The nightbus from Luang Namtha was THE worst journey we have experienced, and we have encountered some bad roads. This was like being on a vibrating plate at the gym for the whole journey! And it wasn't a sleeper bus, so we were sat upright and being shaken around for 8 hours!
We arrived in Luang Prabang (a UNESCO world heritage site) at 3am...supposed to be 5am, so the driver must have been going stupidly fast, as Asian countries don't do arriving early, or even on time - always late. So it's the middle of the night and we get dropped by a Tuk Tuk in the city centre. We decide to walk around a bit trying to find a room, but nearly every hotel/hostel/guesthouse was closed or had 'full' signs on their doors. The rooms that we did manage to find were asking for $20+ which seemed ridiculous to pay that money for just a few hours sleep. After a couple of hours walking around we found ourselves a bench to sit on and pass some time. Bizarrely, at 5am there seemed to be life, and many tourists started appearing. The baguette and fruit shake market we were sat outside also started setting up - great. Very confused as to why all these crazy people were up so early, we ordered a chicken/bacon/avocado baguette, and a mango/banana/pineapple fruit shake. Just after 6am it all became clear...locals and a few tourists had lined the pavements with various food offerings for the 'Alms Giving Ceremony' to the monks. This is what everyone had woken up to see!
At 7am we decided it was a reasonable time to go searching for a room for the night. It didn't take too long before we found a small family run guesthouse with a room available at 9am. Simple, but it was all we needed, we booked two nights at 'Phongboun' Guesthouse. A quick shower and nap, and off we went exploring.
Like Hanoi, Luang Prabang also has an old quarter which looks architecturally like Hoi An in Vietnam - very quaint, some French style buildings, set by the Mekong river.
We walked by the Haw Pha Bang Temple, then took a scenic walk through a small village to climb Mount Phu Si, a 100m high hill in the centre of the old town of Luang Prabang. The hill is a local religious site, and houses several Buddhist shrines. Then we took a leisurely stroll alongside the river, seeing the bamboo bridges, which have to be rebuilt every year as the wet season washes them away. We searched for the best spot to watch the sunset, finding a bar with a veranda out over the Mekong, and enjoyed a Beer Lao.
For dinner we ventured through the night market, to find the night food market, and found a place doing a 'fill a bowl for 15,000 kip', just over £1! It filled us up for sure, but wasn't the best food we had eaten. For dessert we tried some small coconut pancake balls. Then we meandered back through the night market, one of the nicest we had visited. One thing we noticed about Luang Prabang was how peaceful the city was. Despite it being very touristy, it offered a very calm atmosphere.

We hired a moped for the day so we could enjoy the countryside and visit some sights in our own time. We stopped off for our favourite, noodle soup, for breakfast and biked 35km to some caves. The last 12km was on a dirt rode, and after a few large pot holes I suddenly realised something wasn't quite right..."stop" I shouted to Chris, and noticed that his rucksack (I was wearing both mine and his, as if Chris has his rucksack on, I am pushed to the back of the seat) had come undone and the camera had gone! S**t we both said, panic across our faces, and looking back down the road, hoping we could see it. Chris sped back down the track and thankfully found the camera - still working fine. Then went further down the track, back towards the main road, and as he returned was waving his red swimming trunks at me. His swimmers and cap had also flown out of the bag. Drama over, we reached the caves, caught a little boat across the river to the Pak Ou caves; Tham Ting and Tham Phum.
The caves are noted for their miniature Buddha sculptures. Hundreds of very small and mostly damaged wooden Buddhist figures are laid out over the wall shelves. They take many different positions, including meditation, teaching, peace, rain, and reclining (nirvana). The Buddha's are there because they can no longer be venerated on an altar, either because they are damaged to the point of disfigurement or simply because newer images have crowded them out.
It was then the 35km back towards Luang Prabang, and an additional 25km to reach the Kuang Si waterfalls. The ride was very enjoyable; extremely quiet roads, perfect temperature, and beautiful scenery. The waterfall was very impressive, the best we have seen yet, due to the fact that the main falls leads into many more smaller falls as it runs down the mountain, and the colour is a perfect aqua blue. It really looked man made, or something you would find in 'centre parcs' as Chris said. The only downside was the number of tourists there. So we decided to climb to the very top of the falls, where this very peaceful 'fairyland' pool was. You could walk right near the edge of the waterfall, but 'no climp!', or in English 'no climbing'.
By the time we walked back down, the bus loads of tourists had disappeared and we practically had the swimming areas to ourselves. Of course Chris was straight in, but it was pretty damn cold. With some encouragement I did get in, had a quick swim around, took a few pictures, jumped off a small waterfall, and I was done! Chris went for a 'shower' under a slightly larger fall and jumped off a tree into the water, just to make sure he was properly clean!
For dinner we found a 'DIY bbq' restaurant, where the bbq is a burning fire bucket in the middle of your table.

We were up early the next morning to catch the bus to Sayaboury. We found some time to quickly walk through the morning food market before jumping on the Tuk Tuk to the bus station.