Muang Luang Luang Prabang

... we went on elephant trek through the jungle whilst the rain poured down on us and learned a very basic fact of life, you can’t control an elephant. When they want to eat, they eat and no amount of direction or shouting or cajoling will make them do otherwise. Although this was a little scary at times we were delighted we were interacting with real elephants not some sad, broken, brainwashed machine that only walk up and down in straight lines ...

... very cool and hopefully going to see some Buddha caves by boat tomorrow. Let's hope these ones are less spidery!

I'm sure I've already said this but I'm loving Laos so much. The people are so friendly and the scenery is amazing. It has a much more laid back feel to it than any other country we've visited. After Luang Prabang we'll head to Phonsavan. Then back to Viantiane and Bangkok.

Love you all.
Miss you loads!

Adele xxx

... 1512;ה. המון מחשבו 14; עוברו 14; לך בראש בשעתי 97;ם הפלגה בלילה. וחשבת 97;, חבל שלא הבאתי את היומן שלי ...

... After the first day we would sleep in a city called Pak Beng. We got to Pak Beng around 6 pm after the first day on the boat. The boat was extremely uncomfortable with little wooden benches, and definetly over capacity. However, the scenery on the way was unbelievable, Rolling hills, tiny villages, local people, and green as far as the eye could see. Anyways, we arrived in Pak Beng and I split a room with two Swiss ...

... felt good on a hot day. Minnows ravaged the scabs on my knees from volleyball. Jeffery went behind me and Marta chose to just walk into the freezing pool of water. We went off the rope a couple more times before I wanted more. I wanted to jump off of the waterfall and I've seen pictures of people doing it here, I just wasn't sure where. I had just started my trip over the base of the falls to inspect for shallow rocks when a guy appeared at the top of the falls. It was about a 12 ...

... Four guys were on elephants playing in the water when we showed up. I put it off thinking it was a tourist attraction and it would be there all day, but later regretted not checking it out more when they left. The water was cold, similar to the Frio. We played around for a while, I explored a good bit.

We came back to the hostel and I went to the market to grab a bite to eat. I thought I had seen some ribs the night before. I found them, loaded up on them, stoked ...

... for a very early start to see the start of Buddhist lent. I like monks, so you can imagine my excitement when, at 5am, streams of orange robed and barefoot Buddhists poured through the streets, collecting rice from the young and the old who were waiting, kneeled at the side of the road. I became rather snap happy with the old camera but it really was quite a breathtaking sight.

I extracted myself from Luang Prabang and set out for the two day boat journey North to Houey Xai.

... i was going North. For they may think it was all just a dirty ploy to snag a boat ticket! Well that i would deal with, only if we actually got there in one piece!
At the boat terminal we had the customary Laos 'unscheduled/no valid reason' wait of 2 hours, with no-one having a clue what was going on. So beer Laos was broken out yet again! Eventually we boarded the pathetic looking speedboat, that was set to take us off at 60kph for 7 ...

... restaurants in town, a French place called L'Elephant.



We had some delicious French food, a REALLY nice bottle of Chilean Cab Sauvignon, which did put a smile back on my face at least!





I still went to bed feeling very sad, but at least we lost all our photos after 3 weeks, not 3 months. And at least nothing is wrong with the ...

... With this calming backdrop I listened to Tattooed John outlining his objections to digital photography, a subject he felt strongly about. By the end of the boat journey he had concluded, in his quiet manner, that he was becoming more and more of an anti-technologist; a difficult stance for a conscientious Buddhist technical advisor to reconcile.

The falls were gently dramatic. Unfortunately they only get the sun in the morning and we arrived at lunchtime. We hiked up and down ...