Luang Prabang is a pretty town, located beside the Mekong River. The French history of the country was evident in the colonial style buildings, as well as the endless amount of baguettes and pastries on sale! A welcome relief from sticky rice :) Our first day there was spent strolling around the town and soaking up the atmosphere. We found a lovely little bakery called Joma and had bagels with cream cheese!! A-mazing! In the evening we met some friends we'd made on the boat from Nong Khiaow, Kate, Robin, Tommy and Katja, and ate dinner together in one of the local restaurants.

In the morning we all met up again (at 5.30am!) to watch the monks precession. Every morning the monks walk the streets of the town to receive alms, gifts of food, from the local people. This is supposed to be the only meal the monks eat in a day, and also brings good merit to the people who give to the monks. It was really good to watch, but there were a few westerners who decided to take part and i'm not sure if they were being very respectful. After breakfast, the 6 of us shared a tuk-tuk to Keung Si waterfall a few km out of town. After our last waterfall experience we were both a little sceptical, but this place was truly amazing. There was one huge waterfall which then flowed into lots of separate pools for about 500m, most of which you could swim in. The water was turquoise and cool, very refreshing. As the tour buses didnt arrive until the afternoon we had the whole place to ourselves for about 3 hours. Bliss!

The next day we walked up the hill in the centre of town to the pagoda at the top. The hill wasnt really that high, but the midday sun took its toll and we couldnt stop sweating for about an hour afterwards. Nice! The pagoda itself wasnt really that impressive, but our climb was rewarded with spectacular views over the surrounding town, mountains and Mekong. Later in the day, Ben visited the Palace Museum which contained lots of royal treasures and artwork. When asked how it was he replied "very gold" so there you go! That evening we enjoyed a meal in one of the riverside restaurants and watched the sun set over the Mekong. Apart from the bugs that like flying at Bens head, it was idyllic.

On our final day we spent some time volunteering at Big Brother Mouse, a NGO that makes and distributes books to Lao villages to help children learn to read, write and speak English. We helped the younger children with some artwork, with the hope that they pick up English just from being around Westerners. We also spent some time at the night market. It was the worst market we've been to because I loved absolutely everything for sale but know i can carry hardly anything! The Laoese lack the hard-sell attitude of other asian countries, so it was nice to be able to wander around and look at things without being harrassed.

Luang Prabang is definately one of the nicest places we've visited on this trip...made all the better by fine food and beer Lao for 60p!

-S