Right... I'm in Laos, and I'm afraid there are no photos to show you. This is because I tried to connect my camera to the USB port, and it tried to electrocute me. I'll hopefully get a whole load of photos on there soon, when I'm at a computer which isn't homicidal. After Chiang Mai we had a slow boat trip up the Mae Khong river, which lasted two days. It was extremely relaxing, you could dangle your legs over the side and watch the scenery go by. There really wasn't much else to do, but the scenery was fantastic and there was plenty of wildlife to see (the biggest being an elephant pulling a log). We stayed over night in Pak Beng, a village with a population of 1500. It was a lovely place, and despite its size there were plenty of stalls selling crap to tourists, and quite a few restaurants and bars. After our meal, myself and Sam (tour leader, English) Veronique (Dutch but living in London) and Pauline (Kiwi) watched the England World Cup match. This was all highly entertaining (despite England winning), until we tried to get home in the dark. And I mean pitch black. Despite having our tour leader with us, we managed to take a wrong turn, but got back eventually. THEN we discovered that the power for our guest house only runs from 6pm until 10:30pm daily. This meant that once you found your way inside, the fan had stopped working so it was a slightly unpleasant night... Last night we got to Luang Prabang, and are staying in the Thong Bay guesthouse. I suggest you Google it to find out more, it would take too long to describe in detail - suffice to say we have bungalows surrounding an immaculate garden. Like all gardens and streets here, chickens wander around freely, mingling with the ants and lizards. Five minutes after we arrived, the gardener killed a snake. I have a good close-up picture of it, which I'll TRY to put on the website tomorrow (assuming I can find a computer that works). This morning we had a three-hour trek through cornfields, sticky rice fields and jungle to Kuang Si waterfalls, which feed into a pool visitors can swim in. You can jump into the pool from a nearby tree or the top of the falls, both of which are about 15 feet up from the surface. It's refreshing after a three-hour trek, even if it is a bit scary (strangely, it's even scarier the second time you jump). The jungle trek had a couple of hairy moments, though - Doug (American) discovered he had two leeches attached to his left big toe, which Mr Wong (our local guide) had to scrape off with a stick. As we approached the waterfalls Veronique (as above) made a strange strangled noise for ten seconds, before grabbing a leaf and scraping one off the back of my T-shirt (strangely she didn't want to use her towel). It hadn't managed to get any blood, but they're nasty little things and they'll come back for you if you don't get away quickly. I would remember to lock the door to my bungalow tonight, except it'll probably come in through one of the gaps in the floorboards. After the waterfalls we went to see a tiger being fed. While it was being tossed hunks of buffalo meat it reared up to my height, paws the size of dinner plates splayed out against the bars. Then the keeper got it to lie down next to the bars as she fed it so we could stroke it (sorry, her). It's a strange feeling stroking a live tiger's neck as it's wolfing down raw meat, but still slightly less scary than jumping from the waterfall... We have a barbecue in the guest house tonight, then a free day tomorrow. Three of us have just hired bikes for two days, so we don't have to pay for the tuk-tuks here (which are even more basic than the Bangkok versions). Everyone drives slowly here, and bikes are plentiful - and they probably won't want to kill any tourists, so they ought to avoid us. Even if drink may have to be taken at some point. I should point out for anyone who's interested and doesn't know, I've sold my flat for the price I was looking for, although I'm not going to count any chickens until the money is in my account (which won't be until August). Must go and pick up my bike now, I'll try and add some pictures tomorrow so you can actually SEE some of these things I'm describing!