Hey everyone, Have had an amazing time in Laos - definitely as good as everyone said it would be and along with Chaing Mai the best place I've visited so far. Got the 2 day slow boat along the Mekong river from the Thai border to get here. I use the word 'boat' loosely and when I say slow I mean 6 hours on the first day and 8 on the second. Great atmosphere on the boat though despite how uncomfortable it was and the scenerey was well worth it. Our overnight half way stop was at Pak Beng - unfortunately there were no rooms left (we thought we were being smart by not booking in Thailand so we didnt get ripped off!) so 8 of us slept outside on a verander! It was an interesting night - woke up at 5 am to the sound of rats sratching at the floorboards above my head! The electricity goes off around 10pm in certain parts of Laos and I'd lost my torch on the trek so at least I couldnt actually see what was making all the noise!!! Arrived in Luang Prabang safe and sound and it is the nicest town I've been to in south east asia (apart from everything closing at midnight!) Just wandered around the town visiting the temples and the local waterfall (I've seen soo many but you never get bored of them) where they also kept bears and a tiger which had been rescued by poachers. My guesthouse in Luang Prabang was great - the woman who runs it would bring us freshly made rice bread everyday at 5...Mmmm...and sticky rice with banana in the morning! It was like having my mum here. Met up with Claire on the second night for a drink before she headed down to Vientiane - was good to see a familiar face again. Spent 4 days in Luang Prabang - you only get 15 day visa for Laos so unfortunately I had to move on, definitely wouldve stayed longer otherwise.