We've been having a pretty relaxed week in Laos. We departed Nong Khiaw Thursday morning to head west towards Luang NamTha. To reach our destination, we took a 1 hour bus ride to a tiny village of Pak Mong, where we changed to another bus that would take us the rest of the way. We met a French traveller, Tim, who was taking the same route, and spent the bus ride and the 2 hour layover in Pak Mong chatting with him and hearing about his extraordinary experiences. In the past couple of years, he has worked with a puma in the Bolivian conservation area where Aliza stayed, and spent a year in South Africa in the bush learning the skills of a safari guide. His path and interests in life parallel Mark's very closely; it is so interesting to listen to him tell stories and gain an understanding for his passion for conservation, nature, and animals.

We also met a young couple on the bus ride, Cory from Toronto and Audrienne from California. The ride was long and exhausting (and Mark and I spent our last kip on the tickets so had no money left for lunch along the way - eeek!), so it was nice to pass the time swapping stories with the others. When we arrived in Luang NamTha in the evening, we went together to find a guesthouse and bargain for a good rate. We settled for a really nice room one block off the central street for 60,000kip ($7.50) per night. After a nice dinner, we all headed off for an earlier night.

Friday, Mark and I lazed around the city for the morning. This is definitely the biggest "city" we've seen since Luang Prabang, as it has paved roads and a few more cars around. Still, it only has about 30,000 people so the main "city" is confined to a fairly small area. In the afternoon, we rented mountain bikes and formed a biker gang with Tim, Cory, and Audrienne and headed a few kilometers out of town to find a waterfall in a local village. The ride there was short, thankfully only 6km, but took us through winding farm lands and extremely rocky and bumpy roads. Cycling through the small villages on the way was fun. Many people, especially the kids, would stop what they were doing, wave, and yell "Sabaidee"! Arriving at the waterfall in dry season, we were fairly dissappointed to see a completely dry rock face with only a small stagnant pool of water at the bottom! Quite unlike the impressive falls outside of Luang Prabang! But, we climbed along the edge of the rocks and eventually found a small stream of water near the top that was diverted into a pipe and transported, probably into the village below. I'm sure in the rainy season it would've been raging, but it was still peaceful to sit along the quietly rambling water in the shade of the forest.

By the time we cycled back through the villages and into the main city, the sun was starting to head towards the horizon. We biked up one of the hills surrounding the city to a big hilltop stupa. From here, you had a great view of the city, beautiful light from the setting sun, and a huge golden Buddhist shrine. This really is a very peaceful city. Once the sun was lost behind the trees, we headed down, returned our bikes and had a great dinner/happy hour at a local restaurant. We've gotten used to the older ladies from the hills that come into the city trying to sell their bracelets (and occasionally opium!), so that we don't provoke much reaction or attention from them anymore.

Saturday was St. Paddy's Day and we were a bit disappointed to realize that we were miles away from any sign of an Irish pub and therefore days away from Mark having a Guiness to properly celebrate. We did, however, manage to find a small restaurant owned by a Kiwi couple, who were putting on a special dinner that night. Although they didn't have any green beer, they were serving green food and drinks all night - from pesto pasta to mint and basil inspired cocktails. The best part (that wasn't green) was the dessert - homemade chocolate and banana bread pudding. We skipped the rest of the meal and just went straight for dessert. So good, I had been craving a proper dessert for weeks and this totally fit the bill.

Sunday morning, we booked an afternoon bus to the border city of Houay Xai, where we were signed up for the Gibbon Experience. It was a long and very windy road all the way to the border. Have I mentioned how grateful I am to have Gravol on this trip?

We had a relaxed couple of days in Houay Xai, resting, and gearing up for our Gibbon jungle trek, that promised to be somewhat strenuous with enough hiking involved to keep it interesting. Mark ran into Tim again, who was starting the Gibbon trek the day before us. He was also going to head to Chiang Mai afterwards so we planned to meet up there to go over how the treks were.

Monday afternoon, we signed our waiver forms for the Gibbon Experience and were told to be back at 8am the following morning for the safety briefing. This was really happening! We had first heard about this trip upon entering Laos, but heard that it was almost impossible to get a booking because it was so popular and was always full. So, we didn't bother looking into it. When we met Tim, he told us he had just booked this trek 2 weeks earlier, so we decided to take a chance and sent multiple emails and eventually Mark made one phone call that got us in! Tuesday morning, we will be zipping around the jungle in Laos and sleeping for 2 nights in a treehouse 200 feet above the ground!!!