Warning! This blog entry will be a long one as we have spent 11 nights in Luang Prabang

So we left Vang Vieng and headed on towards Luang Prabang (7 hours in the minivan but only about 150km distance!) After having tried to reserve 2 places on the VIP bus, we were put into a minivan(!) and succumbed to the fact that we were never going to be able to contest this with the driver due to our inability to speak the language, the fact that it was raining and that the driver kept saying ' VIP full!' The journey was long but really beautiful as we passed through mountaneous terrain and deep valleys. Luang Prabang is a UNESCO protected town which is extremely stunning and has a strong collonial feel to it. The town lives off the Mekong river which runs along one side of the town and the Nam Ou river which runs along the otherside and joins the Mekong later down the line. Of course there are lots of tourists here but luckily we arrived just in time to avoid the high season and hence it was manageable. How it is in the high season and full summer I dont know! Unbearable I imagine!

Having met lots of fellow travellers in the minivan on the way to Luang Prabang, we arrived and negotiated a price for a fantastic guesthouse in the middle of the city. The manager of the guesthouse (Tot) was so friendly and has helped us in many aspects to discover the city and around.

That night we met up with our fellow travellers and headed out to the night market in LP. The night market is famous here and it did not disappoint us. Hundreds of local artisans set up their stalls there each night to sell anything from handcrafted blankets to bags,Lao Lao (a local alcohol normally with Scorpions or the like in) and clothing. There is also a thriving food market which sells 'streetfood' on the side of the road. We later found out this was better than anything they served in the restaurants.

That night we ate in a restaurant (not knowing the streetfood as so good). As we later finished eating dinner on the side of the Mekong we found out that all of the bars close around 10 and we wanted to have another drink! Luckily Paul, our waiter that evening, was at hand. He was a local University student studying Law and grew up in LP. He told us to follow him and he led us to a bar on the other side of the town which was open until 11:30!

The next day we met everyone for breakfast and decided to go and visit the Kuang Si waterfalls, http://www.asiaexplorers.com/laos/kuangsi-waterfall.htm. They were about 20 km outside of town and so after negotiating hard with the Tuk-Tuk driver we jumped in and headed off to the falls. They were so beautiful! They also had a Black Bear rescue centre there which was amazing. When we arrived back in LP, we booked a trip for the next day to see the Pak Ou caves - 2 hours outside of LP via boat along the Mekong. The boat journey was super but the caves weren't much to see

After most of the travellers we had met had left LP by now, we decided to wander around the city and do one of my favourite pasttimes- shopping! We had a look in a shop which showed off the local art of weaving silk. We found out they had a centre 2km outside of town where they ran classes. As Cedric wanted to take another Siesta that afternoon (this is now a daily event) i decided to venture out on my own. After having walked 2-3km i still hadn't found the place and returned to the city to catch up on my emails.

That night we met up with XangXoi (which means 'Little Elephant' in Lao) who we had met through couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.com) and who lives in Luang Prabang with his partner and son, Bob. He is an english tour guide in LP. We ate streetfood with him that night and he invited us to go for dinner at his house the next night. He also offered us the opportunity to go and spend some time in the village where he grew up (60km outside of town in the mountains) and said that i could maybe teach english to the children of the village. His parents still live there- of course we took him up on the offer and agreed we would go on Sunday

On Saturday we visited some of the temples around LP and saw some monks who were carving wooden sculptures of the Buddha- this was an amazing site to see and we discovered that UNESCO and some other governments had funded a project to support the monks in gaining skills in Temple restoration which included wood carving, drawing and gold leaf amongst others. After a greulling morning we went for another foot massage (again another habit we have adopted and maybe have to drop).

We met Xangxoi that night and hired two push bikes to go to his house. He lives in Grade B of LP and he explained to us that LP has 4 grades A,B,C and D. After having gone to his local market, we later learnt how Lao people eat at home which is that they eat around a table and pick from the food which is in the middle in addition to having bowls of 'sticky rice' which is the staple food here in Laos. Sticky rice differs from steamed rice (more commonly found in Thailand) as it is supposed to suppress your hunger for longer.

As we returned back to the guesthouse we realised the errors of our ways when i remembered i had continued eating after everyone else seemed to have finished and Cedric touched the head of the child, both of which are considered inpolite in Lao culture. Lesson learnt. ABack at the guesthouse i also found out that Christophe (a felllow traveller we met on the minibus) had volunteered me to teach english to some students for 2 hours the following day after he had been to a place in LP called Big Brother Mouse http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/ and liked the concept. It is an organisation which promotes the idea of improving the levels of literacy in children from Laos. You can also buy books and donate them to a local school which we decided to do. We would later donate them to Xangnoi's village school.

After having seen the local food market near Xangnoi's house (not the touristic one!) Tot told us that there was a clothes/food/electrical goods market 1.5km ouside of town if we wanted to go. It was called Phousy market. That morning we went to the market with Christophe. I brought a Lao skirt and we brought lots of food even though we didnt know what half of it was...... i discovered something however that i have later not been able to stop eating- i dont know the name of it but it is made with cocunut and rice and comes in the shape of a circle!

Sunday finally came and we hired a motorbike to go with Xangnoi to his parents place 60km outside of LP. The village was beautiful and not a tourist in sight! It was situated in a the mountains and all of the water which they received came directly from the mountain.We met his brother who was called 'Good' meaning curly hair in Lao. He was training to be an English teacher and acted as our translator for the remainder of our time there as Xangnoi had to leave that evening. Before leaving he showed us around his rice paddies which he had planted last year and will harvest in November. They get enough rice from these fields to feed the family for a whole year.

That afternoon, Cedric got involved in a Lao game with Xangnoi and his brother which consisted of a kicking a small ball made out of wicker between 2 people within one team and then the other team! Needless to say the local children were laughing hard at him!

We later went to the market in the village to buy dinner and everywhere we went we heard 'Falang, Falang' which we later found out was a reference to anyone who was non-asian. Despite the language barrier we managed to have an amazing conversation with his parents that night before dinner using our hands and the books which we had brought for the children! The Lao Lao which his dad offered us also helped!

The following day we went over to the local school which had about 200 students from nursery level up to about 8 years old. They were all from different tribes which lived together peacefully in the same village. All the children wore uniforms and extremely shy yet so well behaved. They were so were astonished by the mere fact we were even there and as they came out of their classrooms for breaktime they stood starring at Cedric and I for the whole break. We didnt know what to do (!) so i said to Cedric- entertain them, so he did a little dance which made them all laugh! I was given the 8 year olds and with the help of Good, i taught them English for 2 hours! It was an amazing experience for me not only because i hadn't taught such young children who were beginners and had a different alphabet, but because the children were so attentive and really wanted to learn.... Once we had finished teaching we decided we needed to get back to LP as Cedric's parents were arriving that day. When we got back to the guesthouse they were already there and had arrived the night before. We heard all about their travels and they told us that they had met two Quebecoises earlier that day who we later met for dinner. The accent was a nightmare for me but i managed to understand most of it nevertheless!

The following day we went for a second time to the waterfalls and this time we both went swimming and climbed right to the top- they were stunning- stunning enough to compensate for the fact that Cedric lost his flip flop in the current! A nice event to celerate the fact that we had been together 7 years that day.

So our jounrey through Laos comes to an end. It has been an amazing 3 weeks!

Next report from Hanoi, Vietnam.....

Nous sommes arrives a Luang Prabang âpres 7 heures de route a travers des routes de montagne dans un mini bus, vraiment mini!

Luang Prabang est une ville classe par l'UNESCO...et on est tres vite tombe sous le chảme (on avait prevus de s'arreter 3 ou 4 nuits, on est restes 11 nuits!).
Luang Prabang se situe entre le Mekong et la riviere Nam ou, petite ville pleine de chảrme avec de nombreux temples, maison colonials, plein de marcher ou l'appelle des chaufeurs de tuk tuk (Touk touk) resonne comme des cris d'óiseau a tous les coins de rue..."Tuk Tuk!...water fall!...where are you going my friend?"

Nous avons passes les premiêres journees accompagnes de nos nouveaux amis rencontre dans le mini bus qui nous a ammene a Luang Prabang...avec qui nous avons decouvert le mảcher de nuit de Luang Prabang, (Petite mẻrveille de couleur ou une grande partis de l'artisanat est probablêment importe de Thailand et du Vietnam), les stands de nouriture un peu partout qui propose des mets de qualites pour 15000 a 25000 kip (1.5 euro a 2.5 euro)...soupe de bambou, nouilles en tout genre, des legumes connúe que de ceux qui voyage en asie, poisson du mekong grille etc....

Des endroits a voir hors LP, il ne faut pas rater les superbes Chutes d'eau Kuangsi, http://www.asiaexplorers.com/laos/kuangsi-waterfall.htm.
Nous y sommes alles 2 fois, la 1ere avec Chrítophe et sans nos maillots et la 2eme avec mes parents qui nous ont rejoint pour une partis du voyage et un couple de cânadien tres tres amical (Arianne et Jonâthan) que nous avons rencontres grace a mes parents.

Danni et moi n'avons pas le meme rithme de vie face a la chaleur...si les 30 degres sont depasses, Danni est toujours tres active (Shoping ou mấgasinage, endroit avec air conditione...comme un salon de masage par exemple...la vie en asie est un enfert!).
En ce qui me concerne, j'ai decouvert que je suis tres actif entre 6h00 et 11h00 et entre 15h00 et 00h00....entre 11 et 15, je mange et je dort...quand je peu...il va falloir que je rếpense mon mode de travaille de retour a Londres.

XangXoi est une personne que l'on a rencontre par Couch Surfing (www.couchsurfing.com) Nous lui avons prôpose d'aller boire un verre parcequ'il habiter Luang Prabang et nous voulions un contact avec un local...1ere experênce avec cs ne pouvais pas etre mieux.
Apres avoir passe quelques heures avec lui, il nous invite a dinner chez lui avec sa femme et son fil...un repas chez lui c'est comme si on etait venus voir un amí au Laos...et ce n'etait que le debut!...il nous a prổposer d'aller passer 2 jours chez ces parents dans un petit village a 60 km au nord de Luang Prabang...malgres l'infrastructure basic de la maison et du village, nous avons passes 2 journees inoubliables entoures de gens vraiment accueillant..."les falangs" etaient dans le village, les enfants venaient nous voir de pres et les voisin aussi.

Apres avoir passe la nuit chez nos hote, a 6.30, je me leve et sort pour voir la maman de XangXoi taper un bamboo sur le sol...et de beaux et gras asticots blancs s'etalent sur le sol...ma premiere pensee a ete "Je ne mangerai pas de ca pỏur mon petit dệuner"...ils etaient en fait détines a etre vendue sur le mảrche du matin de LP.

Nous sommes ensuite alles a l'ecole du village ou Danni a eu la posibilitee de dỏnner un cours d'anglais a une classe...pour qui nous avions achểte des livres par big brother mouse http://www.bigbrothermouse.com/

Nous avons quitter ce village avec le scoôter que nous avions loue pour rẻtouver mé parents a LP....3 jours de plus a ảppecier Luang Prabang et nóus nous envolons pour Hanoi (Vol par Vietnam Ảilines 135 dollar a Luang Prabang dẻniere minute)

Prochaine entreed' Hanoi, Vietnam.....