I made my way across the border to enter Laos & had planned on going straight to Luang Prabang but missed the 2-day slow boat by 30 minutes as the border guards were on one of their regular 'lunch breaks', so I stayed in Huay Xia for one night and took a minibus the next day. There wasn't much to do there but wander around & talk to the few locals that speak english. The kids were adorable and all running up to me wanting to say hello. The travel throughout Laos has been quite interesting. You are often crammed into a mini-bus with 2-3 too many people, regular occurences of flat or broken tires slowing down the trip, cramming 5 people into the back coffin-like area of an overnight sleeper bus to name a few of the transport occurences...but it was all entertaining in the end.

Luang Prabang: Very nice colonial city with french style bakeries, restaurants & cafes. It was a nice break from the typical rice & noodles from all over asia! I spent a day and a half just wandering the city, doing a few tours of temples and waterfalls where we trekked & swam. I had planned on doing some white water rafting or there more adventurous treks but time was beginning to be an issue as travel through Laos will be quite slow.