La Maison de Xanamkieng Luang Prabang

... a few hours then drive us back is a lot of money.... well for Laos.
Despite the expense we were not disappointed as the main 30metre waterfall was spectacular. Tom, gutted he didn't bring his camera, was convinced by moi to clamber up the side to the top. The view from the top was breathtaking and certainly felt a lot higher than thirty metres.
We went down to the pools at the base for swimming and there was a rope swing and small waterfall where all the local ...

... nowadays and at the end of one side of town is a nightly street market selling crafts and whatnot but in a very non-pushy way. On the other side of that is a food hawkers corner where we had dinner each night. 5000 kip got you a buffet plate of rice/noodles/veg and another 12,000 kip got you a lovely leg of chicken – all washed down with a 10,000 kip Beer Lao – which is one of the better beers we've had along the way.
Luang Prabang, Lao Peoples Dem Rep hantyandhunnah

... to a Buddha park, about 25kms outside of the city. There was a huge collection of Buddha and Hindu sculptures that were constructed in the 50's. Pretty nice to see with some great photo ops. We experienced some literal "riverside dining" on plastic chairs and tables in the mud beside the river. Very classy.

From there we took a 4 hr bus ride to Vang Vieng. As soon as we arrived there the landscape changed ...

... that I wrote. I chose not to post it for several reasons. But overall it just doesn't come off well, at all. It's basically me, spurred by getting a glimpse at real Laos culture out one night with Wes and his co-workers. I compare traveling to going to a zoo or looking into a fishbowl. The traveler/zoo goer gets to see the culture, sometimes in what seems to be it's natural habitat. But it never really gets to be in it. I ran through different hypotheses as to why it i and how ...

... returned to the hotel some to rest upstairs other to collect money to shopping. Jamie appeared to collect his lunch and then returned upstairs to sleep for a few more hours.

At seven the group got together to go out together. We were all dressed up and ready to go when Flick came hopping down the stairs with blood dripping off her foot. We all leaped into action with Mark darting off up stairs to get his medical kit and ...

... give up. Its the beer speaking and the opium can wait. Beer kinda dulls your senses to getting arrested as well. The pipes are massive and waking around with one of those babies is just screaming look what I'm up to. Maybe they were meant to just live on the mantle piece.

Nice place. Not much to do apart from look at temples or the market. Its a place to just soak up the vibe rather than do ...

... and not overjoyed about another flight in the storm to Phuket.  At Phuket airport an official bearing my name on a large sign descended on me saying there was a problem and to follow him. Hell I was imagining that Ziggy had missed the flight or had they discovered something illegal in my luggage. After a few confused moments of misunderstanding each other re the language barrier I was relieved to hear it was only that one of my bags had been left behind in Bangkok. (delivered later to ...

... This song was some sort of Lao pop song and involved everyone cheering and whooping for the chorus until the cockerels signified that it was dawn and they had better shut up. From our safe-refuge at Coldriver we could tell that large quantities of lau lau were being consumed, which is a kind of home-made spirit distilled from rice and contains about seventy percent alcohol. To refuse lau lau is considered extremely rude in Laos and, although we didn't attend the party, we met Jon and ...