Xieng Mouane Guest House Luang Prabang

... serenity. This<br>morning we watched the daily ritual of hundreds of Buddhist monks<br>collecting food from the townspeople who line up on the streets with<br>their prayer mats and baskets of rice and fruit for the monks. We<br>made sure not to be too intrusive with the camera &#8211; standing off to<br>the side, but a couple of tourists were right in their faces which<br>must be annoying to the monks although ...

... and in recognition of its cultural and religious significance it is now protected as a UNESCO world heritage site. The streets are lined with picturesque colonial buildings, all wooden shutters, balconies and climbing vines, nonchalantly interspersed with a copious supply of exquisite wats gleaming in red and gold. Their deeply sloping eaves sweep majestically skywards, and walls are decorated with gilt and mosaics ...

... paying closer attention to the floating debris, making a game out of what we could spot ( "A shoe!" "A bottlecap!" "A big log!"). Everyone got real excited, and then real quiet, when we spotted, approached, and finally passed what we realized was a human body floating facedown in the water. It was pretty horrifying...<br>Around the seventh hour of that first day our butts were sore from the narrow wooden benches and everyone was anxious to get off. We spent the night ...

... from our guesthouse. It was a really nice social atmosphere, a mix of tourists and locals, who were more than willing to share bowling tips. Later we were joined by an Ozzy and Irish guy also from our guesthouse so we had another couple of games and some more beers. We left at 1.30am just before it shut as we were catching a bus early in the morning and the journey is meant to be a bit rough.<br><br>19th September <br>Felt a bit tender this morning, this Asian beer creeps ...

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... night at a little guesthouse and we woke up some 4 hours later for breakfast and the border crossing. To get into Laos I had to pay $35 U.S. dollars which gave me a 30 day visa. The border wasn't too difficult, but figuring out how to get to Luang Prabang was more challenging. The guides in Laos that organized the buses and boats were pushing us to change from the boat (that I had already booked) and pay 300 baht more ...

... 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. <br> 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 ...

... were heading to the city of Luang Prabang, on the famous trip down the Mekong River. There are generally 2 options. One. A boat that takes 1 night and 2 days on a slow cruise, sampling much gorgeous scenery. Then there is a speed boat that takes 7 hours and has been known for its lack of safety! I personally was planning to head to the far North of Laos to the hiking town of Luang Nam Tha (a great spot apparently) and had my bus ticket booked ...

This adventure was one of the highlights of my trip! We took a small shuttle boat over to the Lao side of the Mekong and got our passports stamped, etc. From there we took a truck to where our boat was awaiting us. It was a long narrow boat, maybe 75' long by 10' wide, with a huge motor towards the back. There ...

... or snail-infested and plunge into the cold water with my bar of soap. This method of washing, fighting the current, is far more invigorating than having a shower and it's nice to be able to look around at mountains instead of white bathroom tiles while you are soaping yourself down.<br><br>Whilst Vang Vieng was nice to stay in, we were eager to get further north and in particular visit the historic temple town of Luang Prabang. To get there we needed to take a bus for some seven hours ...