Right, I am determined to catch up a bit and hopefully Ben will put some photos on when I'm done. We left Vang Vieng and headed in a VIP minibus to Luang Prabang. Though every form of transport you take is categorised as VIP, it doesn't mean much. The journey was only just over 200km, but took about 6/7 hours! The entire journey was spent on winding roads going up and then down mountains, only to then go up and down the next one. Reminded me of the opening credits of Postman Pat. Random. Pretty frustrating when a sign says it's 150km away, and ten minutes later it's 147km away. But the scenery was fantastic and being in a minibus was better than a bus.

Luang Prabang (spelt many different ways) is another Unesco World Heritage Site, it's a really pretty town alongside the Mekong River. Not very cheap accommodation, but after trudging around in the heat of the day with our big bags on our budget soon gets forgotten!

On the Friday we climbed the Sacred Hill for a great view of the city and walked to Xiang Thong, a really nice temple, one of my favourites so far. We also did the Royal Palace Museum which was pretty small but I liked seeing the old bedrooms of the royal family, really modest and simple. Went to the night market which is just laid in the street selling lots of art and craft products and textiles. Saw some gorgeous duvet covers but not really the kind of thing I want to carry around.

On Saturday (with Ben's sinus infection kept at bay by random stuff from the pharmacist) we went on a boat trip to see Pak Ou caves, and spent the time on the boat chatting to a French/Australian couple, a Swedish guy and an American girl. e caves were ok, but bit disappointing. Once back we grabbed lunch before getting a minibus to Kuang Si Waterfall with the Swedish guy Joel. The waterfall was really cool, we climbed up the side of it to the top, then swam in one of the pools halfway up.

That night we met up with Hayden, Cecille, Joel and Katy from earlier and went for a traditional Laos barbeque, where they removed the middle of our table to reveal a bbq below and we cooked our meat (including buffalo!) on a kind of wok with a soup cooking around it, was really good fun.

Next day we headed for Chiang Mai. We had debated doing the two day slowboat down the Mekong but decided to risk Laos Airways (even the Rough Guide doesn't recommend them) and fly. This turned out to be a good decision in hindsight, but more on that later. At the time I was slightly nervous, which Ben's comments in the departure lounge didn't help. "Sooo.....one of the most dangerous airlines in the world apparently...." "How are those little propellers gona keep us up?!" Luckily, it was only an hour flight and it was fine. Did make us laugh that in the event of landing in water we had to take our seat cushions to use as a floatation device...no expense spared!

Landed in Chiang Mai fine, and that was the end of our time in Laos. Definitely one of the friendliest places we've been, the people are lovely and we were disappointed to have to leave. x x