Got up ridiculously early this morning to go and watch the monks. My alarm went off at 5:30am, I woke the German girl, Maria in my room and we literally threw clothes on and headed in to the market square. Monks came from all directions to collect their offerings from the locals. They walked so bloody fast it was hard to photo them. We were only out for about 45mins so we grabbed a passion fruit and mango smoothie from a street seller and headed back to the hostel to bed for an hour or so. This hostel is the only hostel I have stayed in that gives you breakfast in the morning. £2.40 for bed and breakfast isn't bad!!

This morning I booked an extra night here as after a lot of trying to make a decision I have decided to head straight to Cambodia from here. I've booked a flight for Monday afternoon as it would take a day or two on a bus otherwise. The roads in Laos and particularly bad and there are a lot of horror stories going around about the bus journeys. So to safe myself some time and my life I've booked a flight that takes 2 hours straight down to Siem Reap. Unfortunately the flights are pretty expensive as they are pretty much your only option other then bus. I am now £145 lighter then I planned to be!! It's annoying that I only have 2 weeks left there is so much I want to see and do but I am rapidly running out of time, travelling takes up so much of the little time I have, wishing I was out here for much longer now.

Today we went one of the waterfalls which was an hours drive outside of Luang Prabang, there were about 16 of us that went. We travelled in the back of a tuk tuk all the way. The roads here are shocking, the pot holes are so big you could actually lose a child in one. The tuk tuk drivers swerve all over the road trying to miss them so you spend the whole journey trying to keep your balance and not falling out. We dodged, chickens, ducks, dogs and the odd cow that appeared in the middle of the road during out journey. The waterfall itself was amazing, the water was a green colour and the pools although freezing cold were amazing to swim in. Although I wasn't to keen about the fish that appeared to nibble at my feet. The ground of the waterfall was also home to a bear sanctuary, rather randomly. So we saw a number of bears that had been rescued. We spent about 3 hours at the waterfall, I found a perfect spot on top of the fall where I could sit with the sun on my and dangle my legs over the edge.

Once we got back I walked in to the Main Street as I needed some more shower gel. Laos does not have shops, there are no trusty seven elevens and you just have to try you luck at each shack you walk past. Eventually finding something that looked like shower gel I headed home and slept for about 2 hours.

This evening I decided I wasn't going to go out to the bars as I want to be up early to explore the temples and take a trek up one of the mountains to the temple/monument that looks over the city. So I just went to the night market, where I ended up buying a necklace and two paintings for a combined price of about £8. Even my haggling skills are coming along nicely. I then went to the food street, where I sat and has street food, I had no idea what I was eating as they do a buffet for 15,000kip (£1.20apx). It was actually pretty nice, but I'll wait until the morning to give judgement on how nice it actually was to see if I'm ill or not. A few people here who have eaten the street food have been poorly afterwards but torch wood I've been fine and I've been eating mainly from street vendors as it's so cheep.

As I walked back to my hostel (I spent the evening alone which was actually welcomed), I was offered 'weed' twice, 'shrooms' once and 'opium' once. I politely declined this offer and continued walking. There appears to be a lot of drugs on offer in Laos. It makes me laugh that each time I leave my hostel I walk past a school. The school sign is in Lao but underneath it says in English 'Drug Free School', always good to know when you are choosing a school for your child, I guess!! So tonight I'm walking back to the hostel with paintings in hand that are wrapped in newspaper. I was looking at the newspaper which is all written in Laos and notice a English job advert, the advert was for a 'Child Protection Programme Manager', the qualifications and experience were all what I had and the job was here in Luang Prabang, is this a sign!! The pictures I brought were of Buddha and some monks, I swear it's an enlightening!! Especially as I had spoken to mum today saying I didn't want to come home, weird!!