Luang Prabang is excellent!

We arrived last night & we've fallen in love with the place already!

First thing we did today was get a couple of bikes and travel around the area.

The first sight was Phu Si Temple.After admiring the views of Luang Prabang town,the Mekong river and the distant mountains we headed upwards 100m towards the temple.A gruelling effort but well worth it as we were treated to numerous styles of Buddha statues and even better views as we made our ascent.Get a view of the pics if you can!

Through caves and to the summit we trekked,reminscing about Hong Kong' 10,000 Buddhas temple we visited earlier on our travels.

We then decided to just ride along (deserting our confusing map) and hope to come across any sights,and that we did.

Luang Prabang is really warm,contains many Market stalls selling traditional Loatian garments,jewellry & food stalls,Scandanavian cafes,french villas and beautiful buildings (mostly hotels!!) and best of all: very little traffic and no beeping - I'm guessing due to the many temples & monks meditating??

On we rode and after the chain came off my bike,unable to get to it due to the protective sheild around it. I was aided by fellow traveller & a really nice local girl called Ann who earned a purchase from us of her jewellry set!

People here really are nice.

After visiting other temples We eventually came to a river crossing (over a bamboo bridge) which led to even better views of the river and to a small village inhabitted by threading stalls.(we were informed that to make single pashmina took 3 days!).

Back to the main strip and after deliberating whether to relocate here we found a really nice place,checking out our first guest house we rode back (fearing the room might get taken-it was that nice) backpacks on trying to balance ourselves,pedaling at a slow rate.

Dropping our rented bikes back at the shop we wandered back into town to find a tour for the next day (choice of elephant trekking/bathing,waterfalls,caves,zip-lines etc.

Laura went for a traditional Loation massage.Came back incredibly sleepy so I assume it was good!

Later on that evening we decided to go for a tradional laotian meal along the strip.

As the Luang Prabang film festival is on a great meal we were treated to local film titled 'Today is better than two tomorrows', a films bout a young boy aspiring to join his best friend & be accepted by the local monastary in becoming a novice monk.Beautifully shot.

In all,an ace first day in Loas!

Laura and I are excited about going to see elephants & waterfalls tomorrow.

Having a great time!

Christian & Laura
X