Muonglao Guesthouse Luang Prabang

... at each dirt intersection in Lao about which way to go, but hey we are in the middle of nowhere... what can go wrong right?) and meant that we were able to speed up considerably and meaning that we were starting to leave our little Lao friends in our dust...but mean that we were able to complete the trek in a little under 4 hours..if theres anything I hate more that walking...its doing it for 8 hours which meant I was keen to get it done asap (when we arrived tho, we ...

We were picked up from Mandala House half an hour late by a minibus filled with loud-mouth Americans who made the long journey a little less peaceful... After a windy ride through the country of Northern Thailand we ended up in a quaint little resort near the Laos border where we got some kip and both finished our first books!

It was an early start but the sun was shining and we were heading off to the second and unexpected country of our travels: Laos ...

... br>
Following a random sign
I had decided to take a night bus instead of a day bus, since I had already seen the scenery and was backtrekking the same route to Vientiane. This would also give me the extra daytime to spend in Luang Prabang. I spent a leisurely day reading my book in a quiet garden drinking mango juice, then went out to follow a sign I had seen the day before. It said, walk here to visit weaving ...

... to merge into one. One of the most surprising visits was to the royal palace; it turned out to be a palace of two halves. The royal reception rooms and throne room were extremely ornate, decorated with huge murals, glass mosaics and some mean looking samurai swords that belonged to the king’s guards. In stark contrast to this were the royal family’s private chambers, the king and queens bedrooms were surprising simple and spartan.
Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep caroline_little

During the latter part of the 19th century, Laos, as was Vietnam, as was Cambodia, was colonized by the French, hence place names: Luang Namtha, Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, Vientiane, Pakse, Chompasek. The influence: baguette sandwiches and pancakes - allsorts of varieties displayed on menu boards - are still fastidiously prepared on the streets by vendors, so it was obvious why so many that make up today's tourist imperialism are French.

I ambled along ...

... went to a wonderful performance there that began with a touching ceremony welcoming everyone. Several women came to everyone in the audience and tied strings around each wrist as symbols of health and abundance. I wore them until they finally disintegrated months later... We were treated to two wonderful dance performances. The first was by a group of women and was very ...

... options seemed to be simple. Either I could leave Laos a month later smelling like festering soft cheese (Michelle was not fond of this option), or I would have to find some other way of washing. I noticed that a lot of the locals wash in the river each evening so, having decided there were no strange taboos that forbade me from doing so, I decided to copy them. So, each evening just before sunset I would wander down to the river, select a nice quiet spot where the bank wasn't too ...