1 May 11
2nd leg of the slow boat trip to Luang Prabang!

Today I realised why the trip was called slow boat - it was a slow boat travelling down the Mekong river!! It kept stopping every hour to drop off and pick up various locals on route too, even though the boat was full!
Besides the speed, the views today were beautiful with lots of greenery in the mountains!!

Caution - sad story next...
A sick lady and her husband came aboard onto the boat...unfortunately after a few hours she died on the boat. Apparently she had malaria. She did look poorly (and old but that may have been the disease as her husband didn't look that old)! What was shocking was the amount if people that went to go and stare at this dead woman lying down on the boat...the husband was crying, and all anyone was doing was covering there mouths at the smell and staring!
Where is the respect!

After 8 hours arrived in Luang Prabang, checked into our guesthouse Merry Guesthouse 2, and went to the night market!! This market isn't as big as Chiang Mai, but there is a good food street - get a plate to fill with as much food as you can for 80p!! I love this place!!

2 May 11
Early start this morning! Got up at 4.45am to watch the Monk Alms-Rounds (Which actually started at 6am not 5am but i won't go into that!!).
Monk alms-rounds is where monks go round collecting rice, bananas, sweets and money from people (locals, tourists, other monks). Hundreds of monks walk up the street with their baskets to receive gifts from people kneeling or standing on the pavement. It was strange watching monks giving to the other monks, everyone was taking their photograph like they were celebrities! I felt like the paparazzi!!

In the afternoon visited a beautiful waterfall called Kouang Si Waterfall Park. Had a lot of fun swimming in the waterfall and swinging of the Tarzan rope swing. Although the fish in there really were eating me alive, they were nipping my legs and feet!!
There was also a bear sanctuary here, with the cutest bears. Although I didn't understand why they were captive there, or why they couldn't go back into the wild!

3 May 11
Found a gorgeous swimming pool to relax by today! Chilled out music playing, sun lounges in the sun and under shelter with fans over them and a massage area. Plus we were the only ones there! Can I just stay here!!

Haven't really seen much of the city so far, so took a walk around looking at the French-Indochina architecture and a few temples - Wat Visounnarath and Wat Pa Houak

Watched the sun set at the top of temple Wat Pa Houak. It was a beautiful sunset, and the views over Luang Prabang were pretty too. The atmosphere was spoilt slightly by the amount of people there watching the sunset, but I still enjoyed it.

Last night in Luang Prabang unfortunately, really enjoyed it here!! It is such a pretty, relaxed city.