The day after the incident with the village and the lights and the darkness, we headed down the river again. In all we were on the boat for about 7 hours although this time it was far rainier and overcast and we stopped only once to visit the cave of a thousand Buddahs. In all honesty, I'm getting a bit Buddah'd out...ive seen enough of him at this stage to the point where I'm starting to think he only became "the enlightened one" because everywhere he looked he saw an image of himself in gold and rather liked it!!

Luangprabang. The guesthouse we stayed in was like some sort of honeymoon location on the riverbank, with flowers and fruit on the bed on arrival (not that I'd eat it obviously) lol. After dinner in the market itself, we had a walk round its extensive nightmarket, where the hilltribe people come to the town and sell their locally produced items like silk and woven baskets. One American woman made me sick by bartering down an elderly villagar from 50000 Kip, to just 20000. There are only 10000 Kip in a single US dollar, and the goods were excellent quality- no need for that tightness!

The next morning we headed out early in Tuc Tucs up to the Kouang Si waterfall and nature park. In the pictures you can see how beautiful it was, the water crystal clear and very fresh. I made a bit of an idiot of myself trying to jump in off a rope-swing, but failing miserably and ending up with nothing but rope-burns and ironic applause from the japanese tourists laughing at the failed whale. We then saw some Black bears, Moon bears as known locally, and were very lucky to see a stunning tiger called Phi. Aaron our guide told us that in the 10 or 12 times he'd been there, he had only seen it twice so we were dead lucky, and I got some good pics too.

The next day I had my first lie in of the trip interupted only by a cockerel, who i think was on my roof ALL MORNING LONG! That afternoon we went to a mountain temple overlooking the town with stunning views of the surrounding landscape..cheers Buddah! More interestingly though, there were several Vietnam War gun positions on the side of the mountain, hidden in shrubbery and bush, which were manned 24 hours a day trying to shoot american planes form the sky. They were so well hidden that you would not even know where the gunshots were coming from until it was too late. I was a big kid swinging on it and making gun noises attracting strange looks from the kids selling freedom birds on the steps.

Yesterday 6 of us were invited into our Laotian guide Gao's house which was a short speedboat across to a small villiage the other side of the Mekong. His family put on the most fantastic food, everything from lamb, to homemade sausage, rice, bamboo soup and fresh fish, and, unusually for Laos people, who usually would not share food with a westerner, Gao and his Dad sat with us on the floor. It was such a unique opportunity to eat authentically with them, and also sample the poverty. One young lad in the village was sitting outside, trying to teach a Rooster to sit!

Last night was wikid. In Laos there is a government kerfew, and everyone must be in their homes by midnight..strange eh? There is however one place in town which probably through corruption, stays open later than everywhere else, and still serves drink...the bowling alley! what this means is that at 11。30 every night, scores of westerners with a taste for the beer (there is only one type of beer, BeerLao run by the government too lol) head off to bowl themselves silly.

i lost to a girl

Today we flew to Vientiane, a town heavily influenced by French occupation on the Thai border, which is also the nations captial. A lad I'm travelling with at the moment Gerard, could not even look at food all day today as a result of last night's shananigans, and he reckons its because he's 26...that gives me just about 2 and a half years before I am officially OLD. Maybe I already am though, cos this afternoon i rented a bicycle and rode around town in a Gallagher hat thinking i was cool when I clearly, was not. lol

Tomorrow I am floating down a river in a tube stopping off for drinks on the way, so basically, its a river pubcrawl but without a boat! canny wait man!