Hello,

We are now in Laos and if you haven't read our Cambodia blog posted yesterday I would recommend you read that one first to catch up on our group tour :)

As there was no direct flights to Laos, we spent a night in the capital of Laos - Vientiene. We didn't really have much time to see any of the sights but we are going back there in a few days time.

We took an early morning flight to Luang Prabang and visited the Royal Palace Museum and boarded a boat headed up the river for the Pak Ou caves. These caves were full of Buddha statues.

The following day was a free day to explore the UNESCO Heritage listed town of Luang Prabang. We decided to visit the Elephant Rescue Centre who rescue elephants and care for them. These elephants have been domesticated and were generally used for logging. As this has now been banned, the elephants have lost their jobs and cannot be released back into the wild. Therefore this centre employs them for tourist rides and also care for them. There is a vet on site as well as a dietican and the elephants only work for 3-4 hours per day. We went on an elephant ride and our elephant was blind and had to feel its way around using her trunk.

In the afternoon we visited some waterfalls and cooled down.

Now we are in a town called Vangvieng. Today we travelled 7 hours by bus through the mountains and are staying here for 1 night.

I have uploaded more photos and managed to complete the Cambodia ones too so they are worth a look.

Love to all,
Lee-Ann and AJ