From Vientiane we took an "eight hour VIP bus" to a town called Luang Prabang in the north of Laos. As you can probably guess it wasn't 8 hours and it wasn't VIP. It took 11 hours in total and the roads in Laos are truly special. They are littered with potholes so the journey was a seriously bumpy one. They give out sick bags at the start of the journey. Fortunately I didn't have to make use of mine, unlike the woman sat behind me. However, I can't really complain about the bus journey as I'm told we were lucky not to break down. Buses here are more likely to break down than not, leaving people stranded on the side of the road on the outskirts of a forest where there is quite likely to be tigers and bears. I spent most of the journey planning what I would do if I was in a situation like that. I decided staying on the bus would be the best bet, even if the AC wasn't working. There was also the most fantastic scenery for most of the journey. I didn't realise that most of Laos is covered absolutely stunning green forested mountains. It's so breathtaking.

We eventually got there in the evening and managed to find our guesthouse. For some reason the Tuk Tuk driver refused to take us all the way so we had to walk a bit but it wasn't that hot so it was ok. We were quite tired so weren't much in the mood for exploring, we just wanted some food. The road leading to the main street is pedestrianised at night and taken over by a market. Walking through the red canvass stalls lit up stretching out in front of you is really quite magical. And the best part about it is that Lao people are pretty laid back. They don't do any hard selling or hassling like in Thailand so it's a pleasure to walk through. Some of the stuff there is really nice like silk scarves and silver jewellery. I had to try really hard to stop myself buying anything by reminding myself how little space I have in my backpack!

Luang Prabang is a really lovely place. Like most towns and cities in Laos it's by the river which makes it quaint but it's also surrounded by all the beautiful mountains we drove through on the bus. There is quite a strong French influence, being an ex-French colony, so they sell croissants and have cafes dotted around the place. All of the places we've travelled to so far have been seriously lacking in cafe-culture.

Since we'd given the elephant trekking a miss in northern Thailand, we thought we should consider it in Laos. After all it's not something you can do everyday back home! We decided on a half day with the elephants since it fitted best with our budget. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty terrified most of the time! There was us and another couple so we started off by sitting 2 per elephant in a sort of wooden saddle with the mahout (elephant trainer) at the front. We wandered through the jungle (I was glad I had my mosquito repellant on) and eventually I got used to the idea of how big and powerful our elephant was which was helped by seeing how much control the mahout had over her. We thought it was slightly odd when we strayed from the path but assumed this was to show us how powerful the elephants are. They could rip down branches and small trees just with their trunks it was quite amazing to watch. I did get a little nervous when the mahouts jumped off the elephants and turned their attentions to picking mushrooms. They were so preoccupied with the mushrooms they didn't notice our elephant wandering off doing her own thing with us still on her! We soon realised tourism wasn't their only trade, in fact I think tourism is just a cover story for their illegal mushroom trade. As we made our way back to base (with the mahout back on the elephant) they looked for a suitable place to stash their mushrooms, presumably so they can come back later when no one else is around. It was all a bit odd. One thing that bothered me quite a bit was that both mahouts carried small curvy knives which they used to threaten the elephants with when the misbehaved. Our mahout used it a couple of times on the elephant but not so hard. I'm a little concerned about how much it may have been used in the elephant's training.

Once we were back at base, they showed us a piece of paper with all the mahout commands on and told us to learn these so we could go on our own. I thought he was joking. He wasn't! So we took it in turns to do a lap round the place sitting on the elephant individually, no saddle, no mahout. Our elephant was old (31) and slow but the other was quite young and mischievous so they still needed a mahout sat with them. I was petrified of doing this and almost didn't go on but my philosophy whilst travelling is to do something that scares me, so I did it! I spent the whole time thinking I was going to fall off but I made it back round in one piece. Getting off was tough. She was supposed to kneel down on her back legs first and then front but for some reason she did it the other way around and I almost did fall. After we had mastered riding them on our own they told us to go swimming with them in the river. This was hilarious to watch. They sit you on the elephant then command it to go underwater where it twists and shakes its body to try and make you fall off. The younger one was a lot more playful at this game. Unfortunately I had my contact lenses in which don't mix too well with dirty river water so I couldn't get involved. It was really funny to watch though and we've got about 100 photos as well as some videos but don't worry we'll just put a selection up on the blog. It was definitely an experience worth doing.

On our final day in Luang Prabang we carried on exploring the town. We were grateful for the AC in our room because although after the first night we mistakenly thought it was cooler than Vientiane, it was still ridiculously hot. Laos is the hottest place we've been to so far. My backpack broke a while back with the metal bits that keep the structure poking into me (don't buy from mountain warehouse if you need something to last 7 months!) and up until now Bryan has been fixing it temporarily. We had previously walked past a shop where a man was welding some metal so we took it there hoping to get it welded. Turns out he'd left his young daughter and son in charge of the shop who didn't have a clue what we were trying to ask for! The man in the shop next door again didn't speak English but we managed to communicate through gesture and actions. I don't think he could use the welding thingy though so in the end we borrowed a hammer and Bryan worked his DIY magic on it. Hopefully it'll last a bit longer this time. Probably only until it gets manhandled by the baggage carriers on the next flight we take.

In the evening we had a walk down the river and came across an open air restaurant which had BBQ pits on the tables. It looked pretty interesting so we decided to eat there. It was really confusing because looking at the menu it just lists the different meats you can have for the BBQ so we chose chicken and beef. We had no idea if it was just the meat or you get rice or something with it but the guy didn't speak much English so we just went with it. Soon enough a kid came along with lit charcoals and put them in the pit in front of us and then a big pot of noodles and veg and a bowl of garlic and chillies along with a plate of raw chicken and beef (with something strange on top) as well as a jug of something. We were trying discretely to look at what other people were doing. I assumed the jug was full of oil so we poured a little bit in then tried to start frying the meat. We were very conscious of everyone on the table next to us staring at us. Eventually someone told us we had to put more of the jug in, turns out it was soup. We also found out (after we had cooked the meat) that the stuff with it was fat that you rub on before cooking the meat! Oops! Anyway we muddled through and it was still a pretty decent meal, if a bit hot sat in front if a BBQ all evening. We had thought the price was quite high but when we got the bill we realised they had only charged us for one BBQ set. I'm not sure how it happened, obviously a breakdown in communication, but I was pretty grateful because it would have been hell of a meal if we'd had two portions!

So that's it for Luang Prabang. We just had to brace ourselves for another bus journey to the next place. It doesn't look too far on the map but there's no telling how long it'll take by bus!