Luang Prabang

Saibadee Luang Prabang, what a beautiful chilled out place - we left the americans here but the Essex girls, the Yorkshire couple and ourselves all checked into the same guesthouse. We hired bikes the first day and with a map in hand the Essex girls and ourselves took to the streets to see what was about. It didnt take long to see it as its a small quaint little place that is really friendly and relaxed. We headed to a temple that is supposed to be the most magnificant in Luang Prabang - you can really see the contrast with Thailand here, they are still 20 years behind which is quite endearing really. We headed out of town after this to the Phousy Market (pronounced p**** market). This was Laos at its most local, we were the only tourists there and the place was packed with aisles of literally everything, raw meat with flies on it that made myself and Leanne gag and run in the opposite direction, there was fresh herbs, fish and bananas complete with dead squirrel.

That evening, we met the other two and all six of us hot footed it to the bottom of the hill where the highest temple of LP stood. Pushing the bikes up a really steep hill and through the back gardens of locals we realised we had taken a wrong turn but with the sun disappearing, we just abandoned our bikes by someones shed, locked of course and pegged it up the remaining 275 plus steps to the top. All flushed, out of breath and sweating we stood in awe as we watched the most amazing sun set over the Mekong River, with rolling mountains in the background - it was absolutely gorgeous, really spectacular, amazing (I could go on) Anyway once the sun had set we retreated back down the mountain to retrieve our bikes - easier said than done, the bikes were there but Betty had lost the key to the lock in the mad dash to the top, after looking everywhere and asking the locals for bolt cutters but receiving a spanner instead we decided that the best way to get home would be to let Matt and Dan carry/wheel them, sighhhh, after about 10 metres we passed another local fixing his scooter so we asked could he help. He had a little hacksaw blade (minus handle) and started sawing the metal link on the chain, the rest of the residents came out to have a gawk and after about 10 mins the chain gave way and the bikes were freed - We were then politely told not to come this way again lol.

Next day we hired Twee, a lovely tuk tuk driver, who was the happiest go lucky guy in the world to bring us to the waterfall. This was about a 40min drive away, after a pit stop to pick up his wife, refuel the tuk tuk and pump the tires. The waterfall had beautiful clear blue water and pools that we could swin in - the water was absolutly freezing but it would be a sin not to swim in it! After about 2 hours Twee was waiting to bring us back, his wife asleep in the hammock in the back. We asked him to drop us at the river near our accommodation so we could get a free boat across the river to a really funky bar that had a BOGOF on cocktails - aaaah bliss!

We went out for a cheap meal, and I mean cheap, it was 80p all you could eat buffet at a street stall, rice, noodles, spring rolls that in all honestly felt like condoms, broadbeans, sweet popadoms, salad etc etc etc madness oh and a large Lao beer for 80p too- done!

As we loved Twee so much we asked him to pick us up from our accommodation the next day and bring us to a place that had a pool, bar and restaurant - this was our day of pure relaxation - the pool was in the middle of nowhere down a dirt track behind someones house but was laid out so well that it was hard to believe its location, except for the random sound of pigs being slaughtered it was pretty good. We were the only ones there for most of the day and we were all so chilled just sunbathing and swimming at our leisure - Matt even got a tire, and I might have got a very faint colour, albeit red :) After 4hours Twee collected us and brought us back to our guesthouse, after a fond farewell we booked our bus to take us to Vang Vieng the next day - as there are 6 of us it worked out better for us to get a mini bus as we could get collected from the accommodation and at 6.30 instead of 8.00. This turned out to be the best decision ever as the road was pretty windy with steep drops off the side and the Laos drivers are as bad as the Thais. Also we're pretty sure the driver had a UTI or something cos he stopped to whizz at the side of the road 3 times in the space of 90mins but we look forward to a new place and new adventures even if it was hard to say bye bye to the lovely LP.

Speak Soon

S&M