying!! There is no chair on the elephant now and there is no platform to help you get on. The mahoot guides tell the elephant to kneel and you just have to run and hurl yourself at the elephant before scrambling up. We manged to get on quite well. Nigel was sat on the neck which is the most natural place to sit and you have the ears to hold on to but I was on the back which is quite broad and you have nothing to hold on to. The elephant is led off to the water and you just need to try to balance and pray you don't fall off. In the water you feel slightly safer as at least the water will break your fall. We had a brush that we used to wash the elephant so we gave it a good scrub! Usually the elephant sits down in the water so you are partially in as well but our naughty elephant wouldn't do it. We were glad though because when they sit down they kneel first and people were almost falling in because of the steep incline of the back. I wouldn't of minded but the river was filthy and there were giant piles of dung floating around that the elephants were depositing!! Our mahooting skills weren't much cop but we weren't very forceful in our commands...a bit too British! All in all we enjoyed the time with the elephants. We were a bit concerned about the unnaturalness of making an elephant carry people in a chair but they only do this for 1-2 hours a day before having a thorough pampering in the river and then being left to roam the section of jungle used for the trek. Well, that's what they told us anyway!

The waterfalls were also very enjoyable. Instead of a big waterfall, it is a collection of small cascading ones spread over a gently rising hill. They are completely natural but they don't look it because they are so perfectly formed and the water is pale turquoise. There are small pools between the waterfalls that you can swim in. They were ice cool and the current was quite strong in some places so you can whiz along. Other elephant trekking companies take their elephants for walks through the waterfalls but luckily there didn't seem to be the dung problem we experienced in the river!