Luang Prabang is known as the most beautiful town in South East Asia and is a UNESCO world heritage site. Located in the forests and bordering the Mekong it was calm and peaceful, with an 11.30 curfew within the town. On the first night 18 of us (representing many countries including but not limited to New Zealand, Canada-french and English sides, USA, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Sweden, Australia, Ireland and UK) met for dinner and found a lovely restauraunt located on a hill called LaoLao Garden. The steps were lined with lights and it had a great atmosphere and its own speciality of Lao food. We spent a long time there eating and drinking the Beer Lao and and at 10.30pm we left, most heading for the bowling alley just on the outskirts, the only place licensed til 2am, whilst three of us went to a local nighclub, me riding on the roof of the TukTuk, quite an experience (In case your unsure, a TukTuk is like a motorised 3 wheel scooter with a little cart for passengers on the back and a luggage rack on top) The club was great, with a ratio of 8 westerners to about 300 Lao locals and the music was a mix of american and Lao. We joined the others at the bowling alley later on and i left around 1am. The next morning after a leisurely be\reakfast with Aidan and Yohanna, i joined some others and we got a TukTuk to one of the local waterfalls. It was beautiful, cascading down through 3 seperate pools all safe for swimming in with tarzan ropes to jump in. The place was stunning, but unfortunately i was feeling very ill by this point and had to go back to the guest house where i remained in my room mfor a couple of days. I finally ventured out two days later and visited the local night market with Yohanna and Aidan (Yohanna is a nurse and had been checking up on me through the last couple of days which was so nice!). The market was really great with the stalls laid out on the floor under red umbrellas displaying all the local handicrafts. we ate at one of the street venders, a buffet of vegetarian laos foods for 5,000 Kip (50p!) a plate. cheapest meal i think i will ever eat! We stayed and browsed and i got home very worn out! The next day i took it easy again and went for a walk around the town admiring how laid back and beautiful it was, had a lovely fruit shake in one of the local cafes, and noticed how big the French influence still is over here with lots of bakeries and pastry shops with French signs. SApent the afternoon sat outside the guesthouse chatting to people that were still around as many of the group had left that morning. This morning i was up bright and early for my bus ride to join them. The buses are made for asian sized people so it was not so comfortable as the name 'special VIP bus' has you beleive. The roads were windy and stuck along the hills so we probably averaged about 5 miles an hour most of the way, bu we made it here in one piece! Vang Vieng is a town developed for tourists, with its main attraction being the tubing, which i will explain after i have done it! Feeling much better but still quite a way of being well!