Hello hello

Well, I am almost fully recovered now. I am still in Luang Prabang and have successfully been spending my time doing absolutely nothing. It is strange being ill when you're kind of on holiday. I've been here over a week, and was thinking I was doing really well as I had spent hardly any money - until I realised I haven't paid for my hotel room yet!

So I have just been wandering around still mainly. I still like Luang Prabang, though I'm getting a bit bored of it now as it is very small. Today I went to see the Pac Ou caves which were really not very exciting, although it was nice to get out of the town for the day. Yesterday I finally tracked down this bookshop/tearoom (made for me!) I've been trying to find for a week. Turns out it was very small and I'd actually walked past it a couple of times. It is called something French beginning L'E... so I've resorted to calling it L'Elephant. Anyway, they have loads of books so I spent the afternoon there reading and drinking tea. And the day before that I made it across the river over a very rickety wooden bridge and found some little village type things which were quite sweet. All the people here are really friendly. I have graduated to eating street food again. There's a vegetarian cart that does fill-a-bowl type jobbies for about 40p.

I have been reunited with Steph and Gen and tomorrow we are going to a place beginning with P on the bus - Phonousan or something I think. Oh it's on a poster - Phonsavanh - see, I was nearly right. From there we are going to visit the Plain of Jars which is one of the must-see sites in Laos. Then I think we're going to Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng is like the party capital of SEAsia and apparently it's mainly full of drunk 18 year olds. This may sound like some people's idea of paradise (I know who!) but it really isn't my thing. The most popular activity is floating down a river on a tractor tyre and stopping off at bars along the way, with the idea being you are hammered at the end of it. This sounds both pointless and dangerous to me. Oh, am I getting old? Anyway, we're just going to see what it's like, as apparently the scenery is beautiful and there are lots of (non-alcoholic) activities you can do like rafting and caving. Plus it's on the way to Vientiane (the capital) so you may as well break the journey.

So hopefully I will have had some excitement for my next blog. Maybe I should get drunk and float down a river after all...!