Zen Namkhan Resort Luang Prabang

... me, Mark, Susan and Ben), and after getting more of the same delicious and cheap vegetarian food, we shunned the bony chicken of yesterday for some chicken breast on kebab skewers, which in contrast was amazing. We had another walk through the night market (again - tat overload), and then went back to Lao Lao Garden, where we got some beers. We stayed there for a while, then headed back to the hostel around midnight.

... a multiple hour bus ride can cost a few euros, but the tuk-tuk ride into town is just as expensive, and more hassle of course. It's like this in all the towns I visited so far so I'd better get used to it. Another hurrah for NS which stops right in the middle of cities!<br><br> Smiles<br>Luang Prabang immediately felt like a very pleasant, welcoming city (about 26.000 inhabitants). Its centre is situated between the Mekong and another river ...

... angekommen. Die Stadt ist wunderschoen und hat alte Spuren vom franzoesischen Kolonialismus. Nach dem Nachtmarkt am ersten Abend, bin ich mit dem Fahrrad nach Tat Kuang Si Wasserfaelle gefahren. Nach 10km war ich tot, vor allem wegen meinen Taetigkeiten von Vang Vieng. Ich habe also 2 Laoten gefragt, mir mit ihrem Motorrad zu helfen. Sie haben mir einfach das Leben gerettet. Wir haben dem ganzen Tag zusammen verbracht und am Abend sind wir in eine Bar gegangen ...

... increase our days of bikes for a while but this was the first place it's been really practical. When we got to the falls too there were awesome and we could actually have a swim in the pools beneath for once &#8211; bliss. That night after handing the bikes back we were a little less mobile so just went to the hawkers for dinner and had an early night. Next morning we were going to be moving on to Phonsovan on a minibus for 6 hours. <br><br>

... most of the country's domestic elephants. The goal of the festival is to raise awareness of the need for action to protect the Asian elephant as part of Lao&#8217;s cultural and natural heritage. <br><br>The following information was obtained from ElefantAsia&#8217;s web site: http://www.elefantasia.org/spip.php?art icle1&#9001;=en<br><br>Lao, formerly known as the "land of a million elephants" is now home to only ...

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... commodity. Every time someone who had a seat got up, a local would try to sit where that person was sitting. It was very important that you had something on your seat so that no one would sit there. <br><br>During the festival, two girls were dressed in traditional Lao clothing (which is usually only worn on the New Years and during special events) were honored and were able to ride in the front of the boats. Boats raced down the river until ...

... branches that I could kind of put my weight on so I did. There was also a fence with barbed wire on it which I steered clear of. The scary part came when I tried to put all of my weight on the downed bamboo. I could hear a quiet crackling noise coming from the platform of bamboo and vines that I was on. Both feet had a tingling sensation and even though it was dark I could see that I was wearing a sock of ants on each foot. I had to hold myself up again by the live ...

... great people, we (hangovers all round) decided to press onward to the next stop in Laos! Woah, it really was going to go downhill, as the next place would be Vang Vieng! The famous town known for its tubing down the river on big inflatable rings and stopping at the many ruptous makeshift bars,day parties, slides and zip lines! It was promised to be a monumentous drinking session! What had i got into here! <br><br>On that note, i'll leave it ...

... konden doorlopen. Het hotel hier in Vientiane is super de luxe. We genieten van de warme en harde douche straal en van het heerlijke zachte bed. Eergisteren gegeten bij de Mekong river echt lao gegeten en gisteren bij een restaurantje in het centrum waar we heerlijk pizza hebben gegeten. <br><br>Vandaag gaan we verder omhoog in Laos met het vliegtuig, waar we vervolgens 3 dagen/nachten zullen zitten en dus ook oud/nieuw zullen gaan vieren ...