With the guesthouse sorted; a hugggggggeee room between the three of us (in fact it's been the biggest room I've had since I started my travels), it was time to explore Luang Prabang. We took a 4 hour bike ride seeing Wats, the stunning views and the town itself. We crossed funky wooden bridges, waved to local kids who said their hellos and ended up with severe sunburn to show for it. With enough exercise for one day we thought it was time to hit the food stalls. I've never experienced such a busy alleyway full of tourists eating meat, rice and noodles and all from street vendors. It was a buzz, and also a place where I bumped into a lot of familiar faces from the slow boat. Noodle soup, chicken fillets on sticks, fresh spring rolls with a tasty chilli sauce served in a bag plus fried vegetable and pork wontons were just some of the foods that were on offer. By now you may think I would be fed up of Asian food, and actually so would I, but for some reason I don't think it could ever bore me. The spices and the variety available means that it doesn't really get samey (apart from the fact that you'll probably have some sort of rice with every meal). Anyway, aside from food we went out to a few bars, one where shots in syringes were consumed, and the last bar we stopped at was called Utopia. This was a chillaxed, hippy kind of bar; we sat on cushions on the floor by the river and it was lush! Laos strangely has a rule that all bars have to close between 11 and 12pm and after this time no-one can walk around the streets or be outside. Therefore, the usual thing to do is to get tuk tuks out of town and go bowling; and it seemed like everyone from the bars was doing the same thing. After you've had a few drinks, bowling proves to be a very tricky game but a very fun one indeed; bumping into a few more familiar faces made the bowling games bigger and more competitive. The night ended with blue tongues and a very funny tuk tuk ride home.

After a late breakfast and in a somewhat hungover state we made it to Kuang Si waterfall. The rain began to clear, which was lucky. It's now the 'wet/rainy season' in Asia and therefore it tends to rain each day (it can vary though), only for about an hour; the intensity does vary, however it's still boiling hot! After seeing bears at a sanctuary at the bottom of the fall I saw the beauty of the fall itself. I have never seen such bright blue, clear, fresh water. The stunning waterfall had certain designated areas which you could swim in so I looked no further and took the rope swing into the lagoons. I learnt I have no upper body strength whatsoever! Having spent the day there, dinner at the street stalls and a shop at the market that evening was the perfect end to the day. The beautiful market was lined with stitched and patterned garments, bags and quirky little bits and bobs (I've even come away with a throw for my bed, like I have the room in my backpack for it?). I've never wanted to look in a market for so long, the patterns and detailing was amazing.

So it's off for a massage and then a long ten hour overnight bus ride to the capital to meet Jordan for the next stage of my travels. Goodbye Luang Prabang.

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