After last nights experience of staying in a village that could have been the set of a horror movie we got up at 7:00am, ready to get down to the boat for 8:00am. We planned to get there early to try and get the half decent seats so we weren't sat like sardines at the back next to the very loud engine. None of us were impressed with the thought of being on the slow boat for the next 7+ hours. Laos has a history of French involvement and there are numerous bakeries selling croissants, breads etc. We brought baguettes, croissants, biscuits, water, coke light, crisps. It was like we were shopping with the fear that we would never see food again.

I'm so confused over the currency at the moment. I've gone from using Thai baht to Laos kips, and in between that American dollars!! I'm trying to remember that 12,000kips is about £1. Not bad that a large bottle of beer costs 10,000 and even better that my accommodation for last night cost 11,000. Ridiculous prices.

Anyway we got to the boat, managed to get half decent seats and say on the boat for an hour before it left just to keep hold of our half decent seats. The boat journey this time however was not as hideous as the one the previous day. The boat was a little bigger and we weren't so much like sardines in a tin can. After 2 hours the boredom started to kick in, there scenery was beautiful but when you spend 13 hours on a river it does all start to look the same. So we got a pack of cards out and spent about 2 hours playing random card games, we then ate our lunch, had a little snooze and played card games again. When this good boring we introduced Beer Laos to the game, this ended up getting a little messy, between 12 of us we drink the boat dry but it did speed the journey up.

We eventually arrived in Luang Prabang, and decided that the 12 of us had now become a little Laos family. So we got 2 tuk tuks in to the city to sort accommodation. I had already booked mine at a hostel in advance, so everyone got dropped at my hostel and looked for accommodation nearby or for spaces where I was staying. The hostel itself is alright, it's a very busy place. I'm in a four man dorm this time and the bloody top bunk again. Never having bunk beds as a child is causing me a real issue. I manage to get in to bed alright but getting back down is such an issue. I'm just lucky I haven't fallen out yet. I am sharing a dorm with a German girl who was on the boat with me and there are two others, one I have not met. The other is a male who at a guess I would say was in his 50s. When I arrived at 5:30pm he was sleeping, I woke him up, let's just say he was not a happy persons. I've just got in now at 00:30 and he's still sleeping, I crept in this time and used my torch rather then hitting the light switch.

Tonight the 12 of us from the boat met and went to the night market, we had street food which was lovely. I'm getting a little whizz kid at using chopsticks, considering I couldn't use them before I came out here. It's either use them or starve.

Whilst we were at the market a monk started to talk to us, he asked if we would be going to the Monk Alm Giving Ceremony, I hadn't ever heard of this but he explained that it was about 6am in the morning. Hence why I am back in my hostel early with my alarm set. I plan to be up to attend this and go armed with my offerings (fruit and rice). It was really nice having a monk chat, he explained about male children leaving primary education and stating their novice monk education. This continues until you are 20 and then become an actual Buddhist monk. Monks have to follow 272 Buddhist rules (god knows how they remember them all). So once we left the monk after about 30mins of chatting we went to a bar called utopia. Here I bumped into others that had been at the same hostel as me in Pai. We then played volleyball before I called it a night as I want to see the monks in the morning before heading to the waterfalls.