The adventure to Laos. So from Chiang Mai we took a bus ride to Chiang Rai. There we stopped at the white temple. Which is by far one of my absolute favorite temples we have seen. The temple was actually created as an art project and is entirely white with mirror mosaic pieces. In the inside of the temple there is a monk statue and contrary to the usually very traditional paintings the walls were painted with pop culture references. Madonna and MJ were clearly my favorite. The entire temple itself had an eerie feel to it. When crossing the bridge to enter the temple hundreds of beautiful hands reach from the ground almost as if to drag you down with them.
After the temple we continued our ride to Chiang Kong. We stayed at a hostel that was really beautiful and had a pool. The pool was magnificent. It cooled us down so much we wore pants to dinner (then proceeded to be increasingly sweaty after dinner). At dinner we met a couple that forever plagued our journey for 3 days. This couple who refused to tell us where they were from because they were so worldly (although they both studied in America). At dinner the boy actually said to my friend "wow your pack is so big all we carry are these small back packs." They were fantastically pretentious. The next day we crossed the boarder into Laos and began our slow boat adventure down the Mekong.

I think that the Mekong was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. We were sort of dreading the 2 day boat journey but I would absolutely suggest it to anyone. On the first day, the boat became a party boat with music and beer. Kids that were working the boat were helping out, and we drank so much beer on the boat the boat made a pit stop to get more. We stayed the night in a city in Laos called Pak Beng. This was a small tourist town, but we ate dinner at the most beautiful restaurant that overlooked the Mekong.

When we finally got to Luang Prabang we were delighted. It was absolutely stunning. Surrounded by jungle mountains and filled with greenery. We are absolutely loving it here.

The first day we got up we did the following things. I'll attach photos.

1. Giving of the alms to the monks
2. Went to the Kuang Si waterfall. Climbed to the top.
3. Napped
4. Climbed Mount Phu Si to watch the sunset over the Mekong.
5. Went to this mad street food buffet market thing.

Needless to say, the next day we slept in, got iced coffee, and some traditional Lao massages (after stressful American Visa problems with our friends). Now it's time for Vietnam!