Luang Prabang You can easily lose track of time in the lovely town of Luang Prabang. Somehow we spent here a good part of 6 days, mainly relaxing and trying out the excellent food. Pace is very slow here indeed and life is sweet. When walking next to the Mekong river, you almost feel on the Frech Riviera in spring. Little café terraces, locals playing ‘boules’ (petanque) as if their life depended on it. A night market takes most of the main street from 6PM onwards and it is a colorful display of linen, carpets, artifacts of all sorts. By far the best quality stuff seen so far, except perhaps in Chiang Mai. And the bargaining is all a matter of smile and sweetness that you don’t really feel like resisting much. No pushy sale practices here (yet): a smile, a softly-spoken Sabaydee (hello in Lao) and you are hooked! If you are ever in the neighbourhood, do not miss an evening at the ‘Couleur Café’ : a lovely decorated restaurant serving a mix of cuisine from Laos and ‘D’ailleurs’ with a French twist (which can never be bad in cuisine!). The Mekong weed is a nice starter and the beef is simply succulent. Fabrice will tell you all about how he designed and had his patio furniture made. We also tried a local barbeque restaurant – Malee – slightly out of town but well worth the TukTuk ride. Not a Westerner in sight though the menu was in English (thank God! Though it would be hard to get seriously wrong with a barbeque, wouldn’t it?). The waitresses giggled at our obvious lack of skill with the vegetable basket, spice trays, charcoal and broth but sorted us out quite nicely and kept a careful eye on us throughout the evening. Well recommended if you get to Luang Prabang. On the way back, we spotted a party going on at a local temple which we decided to try out. An incredible evening: monks and children playing a makeshift roulette game and betting their hearts out. The dice game we tried was frantic with chatters, laughs and excitement. The rooster got us a nice little pile of kips which we immediately lost on the frog. Looking for the loos, I ended up in the middle of an open-air dance floor, music blasting from a local band. The singer interrupted his song to welcome me in English and very matter-of-factly indicate that Beer Lao was 8000kip and could be purchased at the stand at the side. We were soon dragged by a young Lao to a table where another couple was sitting. Sharing a beer and trying to communicate as best we could, we ended up on the dance floor, 2 by 2 making vaguely graceful motions with our arms while turning around slowly in circles with complete disregard for the rhythm or pace of the music. It sounds simple? Well try in the safety of your home to dance very slowly, almost on the spot while the equivalent of rock music is blasting in your ears. My partner kept nodding his head energetically which I took for a sign of approval and encouragement. Everyone else whether dancing or watching us was laughing their heads off. Anyway we had a ball and we still have no idea what the celebration was all about. A boat ride at sunset on the Mekong, a visit to the famous Pak Ou caves (with thousands of broken Buddha images) and a day spent kayaking in the rain and off we are to the north of Laos, by local bus in the mountains for 6 hours. That promises to be an interesting journey. I just hope that I do not have to sit next to a goat…