Went back to our favourite restaurant "Khmu" for their set menu breakfast, which looked to be one of the cheapest in town at 20,000 kip. Pretty good for half a baguette, fresh fruit and some scrummy Lao Coffee (it's naturally sweet and not bitter at all). Following this we thought it would be a good idea to change guest houses. We were paying 80,000 kip for a big room with ac but the shower hook in the bathroom was broke and we were sharing it with quite a few ants so we thought we could do better. We wondered around and realised it would be hard to find cheaper. We eventually settled a beautiful place with not an ant in sight. The room was floor to ceiling in a mahogany wood and the bathroom was the cleanest we've seen apart from Pak Beng, ended up paying 100,000 kip a night for it though and it didn't have ac. Probably would have been better off staying where we were but it was a really pretty place and were getting used to sleeping without ac.

Time to explore the sights! Luang Prabang is a really pretty town with quietish streets (compared to what we are used too!) all the houses are very french looking and we even saw some old european cars! All the cats here seem to think they're jungle animals as well, they stalk around the town with a weird finese we haven't seen elsewhere. The best sight we saw that day was the view from the top of the hill (called Phu Si) in the middle of town. Admission was 20,000 kip, but there were a few Wats, small caves with Buddhas in them and of course amazing views. The full 360 view from the top is the best bit as you can appreciate how tiny Luang Prabang really is. On one side you can see the Mekong and on the other is the mountians. We walked around and took in the other Wats that Luang Prabang had to offer and generally soaked in the chilled out atmosphere. (Loas or LPDR, has been dubbed "Loas Please Don't Rush" for obvious reasons!)

That afternoon we decided to do a herbal sauna and massage, we found a small place next to Wat away from the busy streets. For 80p you could sauna all you wanted in these (rustic isnt even the right word!) small bamboo rooms. The heat was really intense and smelt powerfully of lemon grass that burnt your throat if you weren't careful. It was amazing how cool the outside heat felt after this though. Following this we both had a traditional Lao massage, Tom found this an interesting experience if not slightly invasive, Charlie seemed to enjoy it though!

For tea we decided to economise! The night market has several stalls offering buffet for 10,000 kip or about 80p per plate. We loaded ours up with noodles and fried veg all sorts of other stuff. It wasn't particularly exciting fare but for the price we definately couldn't complain. We finished the night off with a few beer laos at a nice bar that looked over the main street.

The next day we wanted to go see the Kuang Si waterfalls that are about 30km out of town. We walked into town to have breakfast at Khmu, we then struck a deal with a tuk tuk driver to head out to the waterfalls. Following a rush to book our bus tickets to Vientiane the following day we were on our way to the waterfalls! We shared our Tuk Tuk with an Italian couple Tomas and Lara who were travelling Loa for a couple of weeks.

We arrived in a large carpark and were directed along a path, following paying the 20,000 kip entry fee we walked along a nice forest path to be confronted by a big bear enclosure. It seemed all the bears were away being fed so we carried on up to the waterfalls. These start quite small but build up to a very large one further up. We first tried to walk up the right bank of the river and found the trail really slippery (as we only had flip-flops with us) and after one too many falls (by Charlie) we had to give up, we were literally skating down the slopes! So we crossed back to the left bank and discovered a much easier trail, the waterfalls gradually increased in impressiveness until we reached the big one. It was clear the area had been heavily flooded recently and a lot of wooden walk ways had been washed away. We tried to go to the base of the big fall and found a rather large and angry snake blocking the way. We tried to get by but whenever we got close the snake would wriggle and hiss to we decided to enjoy the view of the waterfall from further back!

Some other travellers came up and managed to scare the snake off the the path (into the water, where it then swam away towards the swimming area! No swimming for Charlie then!) so we could go right up to the base of the big waterfall. This was amazing, the waterfall had such a big drop and was clearly still in quite a high flow. Just being allowed right up to the base was so cool, and definately not something you would be able to do in Europe! To follow this we back tracked down the waterfall to a large pool where we had seen people swimming. When we got there, there was a group of Lao kids playing on a tree branch that overhung the pool below the waterfall, it was a couple of metres above the pool and there was a swing. After checking how deep the pool was Tom got pretty involved in the jumping and swinging. The water was quite cool so it was hard to stay in for long but the swing was pretty awesome and soon a large group was taking it in turns. Sadly our time at the waterfalls came to end too soon and we had to head back to our tuk tuk. On the way back the bears had come out from feeding time and it was really cool to see so many bears so close. We also bought deep fried bannanas from a lady outside the bear enclosure which were just about the best thing we've eaten all trip and for 10p!

That night we frequented the buffet again and pilled our plates high, we met Oli from Chiang Mai and eat with him. As well as the buffet food we ordered a barbequed Mekong Fish which was really tasty and washed it down with a few beer Laos. We had an early night since we had to be up early for bus to Vientiane.

Thats where we are now, the bus was a pretty long and boring ordeal. Scenary to start with was amazing, we went along mountain passes with several hundred metre drops on one side of the road. The roads were very bumpy and windy with some deep potholes and interesting driving at times! But we made it here! The bus station for some reason is 7km or so out of town so we had to arrange a tuk tuk into town. Unfortunately all the tuk tuk drivers had formed a cartel and were demanding 20,000 kip per person for a lift into town. We started to walk off with a group of other travellers and managed to get this down to 10,000 which seemed better. Once in town we tried really hard to get a good value for money hotel, The first one we looked at was great, clean, tidy and included breakfast but only had expensive rooms left. We decided we would shop around. An hour later hot and sweaty we managed to find a lot of guest houses that either charged far to much or were full! We went back to our first choice and they were now full! Nightmare, so we've ended up next door, its not as nice but its cheap and has ac so were going to stay one night and then move to a nice room for the rest of our time here!

So off to the river front to get some food.

Byeee Tom and Charlie xxx