Sabaidee from Laos! Hey again everyone, hope your keeping well. Once again we've been busy, and in the last 10 days or so since my last entry we've not had too much free time to update this. When I last wrote on here we'd been in Chiang Mai, and from there we headed North West to Pai, a chilled out little village in the mountains, just off the Burmese border. If ever there was a place I was destined to go it was Pai! Pie in Pai, that alone was excitment enough! In fact, the two share many similarities- laid back, chilled out, cool, fun... and... the only other egyptian I've met since I've been out here was there! A funny alaskan Egyptian. Unsurprisingly, I liked Pai, and after a few chilled out days and drunken nights there, we headed east towards Chiang Kong on the Laos border, a 9 hour bus ride. Chiang Kong was just a stop off for people heading towards Laos, but it was fascinating that we could see Laos across the river from where we were staying. The next morning we took a river taxi to Laos which couldnt have taken more than a couple of minutes, and it was really interesting to see how much changed in those 2 mins, in that half a mile. Instantly they responded to our "Khap Khoon Khap" (thai thankyou) with "Khop Jai". They drove on the right (Thailand was left), our Baht was changed to Kip, and, perhaps most importantly, we traded in our Chang Beers for Beer Laos. Goodbye Chang, you have served me well. And so that day we began our long journey to Luang Prabang. It was a 2 day river boat ride along the Mekong, with a stop off for the night at a tiny village called Pak Beng. Now, trading in my Chang for my Beer Laos I can tolerate, but trading in Samsong (thai whiskey) for LaoLao Whiskey is not something I will accept. My first (and last) experience of it was in Pak Beng, where they kept their LaoLao Whiskey in a petrol can. See the photos for how unimpressed I was by it. In the photos you will also see a few people we met in Pak Beng. Among them was Kurtz, a tubby old Austrian man who seemed to appear from nowhere and then disappear as seamlessly and mysteriously into the night as he had appeared. If we didnt have photos of him we would think we were hallucinating! He sang in tongues like a madman on day release and played the most bizarre instrument ever- the "jew harp"! Amongst his nonsensical ramblings was the outrageous claim that he once played the jew harp with Pink Floyd! The last few days, then, have been spent in the charming town of Luang Prabang. The people are friendly, the scenery is picturesque, and the food is good. The beer tasted all the sweeter as we watched Peter Crouch score the only goal to put united out of the FA cup. Ah, sweet revenge. Other than that we've been chilling out. We spent one day frolicking in the waterfall, and yesterday morning floating down the river. Today may well be more of the same. Finally, a couple of interesting facts you might not know about Laos. Laos is named what it is because while the French were in power here they mispelled it and added an S on the end. And, perhaps surprisingly, Laos has the unenviable distinction of being the most bombed country in the world, thanks largely to the Soviet Union and, surprise surprise, the US. Take care all, thanks for your messages and stay in touch. Si