Hey all

So spent a day in vientiane, its a cool city, busy but not rude, bustly but not impersonal, how poetic do i sound right now?!so went to see pha that luang, the big huge golf ocvered temple that is the symbol of vientiane, was v cool, expecially weird since i saw buddist monks in their bright ornae garb working with electric circular saws and hammers and nalis alongside carpeters to build something inside the temple.shame i didnt get good photo of it cos u have to ask ermissio nto take photos.

then chilled around and watched sunset on the river which was cool.carollina is v cool girl, shes brazilian but lives somewhere way north in scotland even further north than perth in some small village of 200 but shes is properly loud and crazy!very typically brazilian and so much fun!in the evening i got a bus to luang prabang.when i say get a bus i dont mean like a ten min affiar like in the uk, i mean a 12 HOUR affair laos style....ok so there were amazingly pretty woven rattan style villages in the mist shrouded hills of the tropical rainforest but while passing htese i was on an old claptrap bus trundling along a road just barely wide enough for two buses, at about 40 miles per hour, in the dark hundreds of feet up in windy dangerous roads!!was a little scary to say the least!but the time passes, bus journeys are my forte nowadays have calculated that in teh last 8 days i have spent over 67 hours on travelling (over 60 hours on buses alone), that is not great news!!my bum is getting increasingly annoyed about all this ad refuses to sit still for such a journey making me squirm contantly on the hot sweaty pvc seats on buses with NO airco (again!!) which just as suddenly turn freezing cold with all teh windows open at three in the mornig on top of mountains!!

anyway got to the amazingly scenic city of luang prabang safe and sound this morning at 7.its basically a city nestled in the mountains where two rivers meet with old school french colonial buildinds and loads of stereotypical temples and monks walking about.v v scenic!
THO THere are literally hundreds of tourists everywhere, its a little annoying that i see so may tourists but its not surprising considering i am only doing the easy to get to highlights of countries, as mentioned in the omnipresent lonely planet.the number of times ive seen the distinct yellow cover of that book in someones hands!

negotiated a great 3 dollar per night room with my own bathroom in a guesthouse and will prob hire a bike to go cyclin round here to see sights.and then?well another 24 hour bus journey to look forward to, woo hoo!!! :( NOT

hows life in england, anyone got any goss?

xxx