Heritage Guest House Luang Prabang

... piling in, we found out that we were the only two on the trek today (notice how the word elephant had conveniently been left out) which meant that we had one each and we would more or less be going straight out to start! This is also rather interesting as for the past couple of trips when we have been going on these tours, we get packed into these minibuses, do a loop around the entire city (takes around 10 mins), then pick up another person and so on, so more often ...

... pure luxury and we were so excited!! We were jumping around on beds! We had our own TV, a proper cubicle shower and cherry wood flooring.We even had our own Romeo and Juliet window!!!

That night we went out to the local disco. Megan, Crista, Aaron, Chris and myself were the only westerners there. It was very funny! A local midget took a bit of a shine to Crista. She wasnt feeling quite the same love!! they did play some music that we recognised!!

The next day we ...

... needed to get back though as they were off to Vang Veng as we would be tomorrow. I joined them for a quick bite to eat in the cafe and bid them farewell. We are hoping to met again in V V so fingers crossed we do.

I needed to take my maleria tablet so i walked back to the guesthouse and met Rumit and Minal who were having breakfast. I joined them before we went off to book the plane ticket to Hanoi and the VIP bus to V V. Not quite having our fair share of waterfalls ...

We landed on Don Sao Island in the country of Laos to be greeted by the children of the village selling handicrafts but mostly with their hands out seeking coins. No different than any other poor country. Parents pimp out their children for 20 bahts in exchange for pictures or sympathy due to their substandard living conditions. It is difficult to not walk by the children without reaching into my purse ...

... welcoming city (about 26.000 inhabitants). Its centre is situated between the Mekong and another river. It has beautiful colonial buildings, a mellow atmosphere, lots of guesthouses and tourists, but also very Lao markets and streets. Most of the tourists visiting this place are French or other nationalities elderly people, interested in the history and temples and it being a World Heritage site.
And the Lao people here smile ...

... was run by a Paul from Belgium, and his Laotian wife "Sally" (names are changed). When we first arrived Sally seemed to stay in the background - running the day to day nuts an bolts of the place while Paul took care of loftier things like dealing with guests, She spoke English well. As time passed, and we just couldn't leave, we became friendly with our hosts. I noticed that their son David, who was everywhere ...

... a name-less layover town which I'm pretty sure existed for the sole purpose of pumping money out of the tourists on the slow boat. The tourist industry is the main, if not the only, source of income in many of these places, and this is a trend which has repeated itself over my time in Asia: the instant your foot hits the ground off a bus, boat, train, etc.. you are bombarded by touters--yelling at you, shoving signs and brochures in your face, grabbing your arm and literally ...

... and even more annoyed when I noticed I had 2 leeches on me! We then headed back to the main waterfall park to wash off and head back into Luang Prabeng for the night.

I managed to find a bar that was showing the Villa v Pompey match so I was happy, especially more so when we won! So not a bad start to the season after all! Come 11pm we all headed over to the Bowling Alley again. It wasn't as busy this time as the previous night, but once again I somehow managed to win ...

... in Luang Prabang :-) Well the place that stays open later than every others.

From midnight it can even turn into
an improvised night clubs (without lightshow, but with rubbish music). But anyway, playing bowling in Laos with plenty of beers on the table and loads of expats and locals is always
something worthy to try.

Waterfalls

Luang Prabang seems to be surrouned by waterfalls, the Tat Kuang Si waterfall is really beautiful. In the ...

... and only went for sticky rice, spicy gravy and an odd pink unctuous chunk of something that I mixed in with the rice. This action caused much hilarity among nearby guests who pointed out that the pink stuff was a sweet desert, a bit like Birds Eye trifle. Later on Nunu, who was hooked on the stuff, filled a plastic bag full of it and attempted to conceal it within her dungarees - even though this showed plainly as an unwieldy lump. She was subsequently caught by no less than the bride ...