We caught a minibus from Chang Mai to Chang Kong ready to cross the border into Laos. After much crossing of rivers and filling in of forms and dodgy handing over of money we were finally in Laos and embarked onto the slow boat ready for a trip down the Mekong river. It was cramped and the seats were hard and we had to take it in turn sitting on the more comfortable floor before we arrived at a small town called Pakbeng for the night, only to find that they had given our room away so we had to stay in a shack where the lights went out at 1030, i think everyone in the town was on drugs and many of them were drug dealers! The next day was freezing as the weather turned cold and drizzly, just like the mother country, we all huddled on the floor of the boat and out came the blankets and sleeping bags to keep warm. We arived in Luang Prabang and went out for a romantic meal and cocktails, it was valentines day after all. We explored the town which is really pretty, its a UNESCO world heritage town and has low rise, traditional wooden buildings with French designs mixed in. There are lots of young orange robed Budhest monks around serenly walking the streets so its quite picturesque! We also did some shopping for souviners, its quite cheap. We went on an afternoons trip to Kang Si waterfalls which were very beautiful and Layne swam in the pools in his underpants, nice. There were also lots of bears and a tiger that had been rescued from poachers. Laos is very nice and we enjoyed our first few days here. I'm getting a cold