11-16 April

The bus ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was the worst one yet! It was supposed to take seven hours to go just under 300km, but it took ten. The bus (with no a/c) snaked up through the mountains and picked up locals along the way, sitting them in the aisles on plastic chairs.

There were no safety barriers along the roads and the back of the bus kept coming off the the tarmac. It was quite frightening at times, but the scenery was simply breathtaking.

We arrived in Luang Prabang and searched for two hours for a reasonably priced place to stay. The prices had sky rocketed because it was New Year. After walking with heavy backpacks for miles, a man eventually felt sorry for us because we couldn't afford anywhere and dropped his prices for us so we could stay there.

We stayed a whole week in Luang Prabang, it was such a beautiful little town full of little quant bars and restaurants. Hlaf of them were closed though.

On our first day, we went to see the Kuang Si waterfalls, a string of cyrstal clear, waterfalls that cascaded down the mountian that you could swim in. It was glorious! The water was so cold and icy. On the way up to the waterfalls we got our first taste at what was to come during their New Year celebrations. All the locals stood by the side of the road waiting for people to come past in cars and then through buckets of water all over them. We were in an open tuk tuk and got absolutely drenched.

The next day we prepared ourselves and bought the biggest watre guns we could get our hands on, doing this however, made us prime targets and every Loatian we passed soaked us from head to toe. They waited outside their houses or places of work with buckets of water and water guns.

From the 14-16 of April, Songkram as they call it officially ran, but it lasted a few days longer than that. Fore five full days everyone in the town took to the streets on foot or in their cars and sopaked each other with water and covered each other with coloured water, dirt and talcum powder. Drink flowing freely in between a good soaking.

We spent whole afternoons playing water fights with the locals and the evenings drying off. It was of my favourite experiences, not just on our travels, but in my whole life. Why can't our New Year be that fun?!

We met a nice Irish couple Donegan and Catriana, they helped provide some of the worst hangovers of the holiday so far!