After the long boat journey we eventually arrived in Luang Prabang. Luang Prabang is renowned to be the most beautiful city in Laos. It is situated between the Mekong and the Khan river and the ancient city was awarded the UNESCO stamp in 1995. Due to the UNESCO status, new buildings have been limited and development must be inkeeping with the surrounding beauty.

We arrived in Luang Prabang just in time for the New Year celebrations. Basically this involved throwing as much water over people as possible. The Laos people didn't hold back, tourist or not, you are going to get completely soaked for several days. Our first experience of this was when 2 small boys about age 5 and 8 decided to chuck 2 pans of water down Allison, well was a bit of a shock at first. Allison threw down the kids pan and ran around until she found a bucket which she filled to the top and poured on the little lads heads. Their parents didn't seem to mind and the boys loved it. We were surprised to see the huge water guns that were on sale in town. They were the massive super soakers, some even had water backpacks, you know like in Ghost Busters and others were like pump action shot guns. The centre of town was like a huge water brawl, travellers and locals were all armed with water guns, buckets, pans, plastic glasses everything really. We couldn't walk down the street for anything without getting a real soaking.Truck, cars and tuk-tuks full of people were driving up and down the streets throwing water out at pedestrians.Seems quite a fun idea really, the kids seemed to love it especially. We couldn't help thinking that if something like this occured in England it would probably lead to fighting. It was nice to see the whole nation having a great time but after 3 days of it we have to say we were glad it ended!

Whilst in Luang Prabang we also visited a few temples. We first visited Phu Si hill which had a huge white stupa at the top that offered great views of Luang Prabang and the Mekong River. There was also a huge Buddha foot imprint as well as numerous gold Buddha statues.The temple Wat That Cham Sii with its golden spired stupa was also at the same site and could be viewed from most parts of the city.

Another temple we visited was Wat Xieng Thong. This was built in 1560 and is the most stunning temple in Luang Prabang, richly decorated with coloured glass and gold. We also visited the Royal Palace where we saw many artefacts belonging to the Royal Family as well as both the Kings and Queen's living quarters. The Royal family left the palace in 1975 and have never returned, no-one knows where they are, which all seems a bit strange really!

Luang Prabang had a very relaxed atmosphere. The main street had some beautiful French colonial styled buildings and all the local people were very friendly.Due to the UNESCO heritage award this city should remain as beautiful for many years to come. Would definately recommend a visit, but perhaps not at new Year if you want to stay dry.

Next stop tubing in Vang Vieng, great more water!