Sanakeo Hotel Luang Prabang

... et a toutes les personnes) qui se presente devant eux. Ils sont d<un calme desarmant. Au tout debut, a mon arrivee, cette attitude m<a un peu destabilise puisque, je m<etais habituee, en Thailande, a des gens qui viennent toujours au devant pour vous aider ou vous jaser (ou vous vendre des tas de trucs !). Ici, a part de la rue principale, rien de tout cela n<arrive.

Mais apres quelquesjours de ce vivre-et-laisser-vivre et de y-a-rien-qui-merite-de-se ...

Today We caught the bus to Luang Prabang. It was a very long and rough trip. By the time we arrived we just found a guesthouse then explored the town and had tea.

The next day we took a tuk tuk and went to Kwang Si Falls and Tad Sae Waterfall. Both waterfalls had stunning turquoise pools at the bottom of falls for swimming. They even had rope swings. Leon did a few but ended up hurting his knee ...

... 1494; ואז בא גל גדול ונשפך לתוך הסירה הקטנה שלנו מציף אותה במים, לגל השני לא נותר הרבה רק לכ ...

... definitely a good idea to visit it before the sun rises and the meat and fish start to smell!

We saw lots of Monks wandering around, working and at dusk the sound of chanting and drums fills the air - magical. Paul got very clever with the camera settings and the monk's washing lines.

Luang Prabang is truly charming, we spent a lot of time just sitting, eating great food and drinking Beerlao and watching the world ...

... debate alone, the whole "traveling vs. vacation" debate. I might just do that, because it is something that I feel I could write a decent note on, and it would probably spur a good debate, like it always does, but not now.
So Luke Tanner is coming to visit. It's funny to read the progression of the conversation that we were having over the couple of days when he decided to come. Gotta love the spontaneity. He gets here the 12th. Should be a blast. It will be ...

... waterfall and marched off further up the hill. Then we found the "real" waterfall and it only took several minutes before the boys were stripping off and making their way to the rope hanging off a conveniently placed tree. The group spent an hour pretending to be a synchronised diving school at the persistence of Timmeh! (Tim Thompson). Special mentions go to iPhone for a spectacular belly flop off the rope and PopEye’s swan dive off the waterfall ...

... I hadn't brought my camera. Nonetheless, it had been one of the most enjoyable days in Laos so far.
It would have been extremely easy to have gotten stuck in Luang prabang, idling away the weeks. However, I was eager to get moving again, to explore the wilder side of Laos that I had caught a glimpse of on our boat trip down the Mekong. The south was rumored to be far less touristic and we were keen to experience that for ourselves.


XXX

... nights past, of waking up wondering why there was a man my bed!
The next evenings were spent in the many nice bars around the city and we were having a great old time (with the exception of my daily budget of course, which doesn't usually include beer or nights out). The days therefore were not much to be seen of. We did however take a trip to some caves,which were dug into the cliff face and only approachable by river. Actually they were ...

... so we were stuck with the 1 gear city legends. Anyway, whatever, off we set!



The bikes were fine for the town, but as soon as you left the town it got quite hilly, and we soon realised that having no gears was never going to work.

It was also BOILING hot today, so the prospect of a 30km round ...

... remove the shoes. This is especially true in temples and perhaps of utmost importance in the most ancient royal temple of Luang Prabang. This Italian didn't. A monk rushed forward to protest, clearly unused to protesting about anything, to which the Italian replied "Hey, man, chill out a bit", and ruffled the young monk's stubbly hair, thus adding insult to injury as the head is the most holy part of the body and something that shouldn't be touched on any account. This breach of ...