Lazy Days in Luang Probang

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From the Gibbon Experience we got on board an overnight bus to Luang Probang. This is a small town in the North of Laos that was colonised by the French. There was a lot of the old French influence there in the street names, hotel names and the cafes that lined to small streets including our favourite breakfast haunt Croissant D'Or! We found a hotel easily as we'd already picked one out from our guide book. Again after slumming it in a tree house we opted for a little luxury and got a room with a TV, air-con and a hot shower all for the high price of just over 8 pounds. That day, and the next and the next, we relaxed in this little town hopping from bakery to cafe to restaurant to internet shops. One of the days here we went up the hill to the temple on the top which had an amazing view out over the town and the surrounding areas. From here we could see the little airport, some far off Wats and the bending river that curved around the green hills. A few days later Anna arrived to the small airport, we actually saw her plane fly over us when we were in the tuk-tuk driving there!! We met her and brought her back to the hotel before going for a walk around the town. We had a lovely lunch of noodles before hiring a bike to cycle around the area to get to the nearby villages. On the way back we followed the river around which was beautiful. That evening we wanted to show Anna the famous Luang Probang night market but as we got to the first stall a great rumble went through the sky and all the stall holders began frantically packing away there wares!! We ended up going to a restaurant for dinner before going to a very pretty little bar with fairy lights and lanterns for a Laos Cocktail.

The following day we went to the local Kouang Si Waterfalls. These were lovely cascading falls complete with a rope swing and tiny water wheel. We spent a few hours in the pools swimming, avoiding the nipping fish and jumping in/swinging in! Steph now had in Anna a brave friend who would jump in with her. I still maintain that it's not natural to throw yourself off something!! Soon though the storms again came in. I guess we're coming up to rainy season now! We made our way slowly down the extremely slippy mud slope walking over leaves to stop ourselves falling!! By this point we were absolutely soaking and walked dripping into a cafe to have a warm cup of tea (sadly it was a yucky cup of tea made with condensed milk! Nowhere outside of England can perfect a good cuppa!!) From here we got a tuk-tuk back to town where we had a warm shower before successfully going to the night market where we all bought some things that we probably shouldn't have! Too many scarves for me! (Mum and Dad you can expect them in the post in about 8 weeks!!) We had a meal here too at the stalls down a side street. From here you could get anything from Barbequed whole fish, pork, whole chickens and a great selection of buffet style noodle dishes. We went to bed (after a crepe from another stall) to get up early for our bus to Vang Vieng.

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