Our next destination was a small town north of Luang Prabang on the Nam Ou river. Eleanor and Carolyn were also heading there and also Rich who was on the slowboat decided to head there too. We were all squashed into a minivan for the three hour drive. We arrived at a very small bus station and caught a tuk tuk into the town centre.

It was a very small place in a valley between green mountains, we walked over a bridge over the river and sent the men off to find a room, they found very cheap rooms for us all. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, playing cards and admiring the scenery. In the evening we went out for dinner - the place was so small but it had two Indian restaurants which we tried out and the food was really good. A man walked by and handed us a flyer for the only bar in town called Hive. We decided we would go there for one drink after dinner. On arrival we were all given a shot of Lao Lao which is very cheap whiskey made from rice - it's very popular amongst the locals as its cheap to make. It's so strong though and your lips feel like they are melting after taking a sip - we stuck to Beer Lao! There was a very friendly dog at the bar who kepy trying to eat our cards and when we went back to our guesthouse he walked all the way with us which was very cute!

The following day we walked a few km's out of town to the Tham Pha Tok caves - this is where people hid during the secret war in the 60's, I say hid, they actually lived there - we walked by the old bank which even had a safe in the caves, it was fairly big but it was strange to think people had to live there for so long. We were guided around the cave by a really short man who had gangnam style blaring out of his phone on repeat! In the evening we had a lovely meal of Laap which is a Lao dish of minced meat in salad with mint and chillis, we had pork Laap and ate it with sticky rice - it was really tasty!