Hi, Since we last spoke we have now left Chiang Maing and crossed the border into lao. Once we went through passport control we boarded our river boat. The boat headed down the mekong river for about 4 hours until we reached a small village on the river bank. We were told that we were going to meet one of the oldest and poorest tribes in Lao. They were right!!! the village consited of wooden huts and lots of animals roaming around. There was loads of puppies just wandering about the village on there own. They could only have been around 8 weeks old. The village was really a wake up call to what we take for granted back home. There was one boy that must have been about 7 years old. he had hit a bird with his slingshot and now had a peice of string around its leg, so that he could carry it in his hand. The kids were so amazed when we should them themselves on our cameras. Everyone in the village was so friendly and welcomed us. We had to make a donation to the chief of the village tho!!!. i decided to buy a woven bracelet that one of the girls had made by hand. I gave her 1 us dollar, which is not alot for us, but i was told after that it would be alot of money for her! We then spent around 14 hours on the boat along the Mekong river until we reached Luang Prabang which is where we are now. We arrived here two days ago and yesterday we went for a 16km walk through the Lao jungle which lasted for about 3 hours. It was hell!!!!, but at the end we reached a massive waterfall where we could have a swim. it was freezing, but was well needed after our hike! This morning we got up at 6:45 ( yes even Belen got up!) and headed to an elephant park where we spent an hour riding Elephant through the jungle. It was a good experience, but we did feel a bit cruel on the elephant, so when we got back to the elephant park we decide to buy the elephant that had just spent the last hour carrying us a massive bunch of bananas, which he ate in about 2 seconds!!! today we are just spending the afternoon walking about the local village and looking around the shops. Tomorrow afternoon we head to the airport and get a 1 hour flight to the capital of Lao which is vientienne. I think we spent 2 days there and then cross the border to Vietnam. Lao has been great and a real eye opening experience and is probably been my favourite place so far, but i keep saying that so maybe Vietnam will be better!!

Ya estamos en Laos. Dos dias de crucero por el rio mekong, durante el cual paramos varias veces en poblados indigenas. Fue muy interesante ver como viven y que tipo de estructura familiar tienen. En algunos poblados los hombres no hacen ni el huevo, las mujeres trabajan todo el dia y los ninos mayores cuidan de los pequenos. En otros poblados los hombres pueden tener varias mujeres pero luego trabajan lo mismo. Siempre ganan los hombres! La primera noche del crucero paramos en un pueblecillo donde no teniamos agua caliente y donde solo tenian luz desde las 18.00 hasta las 22.00, no habia telefono. Por la manana nos levantamos a las 7 y nos pusimos en camino hacia Luang Prabang, donde estamos ahora. Estamos en un bungalow que es una pasada, nuestra habitacion tiene vistas al rio y nos traen el desayuno por la manana a la terraza. Ayer fuimos a unas cascadas muy bonitas, menos mal que eran bonitas, ya que caminamos durante 3 horas (16 Km) por la jungla, campos de arroz, etc. Por la noche cenamos en un restaurante muy bueno(donde tenian puesto el cd de cafe del mar), comida tipica de Laos, una de las cosas era arroz morado (postre). Cuando lo cocinan se pone de ese color, es un arroz muy pegajoso y solo lo utilizan para postres. Esta manana hemos ido a un parque a darnos un paseo en elefante por la jungla! Tenia miedo al principio pero luego bien, la verdad es que no creo que lo vuelva a hacer. Manana vamos hacia la capital de Laos, Vientiene. Laos tiene mucha influencia francesa, muchas cosas estan escritas en frances y hay bastante gente francesa por aqui.