A one hour flight on Laos airways and I was here in no time at all, first impressions of this town are very positive, once you get your head around the monopoly curreny (remember the Italian lire) 10000 kip is 86p, makes bartering at the market very academic as you haggle to get 10p off a t-shirt that costs £1.25. Beer Lao is 86p per big bottle, whilst this country is one of the poorest in the world at least they have cheap beer! This has all the appearance of an old colonial town and after it was given UNESCO status and the old French colonial buildings renovated it looks like this part of the Peoples Republic of Laos is more than happy to adopt some of the more capitalist ideas of profit and service. I met a well spoken couple from Buckinghamshire, the gent was an old army type who descibed Leung Prabang as 'charming' and I think that sums it up very well. I took a boat up the Mekong river, visited a town famous for its rice wine, very strong! Haggled with a nine year old girl who understood and could speak barter English perfectly - no, not enough, all the English numbers and dollar and then smiled a cute smile when she was not prepared to budge any more and then I paid her what she wanted for some finely woven silk that was worth much much more than I paid. Then more river and visited a cave with over 1200 Buddha statues in, a long climb up loads of steps in the burning mid day sun to see darkness and more Buddhas, I enjoyed the river trip. When I was high up, there were many boats all moored up next to each other that you could see from the vantage point, needless to say our boat seemed like the most basic and smallest, there clearly was more luxury options that could have been taken. On board with a French family with small kids and they all fell asleep on the way back which was nice after the kids had been screaming on the way, I met them in the street the next day and the two year old had an ear infection, that explains everything, it was not just because they were French. There is a high point in the town which gives fantastic views of the sunset, it got very busy up there but with a bit of pushing and shoving with people from every possible European country I got some great photos, started chatting with a polish girl who showed me where to get a great buffet for 86p and beer for 86p and met some of her travel companions who had traveled up through Laos and Vietnam, got some good tips for the rest of my journey, everybody is so ready to share their stories and advice, which is good. Did some temples visits and had an indulgent foot massage which was wonderful, so whilst my feet were being pampered I was looking out through the ground floor glass less windows, shutters open at the tranquility of monks in the sunshine quietly tending their temple garden, bliss and a moment of pure calm and stillness. This really is a charming place and somewhere you can feel at rest in, from the monk parade collecting food at 6am to the chilled out bars where there are only loungers not seats looking out onto the river this place has a bit of everything to relax you, I loved it and whilst as in Thailand there were many options of burgers, pizzas and indian food I tried to keep to the traditional food of the country which in this town was baguettes from street stalls who also threw together fruit smoothies as a very nice meal, thats the french colonial influence again, there was also smart cafes looking out onto the mail street where I had more traditional Laos food of minced beef with lemongrass, nuts and chilies with rice, very nice. The last visit was to the royal palace where the king lived through the 50's, 60's and 70's, the most telling thing on show was the collection of cars which were all big showy american cars which were gifts from the USA, there was also a showcase of gifts given by president nixon of moon rock from the moon landings and a message that they had taken the Laos flag to the moon as well, clearly this demonstrated the importance of this country at a strategic time during the Vietnam war in a country that was neutral throughout the conflict. There was also a gift from the USSR of a book on russian arcitecture, it was probably a good thing the french got here first! Now I am moving onto more big city chaos that is Hanoi.