We woke up promptly at 6:30, got ready and carried our backpacks downstairs to the restaurant of our guest house. We ordered our breakfast and lunch to take away the day before so didn't waste any time having to order. The drinks came pretty quickly, dan got a coffee and i had an orange juice, it looked a bit radioactive; like a glass of flat mirinda and didn't taste fresh as it was advertised. We then received our breakfast, eggs with baguette. Mine were fried, one soft and runny and the other slightly well cooked; i love when eggs are served like this. After breakfast, the young woman working (who looked a bit worse for wear, must have been up at the crack of dawn) handed us our baguettes for the journey and we began the journey down the road to order two more baguettes. This time i opted for ham and salad.

As we proceeded down the road to the boat we were shocked to see it was already half full! We had expected to be one of the first people there, but everyone wanted a decent seat so got there extra to put dibbs on the seats with the most leg room. As we stepped onto the boat, i was scanning the room for two empty seats together. There was only one pair and it was right at the front, will minimal leg room. It would have to do, we'd either have to cope with cramped legs or sit next to a snoring old frenchman.

People continued to filter through onto the boat until there was no more room. The workers had to bring in another boat for the group of around 15 people sat on the top of the hill. Of course they tried to charge them 20,000kip for the "upgrade" to the "VIP" boat to which they refused, good job too, and they were able to travel on the other boat without any extra coasts.

The boat ended up leaving the dock at around 10:30, one a d a half hours later than planned! Everyone was irritable at this point as we'd been sat im the boat for what seemed like an eternity. And so the long hour journey began, i would have liked to have a nap but couldn't get comfortable, plus there were a load of people sat in front of us, and i didn't want to subject them to my open-mouthed sleeping face, nor could i embarrass myself in such a way. Instead, i wrote some of my blog and read a fair chunk of my book; One Day by David Nicholls. The book was turned into a film that starred Anne Hathaway, which meant i couldn't get her out of my head which didn't leave much work for my imagination.

We arrived at a pier at around 17:00, yes, A pier, not THE pier for Luang prabang- this is another scam for people to pay 10,000kip for a tuktuk to Luang prabang. There was a mutiny over it on a previous book where the travellers all refused to get off unless they were taken to luang prabang pier, however the boat workers began to unload their backpacks so they had no choice. We hopped on a tuktuk with a group of girls and a couple. Whilst in the back, i wasn't feeling very pleased or excited at all. The air felt heavy and dirty, not like the fresh scented air back in Chiang Mai. However, the air seemed to improve once we'd made it off the main road.it was a ten minute tuktuk ride until we got to the main tourist road. Immediately as we got off we were greeted by a man advertising his guesthouse. He was offering 100,000kip for one night which was pretty decent (£1 is equal to around 12,000kip). We wern't going anywhere until he assured us there was hot water and wifi, which he did so we decided to check the place out.

He mounted his motorbike and gestured for us to follow him to the guesthouse. He was driving very slowly so me and dan could keep up behind walking with our backpacks. It took us around 5 minutes to get to the accommodation where we were greeted (not in a very friendly manner) by a woman who showed us our room and handed the key.

The room was decent enough, double bed, private bathroom and a fan, however, the fan never really gets used as it tend to get quite cold at night. The only use i've had for a fan in our room so far is to clip wet and washed underwear to it in order to dry quicker. Once dumping our stuff we went to reception to pay and then off out to explore and get some dinner. There were some very quaint looking shops, ones you would stumble across down a side road of carnaby street or camden town. There were lots of jewellery stalls and shops, selling mainly silver which always caught my eye as i want to get a silver ring. The choice of rings began to give me a abit of a headache so we went to get some dinner. We agreed on an indian place which looked really nice and reasonably priced. As we walked in we were greeted in a friendly manner and handed menus. There was a small boy running around looking cute, must be the son of one of the workers.

An indian looking lady came to take our order, i opted for fresh lemon juice to drink while dan went for a beerlao, may as well considering it costs around the same for a fruit shake. For food we ordered chicken tikka masala, chicken bhuna, two plain rice, saag aloo and a nan bread to share. When it got to the table i knew it was going to be delicious. The fragrance of all the spices was enough to make you drool let alone eating it! It could have possibly been one of the best indians i've ever had! I got full up very quickly and so fobbed off my leftovers to Dan's plate.

After paying, we tool a stroll further down the road where we came across a big market under canapes. There were an endless row of brightly coloured stall selling loads of lao goods. A few stalls were selling: lao tea and coffee (lemongrass, bail fruit, tamarind etc), shawls and sarongs made of cotton, the famous flimsy trousers plastered with images of elephants that ALL the backpackers are wearing. And after weeks of umming and ah-ing Dan finally bought himself a pair, he did however have to bargain with the very young girl helping her mum run the stall. He managed to get them down from 80,000 to 50,000, which is still quite expensive compared to back on Chiang Mai. There were stall selling paintings on a papyrus type paper, stalls selling jewellery and cutlery made from old bombs and aluminium. After strolling through the market we made our way back down the road to the guesthouse when a silver jewellery shop caught my eye and so i was inspecting the large selection of rings, i was torn between two, a ring made of lao silver and an 80% silver ring with the buddhas head on it. I decided to go for the buddha and managed to get it for 60,000kip. We continued our walk back and when we got in we read more of our books and then got some sleep.