Riverside, relaxing and an all-round chilled place

I've been in Luang Prabang a few days now, and I really like the place.  There isn't  a huge amount to do here but it is a very nice place to spend a few days relaxing, walking around, and meeting up with people.

I'm so bad.....

Since I've been here I've generally had the same routine of waking up pretty late, having a baguette (part of the French influence historically) and having a wander in the afternoon around town or along the Mekong river.  After that I normally go to the night market for some cheap food and shopping, then go to the bars.  At the night market you can get a plate full of food for 5000 kip, which is 25 pence - my cheapest meal ever!  I also tried some whiskey with a cobra in it, and a whiskey with a scorpion in it - pretty potent stuff.

Me on the Nam Kong river

It's been particularly good here as I've been hanging out with a group of people, which is a nice change.  The people I have been drinking with most are Daan and Heiss from Holland and Nico from Germany.  I've also been seeing the sights mainly with Adam, Jez and Tarin from Oz, and a couple of Dutch girls.  There are so many Dutch it seems here!

I've basically been to all the main nightlife spots in town, including Maylek, HIVE, Lao Lao, a random nightclub outside of town, and the bowling alley! Lao Lao is the best bar, with a big outdoor area to chill and sit by the  fire, and meet loads of people.  It also does Laos whiskey cocktals, with names like Pink Gay.  Not sure what that's all about!  The nightclub me and the german and dutch guys went to was a little strange but cool.  It was full of locals mainly, but again a quite high number of them were gay!  There was also a live band with a good singer that covered Bon Jovi for one song.  People were line-dancing to it! We pretty much just sat back and watched what was going on, and sunk a few Beer Lao's.  The only other event there was that I got a bit pissed off with some guy hastling me, so I told him to leave me alone.  Then this Aussie idiot came up to me and talked to me like I was a kid and said "relax man, embrace the country".  To which I sharply replyed to by pointing to my T-shirt that had a Loas flg on it.  The bloke was an idiot, so me and the boys basically told him to F-off! The bowling alley is the only place to drink late, but is full of westerners so we didn't stay there long.

Me, Nico, Gijs and Daan

As I said, I really like the town but I think it is time to move on.  We go to Vang Vieng tomorrow, which is a backpacker town with a good reputation.  I think we might stay there a while...

The mystic Mekong