Hello again!

Another few days have rushed on by and it's time for another spot of writing- hopefully not too much of a long one as it's been a relatively short time since I last blogged!!Anyway, at the moment the four of us are in Luang Prabang, in Northern Laos. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon after a 7 hour bus journey from Vang Vieng during the day on a 'VIP' bus that actually had no a/c and wouldn't have looked out of place on the road about 30 years ago!Luang Prabang seems really cool- very laid back, lots of leafy streets, nice restaurants, pretty buildings and wats with monks in their saffron robes walking about and a fun night market to explore.

So anyway, back to last week when we were in Vientiane...After a very relaxing Friday which involved lots of internet usage and eating, we had a slightly disappointing meal down by the riverside (which unfortunately we couldn't see because there's massive building-work going on at the minute to make a big park by the water)- the spring rolls were great, but my noddles were not so great!!Much to our surprise as we hadn't had anything like it (even in India), there were some little boys hanging about the place, not wanting money, but food. They looked like they hadn't eaten in a while and we had lots leftover so we gave it to them, it was quite upsetting actually as they were all really young but they seemed grateful for the food. Afterwards we stopped into a cafe for some really delicious chocolate sundaes and all the staff were glued to a Thai soap opera on the tv- obviously we didn't have a clue what was going on, but the storyline seemed to involve a pretty terrifying (and inexplicably green) ghost coming back to haunt a girl who'd stolen her boyfriend, and then posessing her, though we made up our own dialogue to go along with it for jokes!We headed to the hotel afterwards, bumping into Stephanie and Vikanda on the way (it seems to happen a lot when travelling that you'll meet up with people you've separated from as lots of people will do the same route, and Laos is a pretty small country too!).

Next morning, we had our breakfast of toast fruit and green curry (!) at the hotel (which was made all the more delicious by the fact it was included in our room rate), before heading off in a tuk tuk to the start of the walking tour in our book. The start point was the Patuxai, which is Vientiane's version of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a great big four archway monument, that although made of concrete and relatively modern (I think it was built in the 60s) is still quite pretty, and there were some good views when we climbed up via the tourist tat stalls to the top, with two pretty musical fountains (apparently Chinese donated, they do love them!) dotted about the surrounding area.Next we hit up the Talat Sao, a big market selling everything from gorgeous handwoven textiles (I definitely have a greater appreciation of how difficult and time consuming such things are to make after my two hours on the loom in Don Kho!) to digital cameras, before walking past the That Dam stupa (which apparently has a giant Naga serpent monster thingy hiding underneath according to legend-creepy!), the gold and grey Presidential Palace and the nearby Wa Si Saket, before we walked along the riverside area and back to a cafe near our hotel for lunch. After having a quick look in some more Wats near the hotel, we grabbed our bikinis and got a tuk tuk to Wat Sok Pa Luang (translated as 'forest temple'), which is famous for it's herbal saunas and vipassana meditation led by an english-speaking monk in the afternoons. We had a go at both!The sauna was great fun, and very refreshing though the steam was a bit scary as it was literally coming up from underneath the floorboards so part of the room was really really hot and a guy that was in with us managed to scald himself by stepping in the wrong place!It was quite funny as well as it was so steamy that we couldn't even really see each other when we were in there. It felt pretty authentic though, and was in a lovely setting, with lots of trees and the owner's dogs and cats running about. The meditation was interesting too- we did both sitting and standing meditation, the standing one was pretty weird as we were just supposed to walk around the room focusing on the movement of our feet but it was hard to concentrate on that as there were quite a lot of people and the room was pretty small- usually you're meant to do it outside walking around the temple enclosure but there was a bit of a downpour so we were all couped up inside!The sitting meditation was very relaxing though and really just involved sitting with your legs crossed and eyes closed, and sorting through the thoughts that pop into your head. Later on, we went out for a spot of dinner, then after much walking around and a little bit of getting lost, we eventually found the bowling alley and put our clown shoes on for a game!!In a country where the curfew is 11.30pm, and most of the locals seem to be in bed by 10, the bowling alley is apparently the place to be as it was crowded with locals and a few western families too, bowling and having a great time. At home I'm a terrible bowler, and unfortunately the exotic setting didn't help matters much, but Jade played spectacularly badly so I was only second last (which makes a change!), and in a nail-biting final round, Jo won against Jill after she'd been second for most of the game, how exciting!!

Sunday was our last morning in Vientiane as we were catching a bus to Vang Vieng a 1.30,so we had quite a leisurely few hours enjoying breakfast and lunch and visiting Pha That Luang, a gigantic golden stupa monument and temple complex which is apparently the most important monument in Laos, and also where the big cheese of Lao Buddhism lives. It was pretty impressive, and funnily enough there's a statue of some king in the courtyard area outside but the crown he's wearing looks like a witch's hat which is pretty weird!!After that, we headed back to the hotel to pack up and wait for the bus, but much to my horror my big bag decided to break properly, after one of the zips came off it a few days before!!Not much I could do about it though, as the zip needs to be replaced but it's quite a heavy duty one so I just had to try and tighten the straps that secure the outside as tightly as possible and put my rain cover over the top to prevent all my stuff falling out until it can be replaced!kind of annoying with only a couple of weeks to go but I guess it's Murphy's Law!Anyway, after getting picked up from the hotel by jumbo (a big tuk tuk that fits about 10 people), and waiting around for about an hour sweating it out with a few other people, we eventually got loaded onto the 'bus' or rather the people-carrier!!It wasn't too bad though as there was some sort of level of air-con going on, and the journey only took a few hours so we arrived in Vang Vieng in the early evening. After a bit of faffing around, we managed to get a good deal paying about $1.50 a night for a basic yet fairly clean place with shared bathrooms and friendly staff, then headed off for some dinner. On the way, we bumped into a couple of girls who we asked about tubing, which is THE thing to do in Vang Vieng, and basically involves going down a few km of the Nam Song river which is right near the town in a tractor inner tube (just a gigantic rubber ring that you get in water parks), stopping along the way for drinks/food/rope swings in the various bars lining the way, and got a bit freaked out when they told us that basically it was absolutely fine and not too dangerous, though the river was running quite fast at the moment because of the rainy season, and actually yes some Lao guy had died today after hitting his head on the so-called 'death slide', and then drowning, which obviously filled us with cheerful thoughts and confidence!!!We were all a bit worried about it after that, but vowed that we had to do it as the main reason we came to Vang Vieng was because of the tubing, and Jade wanted to get a souvenir vest by the by too so we'd be frauds if we didn't go for it!!After dinner, we went to one of the many pub cafes in the area (catering to the hordes of 18-30 year old travels who are, for the most part quite disappointingly, in the area just to booze it up), which not only does some seriously questionable 'happy' shakes (no, we didn't get involved!) but shows back to back friends episodes on repeat quite randomly (probably mainly for the benefit of people who do indulge in the aforementioned 'happy' shakes)!!

Anyway, the next day after a hearty pancake breakfast at a great bakery down the road, we hired some bikes (that were in much better condition that the ones we had in the 4,000 Islands- mine even had working brakes this time, whopee!) and set off into the countryside in search of the Blue Lagoon we'd read about...7kms on very bumpy and muddy dirt paths later, and we came to a lovely little secluded spot at the foot of quite an impressive mountain, where there was a natural lagoon area, complete with a rope swing and a large buffalo guarding the nearby toilet which I had to manouevre around in order to relieve myself!!We all went in for a dip, and on the rope swing a couple of times, but the current was crazily strong, so we couldn't swim at all, and had to hold on the the roots of a large tree near the water so we didn't get swept down river. If we had, I think we would have been ok as it wasn't connected to the main river, and here were lots of overhanging branches to hold on to, but it's still pretty amazing how strong the forces of nature can be. The bike ride itself, both on the way there and back into town was gorgeous, the Lao countryside really is still quite untouched once you get away from the towns and cities which is great, and the lush greenery surrounded by mountains, as well as the rural way of life complete with grazing cattle and buffalo is very peaceful to observe.

The last 10 minutes of our cycle back to town, there was a bit of an afternoon downpour, but that afternoon was our only chance to go tubing, so we sucked it up and hoped for better weather (the rain soon cleared thankfully), then making sure all our valuables were tucked up at our guest house, we headed to the tubing company, walking barefoot through town (you don't wanna lose your flip flops on the river, which our friend Stephanie actually did we later found out!). The girls the night before told us that no one wore life jackets, though they are available, but we decided to give ourselves the best chance on the river possible and use them, and actually we saw quite a few people with them on!We got loaded up in a tuk tuk, an taken to the drop off area, where loads of people (who, quite depressingly all looked a fair bit younger than us for the most part)were hanging out at the bars and going on the trapeze rope swing over the river. It all felt a bit magaluf-y, but when we did eventually manouevre ourselves onto the river and into our rings, the not insignificant current was actually really relaxing, and it was SO fun!!Unfortunately Jade got taken by the current before us, so she was quite a distance ahead, but when you go past each bar along the route, the staff through out rubber rings and other floating things on ropes so they can pull you in if you want to come in, so eventually we all stopped at the same place, though I felt a bit bad as my rubber ring kind of escaped from me a bit, and as losing your ring results in a $7 fine, one of the bar boys very kindly jumped in after it as it tried to make its' way down river without me!We had a drink at the first bar, and sensible girls we are, loaded up on carbs to soak up the alcohol (we'd agreed not to drink more than a couple anyway so we could keep our wits about us)- the others wanted to try the rope swing (I was a bit less enthusiastic because of my slight fear of heights thing),but we decided to wait until we got to a bar further downriver as they all seemed to have them so far, but unfortunately after our next jaunt on the river we managed to bypass all the main bars without realising it and ending up at the rather aptly named 'last bar', which had no rope swing in sight, oh dear!!After another drink and a bit of disappointed chat, we headed back on the river for the last leg, ingeniously using bits of stick we'd found to hold onto, keeping us all in a nice little four together!We'd been going downriver for a while, then saw a sign saying '2km to the end of tubing', but then shortly afterwards before we knew what was happening 2 guys in a boat coming the other direction indicated to us that we needed to pull in to the side as we were finished, but unfortunately I was closer to the other side of the river, and so much frantic paddling ensued to get to the grassy bank!!I got a bit panicky actually as I could see the others getting to the side quicker than I was, but I was getting tired of swimming, but the boatmen kindly gave me a bit of a hand to the edge so I was able to scramble up eventually, albeit a few metres down the road than the others!!Quite annoyingly there were loads of asian tourists at the hotel that I pitched up at just taking photos of me as I was trying to get up to the path, and not one of them helped me, but at least I made it in once piece!!

I'm really glad we did the tubing, as despite the horror stories we'd heard, it was a really fun and relatively safe experience, as there are loads of people out on the river at any one point in time to help you if you get back in trouble, it's just a shame that accidents do happen though unfortunately, and apparently the Lao guy had had a few drinks so I think the slow reactions could have contributed. We made up for our sensible approach on the river by having a great meal (I was very naughty and shared a very un-asian pizza and chips dinner with Jo) and quite a few drinks at a couple of bar/club places in town. We met some Australian guys who we chatted to for a bit, and Jade made a new Lao friend who was actually quite creepy and insisted on kissing (or rather licking) her hand rather inappropriately!!We didn't stay out too late though, but did enjoy some crepes from a street stall on the way home before collapsing into bed!!On Tuesday we were up pretty early and chased the hangovers away for our 9.30am bus to Luang Prabang, where we are at the moment. As I mentioned earlier, the bus journey took the better part of the day as we arrived just after 5, but it wasn't too bad as we all had our books to read, and the scenery on the way was pretty breathtaking as we were driving around mountains for most of the way- and Jade and I even saw some elephants going by!Yesterday we'd planned to do a walking tour around the town but unfortunately Jill was feeling a bit poorly after we'd just walked around a few of the wats near the begining so we chilled out for the most part, then shopped up a storm at the night market, where I bought myself a gorgeous Lao silk scarf and a really pretty bag from a sweet little old lady(among other things). The market itself is absolutely massive, but has a lovely laid back feel as the stall-holders are very laid back, and aren't pushing you to buy things you don't necessarily want (unlike sometimes in India!!), and we had cheap but delicious dinners there last night and the night before, topped off by yummy pineapple and coconut shakes at one of the numerous fruit shake stalls nearby. Lao people in general seem lovely, perhaps a bit more shy than Cambodians, and not as straight to the point as the Vietnamese (which at times can be a little grating!), but they're very honest and good-natured too, and it's really nice to have a lot of interaction with them like you're able to at the street markets.

Today we had a lovely day, breakfast (pancakes for me again- I think they'll be coming out of my ears by the time I come home!) followed by a trip to Kouangsi Waterfall, which is about 30km out of town. It took us an hour to get there by tuk tuk, but it was well worth it as we were able to see 5 or 6 asian black bears ( Jade kept commenting that the fence was too low, but thankfully it was electric so I don't think they were going to be able to get us) as there is a bear sanctuary on site where they live after being rescued from illegal animal traffickers, who killed their mothers and kept them so their bile could be used for herbal medicine. Quite distressing stuff, and although the bears are in captivity now it's better than being abused and ill-treated I think. Afterwards, we were able to go on a really pretty walk through the forrest/jungle (not sure what the difference is but it feels a bit more exotic here than our forrests at home if that counts!) and up to various different small-ish waterfalls until we reached the daddy- a great big thundering one set against the mountainside, amazing!We were able to have a paddle about in one of the less current-y pools too, though the water was pretty freezing and there were fish that kept nibbling at your toes!!Jo and Jill decided to go on a bit of a bike ride for a couple of hours after we got back, but Jade and I have just been relaxing- we did do our good deeds for the day by taking our used water bottles to be recycled at a Children's Cultural Centre, and donating some of our clothes to the Red Cross though, so we haven't been complete wasters!!!

We have another day in Luang Prabang tomorrow before getting a night bus back to Vientiane on friday evening (no beds, just seats and apparently could take longer than the 9 hours it's supposed to because of landslides- I'll let you know how it goes!) then heading to Thailand on Saturday, so it's all go-go-go at the moment, but Jade and I are both really looking forward to some beach-time once we get to the southern island, I think we've earned it over the past few months with the amount of activity we've packed in on an almost daily basis!Best go now as we're going to meet the girls and climb up to a mountain-y view point in the centre of town called Mount Phousi to watch the sunset, a perfect end to a pretty damn good day!

Lots of love from Luang Prabang xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx