Hello everyone,

So, we left Chiang Mai last Monday. It took around 5 hours to get to Chiang Khong, a town on the border where we stayed in a guesthouse for one night. On the bus there was a Dutch couple, 3 Chileans and 3 English girls. The girls fitted the 'rah' stereotype perfectly with such conversations as 'I'm a bit worried because daddy says I'm going into my overdraft'... 'well why don't you just ask him to put more money in'... 'well yah I will' and 'mummy just phoned saying she's having tea in the house of lords'. The bus ride was pretty fast and bumpy but we got there eventually. In the morning we crossed the border into Laos over the river by boat to a town called Huay Xai. There we went through immigration and got our visas, it was all very straightforward. We then got on the slow boat and floated down the Mekong for about 7 hours. It was actually a really nice, comfortable journey and the scenery of mountains, forest and little villages was really beautiful. We also got to chat to various people on the boat. At the end of the first day we reached a little town called Pakbeng where we stayed for a night. A little boy tried to push Ryan in the water when he was carrying both of the big bags because we wouldn't give him our cushions but it was quite funny. In the evening there was a power cut which apparently are very common so everywhere was really dark when we had a walk around. Unfortunately i think this meant 'the only bar in town' was closed since we failed to find it. There were also a few people trying to sell us drugs, they seemed to be mostly attracted to Ryan, I think partly due to the bushy beard he had going on at the time. I think Beth described Pakbeng quite well by saying that it is 'special', though we actually had a really good time there and we had our first sips of beer Lao which Ryan has continued to enjoy. In the morning there were blankets of cloud on the mountains which looked really pretty. After another 7 hours we arrived in Luang Prabang. In the evening we ended up going for a drink with the Chileans from the boat, a guy called Filipe, his girlfriend Javeira (or Pai) and her sister Camila.

We met up with them again on Thursday and had a look around. We climbed up 350 steps to the top of mount Phousi which is a hill in the middle of the town with a small temple on top. The views from there were beautiful as we could see the whole of Luang Prabang surrounded by mountains and rivers. Afterwards we had a look at some other temples and the free parts of the museum! In the evening we went out to our favourite place, Lao Lao bar, again. Ryan and Filipe ordered a 'tower of power' which is 3 litres of beer. None of our nights out were exactly wild since there is a curfew of 12am when everyone last to be back home by. There are however tuk-tuk drivers on hand at the end of the night offering to take you to bowling alleys to continue the party.

On Friday the five of us got into a songthaew and headed to Kuang Si falls. The ride on the way there was nice as we drove along little country lanes through little villages. There is also a bear rescue centre next to the waterfall with enclosures housing Asian black bears to protect them from poachers. The waterfalls themselves were awesome and very paradise-like. We all had a go on the rope swing into one of the pools. Ryan got a very red back as a result of trying to do a backflip! We then spent time just swimming and chilling in one of the other pools. Afterwards I bought some sugar cane juice from a local woman but it got a bit too sickly after a while! Later on we went back to Lao Lao where we had a Lao barbecue. This involves using your own little barbecue in the middle of the table to cook your own meat and vegetable noodle soup. It was certainly a novelty and was really fun. Ryan and Fililpe conquered another 'tower' while me and the girls stuck to cocktails. At one point we watched a big spider crawl up this guys back and onto his neck. Ryan and Filipe (the two MEN of the group) were freaking out for the rest of the night. On the walk home we saw the crazy monk who we saw quite a lot during our time there. He seems to have a tick where he has to fold out all of the foot rests on motorbikes and ring all of the bells on bicycles. We also saw him another time throwing leaves into the road and staring at a dog. Quite strange but also funny, I hope he's ok though!

The next day the Chileans left for Vang Vieng where we would later meet them. Me and Ryan had planned on doing something fun but the weather decided otherwise as it drizzled for most of the day. As a result we did very little. Our day did perk up however when we found 40,000 kip on the street which I used to buy earrings and some slippers from the market with. We also went to a place called Utopia bar down by the river which was nice.

On Sunday we got on the bus heading to Vang Vieng. Overall I really liked Luang Prabang, it's a really nice, chilled out town and is a world heritage site too! It's full of 'faring', or tourists though and we kept bumping into people from the slow boat. If we hadn't planned to meet our friends in the next town we probably would have stayed a day or two longer.

Lots of love,

Jo and Ryan xxx