Manoluck Luang Prabang

... thunder storms either of us have witnessed meant our encounter with the elephants was delayed until later in the day. As we sat in our lodge waiting for the monsoon rain to subside roars of thunder caused everything from the foundations upwards to vibrate. Three long hours later we were introduced to two new elephants, a 35 year old female and an enormous 60 year old bull elephant that towered above anyone and anything. For the next couple of ...

... it was pitch dark in there and there were massive spiders. Lucky I got out of there!

Today we got a tuk tuk out to see Kouang Si Waterfall in Luang Prabang. Saw loads of tiny villages along the way with all school children on their bicycles. Waterfall was fabulous. We walked along a mud path the whole way up step after step of waterfalls. There were lots of pools to swim in and it was so beautiful! On our way now to see a night market that ...

... 95; המלא מאיר את הסביב 92; הקרוב 92;, אפילו יותר שקט כעת. סב נשכב לישון ואני המשכת 97; לשמור על הס ...

... go by minibus. They explained the boat was slow, dangerous, and the stopover city would rip us off. This was NOT the case. But the bus did sound better because it would get you to Luang Prabang a day earlier. In the end though, I decided to go on the boat which I had already booked and which I have heard of very little problems from other travelers.
The slow boat was to last 2 days, 7-9 hours each day on the ...

... worn trail we peaked through the foliage at a beautiful cascading waterfall. It fell into a pool of blue water and the mist shot up and around the base creating a picturesque scene straight off a post card. We debated whether or not to hike to the top, but we discovered time wouldn't allow it anyway.
We went back down to the main swimming pool and got down to our swimming shorts. The rope swing was being used, so I used that as my transition to the cold water. The cold ...

... village on the Nam Khan river. From there some took a long boat, the other 4 of us took inner tubes. It was a ten minute float down the river. We got out and met John and the rest of the crew on the bank. We climbed some steps and walked through a trail in the woods before we came out to a wide graceful waterfall. The water slowly flowed over steps of rock all the way down to the river. It was probably fifty yards wide and there was never a waterfall higher than eight feet ...

... 8217;s Mahout Mr Pan soon decided that I looked like the kind of girl who could straddle an elephant and pushed me onto Mae San’s neck whilst he took a nap in the basket. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly taking the old girl for a bath in the river, although I’m not sure who ended up more drenched.

After languishing in Luang Prabang for so long, I eventually decided it was time to venture further North. Before I left, though, there was ...

... tickets and for us to tag along with him and change my plans for Luang Nam Tha. It didn't take much convincing and as i liked their company. So i decided to take the speedboat ticket, thus changing my destination completely. Now how silly did i feel? After advisng of the perils of the speedboat to the girls, i was readily jumping in their place. I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THE LOOK ON THIER FACEs WHEN WE ALL MET IN LUANG PRABANG, having ...

... photos saved onto a memory key, but they are tiny, but good for loading onto the blog. They won't be able to be blown up to 6x4 when I get home though, so we won't be able to print them out.

As a result I was in the depths of depression for most of the afternoon & evening, punctuated only by a very nice and (relatively) very expensive meal at one of the ...

... the muddy waters, the colour of weak hot chocolate, alongside long stretches of fenced-in gardens on the sandbanks. Above these dry-season gardens which displayed bright green strips of lettuce, peas, cabbages and runner beans were great stands of secondary and even primary tropical forest smothering unscarred hills. It being the middle of winter for Laos, some of the leaves on the trees had obtained a hints of gold and burgundy which lent the scene a feeling of our temperate ...