Luang Prabang is a beautiful city, the city is a Unesco Heritage site which has meant the place is wonderfully persevered and a ban on busses and trucks in the city is defiantly a blessing. The city has a clear colonial influence and you could easily be walking around Europe as you wander the streets busy with all the bicycles and mopeds. This is my last bit of travel with Steve, we have a few days here together before he flies back to Australia. We do some exploring of the city after having a wonderful breakfast by the river. Laos is defiantly a country to visit for a relaxing time, it is full of beautiful places with stunning scenery and you can just lose days in this place. We head to Kuang Si Waterfalls, rumour has it, the best waterfalls around, and they didn't disappoint. Leading up to the main waterfall where there are many little lagoons and swimming areas, complete with rope swing. I think the most amazing thing was just how blue the water was, it didn't quite seem real.

The next day we head off on a kayaking trip, first we paddle down to a Tad Sae waterfall, which is a much more commercialised area than the previous waterfall and not really any waterfalls to speak of, more pretty running water areas. But the place is still very beautiful, there are elephants which you could ride or bathe, lots of food places and a zip-wire aerial course. We decided to do the zip-wire which was brilliant, a bit like Go Ape back home. After lunch we continued kayaking down the river, it was a bit like tubing just a bit more work! I'm not sure why our kayak seemed to be the slowest, maybe it was weighted or maybe it was just we couldn't compete with the Finish guy with a six pack and huge muscles or the other 16 stoneish well build German. None the less it was a great day and good to get out, be active and see some of the country outside the cities.

The next day Steve leaves and I head off to try to get my Vietnam Visa, sort all my things out and start making my next set of plans. Just my luck they have just put up the visa price by $20, so it's a slightly more expensive day than I had planned. In the afternoon I visit the Royal Palace and walk around the lovely gardens. I finally managed to get a flight to Hanoi, saving myself the 26 hours bus journey, for tomorrow. Before I leave the next day I walk up to the top of the 100m high Phu Si for a view of the whole city, then leave for the airport. Another country here I come.