Luang Prabang Bakery Guesthouse

... on. The 'top' job in Laos, seems to be being a customs official at either Vientiane or Luang Prabang Airports, for which you need decent english aparently (not quite sure how this myth came about but wasnt the case when we arrived!) That seems to be the biggest status symbol here and in doing that you make your family all very warm and fuzzy inside.

Walking through all these different villages where they grow kill eat and sniff all very different things, begs the ...

... tear through books the first time, showing each other the pictures, silently mouthing out the words as they read them in their heads.

The whole event was in Laos, so I didn't understand the specific content, but I didn't need language to see how special of a day it was for the kids.

Thank you to all of you who made donations to help the party be such a success! I really appreciate your kindness.

... one was going home soon, the others still had a year in Australia upcoming), and a nice English boy who was going to travel in Brazil after this.

Click here for a video of the waterfalls.

The waterfalls were really beautiful, and you could walk all the way up, past various pools that were good for swimming. It was funny to see how some pools apparently attracted the western tourists, dressed in bikinis and shorts ...

... wine, and the odd treat for Sally. Sally was trapped on the boat until another staff member told her to dump that gallon of cleaning liquid down the toilet and only buy liters. That way you have to go shopping! The pay was great, tips were greater. It seems the generosity of European glitterati knows no bounds. Somewhere along the way all that high living and fun lead to conception. Sally and Paul returned to ...

After tubing down the river in Vang Vieng, our next stop was Laos’ show piece – the town of Luang Prabang.

After another 9 hour bus journey (with a 2 hour delay to wait for the police to clear the road over the world’s smallest traffic prang!) we arrived in Luang Prabang. We jumped off the bus and headed for reputedly the ‘best hostel in Laos’. Unfortunately, the street names in Luang Prabang have changed ...

... off the boat, I was approached by a young man asking me if I needed a hotel. I usually politely decline these offers of help but I decided on a whim to let him show me a place instead of wandering around a new city in search of a bed. He took me to a place where I could have a room with shred bath. It was cheap and the bathroom looked newly remodeled so I took the room ...

... een ramp. Eerst moest je in de rij gaan staan om je visum aan te vragen na 1 uur was je dan aan eindelijk aan de beurd. Vervolgens moest je dan in de rij gaan staan om je paspoort op te mogen halen waarin ze dan het visum (lees stempel) hadden geplaast.
Toen kon je weer in de rij gaan staan om de ‘douane’ door te mogen waarnaar je bagage gescand zou moeten worden maar dit scanapparaat was gelukkig kapot waardoor we hier ...

... and acting in a proprietorial manner. We went for a dip and, suitably refreshed, scrambled up the base of one of the steep outcrops to the cave entrance. The cave itself consisted of one large stalactite-dripping cavern with several tunnels reaching back into the hillside. Light shone in powerful beams into the interior and illuminated a beautiful gold reclining human-sized Buddha that had been placed there as an object of worship and pilgrimage. After this we walked back to one ...