The monks in Luang Prabang and other areas of the world have to rise early before the sun to receive alms (food) from the local community. They then return to the monastery to eat their only meal of the day. This is a big attraction for tourists but has recently become too much so. Today we were hoping to catch a glimpse of this special moment, without crowds of tourists spoiling the tradition. We were up bright and early and ready to leave our accommodation at 5...

Happy Birthday Grandma!! Kuang Si waterfalls is the only trip from Luang Prabang that we felt was worth exchanging for a chilled out day. After a two hour minivan ride we arrived at the waterfall which unsuspectedly had a black bear sanctuary at the gates. We spent little time here as they didn't look very happy. As we began the 'walk' up to the top of the waterfall, we passed the several plunge pools that are the main attraction. During the 'walk' we sud...

Matt woke up to Char killing ants and he had slept through the whole thing in his drunk state. The bed had been crawling all night long so Char took on the role of protection until we were able to move rooms. In the next room, it was Matt who got his hands dirty (literally). After being in countries where you can flush toilet roll, apparently in Luang Prabang you can't. But they don't think to tell you this. His wrist made it past the u-bend, an all time low....

A 5 hour bus journey to Luang Prabang meant one thing for the Irish guys....Valium. They were lucky enough to miss the two landslides in the way that we had to sit and wait for to be cleared. Everybody raves about this UNESCO World Heritage Site, explaining you will just want to stay as it is so chilled out. And with bars like Utopia we are starting to realise why. It is hard to find a seat with a vertical back. So we spent the afternoon lazing overlooking th...