As much as we liked Chiang Mai after a week of indulging in its scenery, activities and food we knew we had to move on.We were headed for the town of Luang Prabang in Laos and started this epic journey by taking 2 separate buses to the Thai border town of Chiang Kong, one of which was beautifully air-conditioned and comfortable, the other was packed to the rafters with tourists and locals alike and we both learned a valuable lesson in the art of perching on a seat! When we arrived at Chiang Kong our suspiciously western faces announced our intentions and we were quickly whisked across town on a Tuk Tuk to the border crossing. This crossing consisted of a man in a hut who stamped our passports and then a rickety old long boat which took us the massive journey of five minutes across the Mekong river where suddenly we were in Laos and the money in our pockets was meaningless! We attempted to get our heads round the Lao currency of kip and found that for probably the only time in our lives we are millionaires! (1 million kip is about £80) We found a reasonably priced guesthouse for the night just moments from the crossing and had a super chilled evening in preparation for our journey the following day.

The next day was to be the first of 2 days on a boat along the Mekong river and we arrived at the jetty right on time at 9 am with our packed lunches in hand only to be sat on the boat for 3 hours waiting for a coach load of passengers from Thailand. Finally, with far too many passengers, not enough seats and a partly sunken boat we pulled away from the jetty and began our trip. This was our first experience of 'Lao time' which essentially just means chill out, nothing goes to schedule and you'll get there in the end! This first day on the boat was not the most comfortable, everyone was super squashed but luckily we were up the front and therefore didn't have to contend with the deafening sound of the engine as well. We met a couple from England who were sat opposite and chatting to them whiled away the hours nicely as we chugged along. We arrived at our stopover spot a small town called Pakbeng at around 5pm and checked into a guesthouse. This was a slightly strange town which had clearly been transformed by the needs of the 2 boatloads of backpackers which stop here every day. Every other local was either pulling us into his empty restaurant or trying to sell sandwiches for tomorrow and it all seemed slightly incongruous in an otherwise sleepy riverside village.

Day 2 on the boat was far more successful as thankfully they had chartered 2 boats so we travelled in luxury with seats, a table and even a bar on the boat. The day was spent largely reading, napping and gazing out at the stunning scenery and we finally arrived at our destination of Luang Prabang at around 6pm. After a quick hunt for a guesthouse we found a decent one where much to our surprise considering the cheap price we also had aircon, what luxury!We spent the evening browsing a beautiful evening market which sold a huge variety of handmade crafts and jewellery and which was definitely the best market we had visited yet.We ate a fabulously cheap meal at one of the market stalls and declared our undying love for Luang Prabang! For our second day we hired bikes and after exploring the town in the morning bumped into the couple from the boat and decided to get out of the town a bit on our bikes together.Unfortunately my gear less bike was no match for the bumpy hills and much to Tom's disappointment (with his more expensive mountain bike) we didn't get too much further out than the main roads and a restaurant where we all ate lunch and sheltered from the blazing sun.We raced back to town to get showered and back out in time to see the sunset from the top of Phu Si a golden temple up on a hill in the centre of town. However we were too late and we only made it halfway up before it popped behind the mountains. Tom resolved to get up to see it at dawn which he duly did whilst I lazily snoozed in bed and I only gloated a little when he returned at 8 am declaring it was too cloudy and he couldn't see anything! After a couple of hours back in bed catching up on missed sleep (extra sleep for me!) myself and Tom jumped on a Tuk Tuk headed to Kuang Si waterfalls. The waterfalls were beautiful and the lagoons the most amazing colour blue that even I couldn't resist the allure of the rope swing. After watching scores of lads swinging out and flipping into the water I plucked up the courage and climbed the tree from which you jump. Unfortunately the image of how it would go in my head with me gracefully swinging out and neatly sliding into the water wasn't quite the reality. As soon as my feet left the tree I flopped down the rope and into the water in a messy pile. Tom captured the moment beautifully on camera so do not fret it is documented for all to see. After our sunset failure of the previous day we headed back in good time to climb the hill and watch the sunset from the temple which was lovely but like all lovely things listed in tourist guides was slightly tainted by the hordes of people endlessly pointing their cameras at the sun. I couldn't help but think that the reflective quiet nature of a sunset was pretty negated by all the chatting and posing but since we took a couple of pictures ourselves I guess we're as bad as everyone else! We spent the evening down on the riverside among the fairylights and French architecture where we ate dinner before heading back to the room as Tom hadn't been feeling too good all afternoon.

We really loved Luang Prabang and it was certainly the most beautiful and authentic place we had visited yet, the golden temples with the orange robed monks, the French influenced architecture and the handicraft market combine to make this place feel untouched and otherworldly in spite of the many tourists.

Next onto Vang Vieng and 'Tubing,' an altogether different type of Laos experience!