Guesthouse Manichan Luang Prabang

22nd October - Lovely Luang Prabang<br><br>It took a bus ride from hell but Luang Prabang is lovely! <br><br> Hellish bus ride<br>The bus ride between Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang is about 7 hours through heavily mountainous terrain. I thought I'd go for a VIP minibus because of the mountains and risk of motion sickness (a thing I'm prone to as it is). <br>Due to bad timing and being too timid I ended up in the worst seat of all. The one that ...

... on Laos than were used during the whole of WWII, of which 30% did not explode, and clearing these is an ongoing challenge today. Outside the houses of one village we passed through, flower pots and planting troughs had been fashioned from hollowed out bomb casings, and later we travelled down the river to the village for our overnight stay in boats made from B52 fuel casings. <br><br> In this style we arrived at the ...

... first full day in Luang Prababng we had a look around the streets and a bit further out on foot. There are no less than 32 temples in the town and I'm ashamed to say we didn't set foot in one of them. They looked nice from the road as we walked by though. One temple we didn't find but would have loved to just for the picture is Wat That &#8211; its the simple pleasures at times!<br>During our walk round we came across the final stages ...

... end of Oct so he will have to fly home from the furthest distance he possibly could! Typical! I will have to travel across Australia or New Zealand by myself for a bit but it is probably the safest part of the world so will be fine!<br><br>My 29th Birthday was really nice - strange without family and friends but nice to be with Simon.<br>I had breakfast next to the Mekong river and just chilled - then i had a head and foot massage for an hour ...

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... bold and bright colours. Almost coating the river like a floating rainbow. A short ceremony of paddling and chanting seemed to set the scene before each race. Each lasting no more than 2-3 minutes.<br><br>Spots were hard to come by for the spectator, and at times I had to resort to a little wall climbing to try and get a photograph. People spanned the bank for a good mile or two, and the road was littered with carnival games and toy stands for children ...

... to getting to know but are from somewhere in the UK. <br> Last night was amazing. I had heard about a restaurant/bar called Utopia, they had a volleyball court. I had walked by there the day before with Dani the Swiss while trying to find a back way to the bridge. It looked cool, but I didn't go inside. I had to go to the market to pick up a plug converter and skipped over to Utopia to check out the court. Wow, it was amazing. Decent sand, surrounded with red brick and ...

... Mouse&#8221;- a literary project that publishes children&#8217;s books for illiterate villagers. In addition to publishing, the project offers conversational English to high school and university students through English-speaking volunteers. For the first time since leaving Canada, I found myself with a purpose, and excited to start the day. Even caught myself smiling from time to time, on my way to meet the students.<br><br><br>

... i had been taking photos and thought they had gone back down also. On arriving at the start, they were nowhere to be seen and on their eventual return to the transport, they said.. 'hey,did you see that really big waterfall. It was great wasn't it?!". - 'What big waterfall?'. - 'You know, the main highlight of the falls, the 30 metres ones?'. - 'what highlight and what 30 metre ones?' - 'The main one at the top?'. "I was at the top...Wasn't i ...

... and enjoying the VERY potent lao coffee (something china is desperately in need of). muang ngoi is really a wonderful place no one should miss in their lifetime.<br><br>from there we headed down the river on a slow boat and 5 hours later landed in LUANG PRABANG... a tourist-filled cute french-accented town on the confluence of the mekong and another pretty little river (which i should know the name of, but i dont). it is ...