LUANG PRABANG 24TH-29TH NOVEMBER

We left Chiang Rai in Thailand at 6.30am on the 24th. We caught a local bus to Chiang Khong (2and a half hrs) where we got our stamp out of Thailand and caught a boat accross the Mekong River and border crossing of Laos at Huay Xai, where we got our stamps into Laos. From Huay Xai we bought a ticket for a slow boat along the Mekong to Luang Prabang, US21Dollar. This was a two day journey with an over night stop in Pak Beng. It seemed a nice way to enter our second country!

The slow boat was a good experience. Not exactly comfortable as we were crammed on like cattle, on hard wooden benches between sacks of cargo, but the scenery down the Mekong was fantastic and made up for our sore bottoms! The journey was about 6 hours each day.

Lewis speaks: Stopping over in Pak Beng was a nice changed. On arrival we were greated by a lot of Laos people trying to grab our bags off the boat and then demanding money for this little service. One guy was being so independent that he fell into the Mekong river with his bag which i thought was hilerious (and offered no help). We stayed with this lovely Laos family, with only 4 hours of electricity each night. In the morning i managed to blag a free omelet off the lady owner which she had previously tryed to sell me, something free always tastes better!

We stayed in Luang Pabang four night, having to changed accomidation as our first guesthouse sounded more like sleeping at a zoo, with their pet eagle, monkey, howling dog, and many cockrals keeping us awake all night long.

Luang Prabang is a popular tourist destination, it is a beautiful relaxed city with a ground level market, selling colourful hand-crafted fabrics and gifts. There is a huge french influence within many aspects, including cuisine, and especially architecture, beautiful old buildings with large shutters. It is encircled by mountains at the confluence of the Nam Khan and the Mekong River, which adds to the atmosphere. There are many street eating places, where an 'eat all you can' veggie buffee cost you 5,000 kip/30pence and was delicious, we stuffed ourselves every night, as resturants were six times the price.

Whilst in Luang Prabang, we took a boat 25km up the Mekong to Pak Ou caves, stopping off at a paper-making village and a wiskey-making village. We also went by bus to Tat Kuang Si, waterfall for a cool dip. We kept bumping into locals and travellers trying to learn the guitar, as Lewis always seems to have one to hand of late, teaching the odd tune here and there. And even trading one guitar lesson to a local for some free Laos coffee. The only draw back to Luang Prabang seems to be the amount of tourists, so we decided to head slightly more north, into the more remoteness of Laos, to Nong Kiaw tomorrow....