Ramayana Boutique Hotel & Spa Luang Prabang

... elpehnats neck for a bit, we then learnt how to command the elephants verbally in 'Lao' - although we figured by the end - its all in the kicking the ears!!! (Not jumping up and down on the elephants neck like i did!!).

They mostly used female elephants to carry the tourists and you almost feel like you are going to topple **** over tit over its head, particularly when you go down hill!

We then had lunch and then we took the ...

... and no permanent buildings can be built along the Mekong river. This makes long strolls beside the river, past makeshift restaurants (wooden tables and menu boards) a lovely experience.
We decided to check out the abandoned temples across the river (lonely planet recommendation) and tried to haggle with the boat men. One man wanted to wait and bring us back, making the cost considerably higher. With the lack of tourists around and the urge for convenience (after ...

... au developpement durable ici d<un point de vue environnement... mais c<est tout dememe tres plaisiant de voir ce qui se fait (on sort nathalie du comite vert...mais pasle comite vert de nathalie !!)

Une de ces entreprises est une petite maison d<edition du nom de big brother mouse, qui publie des livres fabrique part les jeunes et qui les distribuent gratuitement dans les ecoles et les villages plus recules. On peut egalement acheter des livres pour ...

... 1499;ך שיחים קוצני 97;ם יותר וקוצנ 97;ים פחות עד שהגענ 93; לשדה אורז. בבוץ התבוס 05;נו עוד כמה דקות ...

... 8217;t feel like walking this morning so he only collected a few alms from people and headed back. He shared some of his chocolates he collected that morning with me. Everyone else came back and Duang and some other monks joined us for our last meet up before I would take a tuk-tuk to the airport. Duang shared some sweet sticky rice with me that he collected that morning and some Lao nuts that his friend’s father brought down when he ...

... grassprieten met scherpe randjes. We kwamen er een beetje gehavend uit, maar het maakte het ook heel leuk, beetje klimmen en klauteren en ik was erg blij dat ik m'n bergschoenen heb meegesleept.

Al met al heeft deze trekking weer wat oefening van de kuiten en hele mooie foto's opgeleverd, en een mooie ervaring uiteraard.

Vervolgens ben ik met de bus weer teruggegaan naar de grens Huay Xai. En vanaf daar wilde ik met de slowboat ...

... coffee, tea, and bananas! Lovely.

My friend Claire has described Luang Prabang to me as 'Disney does Laos' and I can see why that is true in many ways. The town is a UNESCO world heritage city. All the shops have the same format of signs on them, with the same font. It's all very uniform, but also kind of quaint.

I stayed in a great spot, very close to the local daily fresh produce market, which is full of all kinds of food-fruits, veggies, fish, chickens, worms ...

... c) and thanked god for a good nights sleep with clean sheets and no bugs. First however, we had to try lao lao, basically home-made whisky. Went to a bar with the people of the boat and proceeded to make disgusted faces as we realized lao lao is both disgusting and hugely alcoholic. Unfortunately all bars close at 11.30, and the only open place, weirdly, was a bowling alley. Spent a surreal 2 hours in there until we realised we were all very knackered and sick of lao lao. Today (sorry ...

Awesome town filled with beautiful Wats. Every morning at sunrise you
can watch the monks receive alms- donations from the locals and in
return they are blessed. All the locals are there and as the sun rises
you are surrounded by the chanting monks.
Great night market that
has traditional clothing and carvings along with t ...

... to know the various characters in the few days that we stayed there. In particular Nunu, the ten year old daughter (not to be confused with Nini, her sister) was the most mischievous and could often be found pretending to breast-feed a pink plastic Thai imitation Barbie doll or dancing provocatively to Aqua's 'Tarzan' song (a big hit all over Asia) in front of their giant television screen.

Luang Prabang is situated at the confluence of the Nam Khan and the Mekong on hilly ground ...