Luang Prabang

So yeh, Luang Prabang. Bit of background - Laos second city, UNESCO heritage sight, meant to be lovely.

And it was! Off to a brilliant start... after scoring the limited comfy seats on the all day boat, we then suceeded in finding shell, got to watch Last KIng of Scotland and then, on the way home, igot the nicest chicken mayop salad and sweet chilli sauce baguette in the world, for about 50p. Beautiful. The next day we went to the wats and museums, as you do... nice as always, some brilliant murals of brightly coloured glass, of buddha's and wars and all sorts. looked fantastic but the photos won't do it justice. The Royal Palace Museum (used no more, since the commies took over) was particualrly amazing, but no snaps allowed. Not to worry though, i got several snaps in the wats of dogs biting bums and random decapitation. You don't get that in C of E. We also met loads of novice monks, who didn't appear to feel the social restraints quite like they did it Thailand. Cheeky beggars just running around, playing with their phones and mp3 players, coming over for a chat - one even took shell up to his room! Teenagers - they're all the same.

After a cheese and salami crepe (god i love Laos - not seen a piece of cheese for about 2 months!) we climbed mount phousi to watch the sunset. Sounds impressive yeh? 'how fit Karen has got' they all exclaim! Yeh, took about ten minutes. mind you, we did run up and down and up and down trying to squeeze in all the sights we didn't know were there before the sunset. We even saw Buddha's footprint... possibly the least impressive thing i've ever seen in my life! It was just some gold paint ona rock, loosely in the shape of a foot. i ain't buying that one. Anyway, sunset was nice, we did some posing, took some snaps... then got lost on the way back down in the darkness.

Ah and the food just got better - we found this brilliant veggie buffet place... about 15 diff types of veggies, noodles, rice, spring rolls, as much as you can pile on your plate, for the princely sum of 25p. hell, i threw in a big beer laos and it was still only 75p! In fact, we liked it so much, and it was so cheap, that wehad it every night! Including a take away for the bus ride outta there. yeh so i spilt chilli and soy sauce all down my trousers on that night, but damnit , it was worth it.

Next day we tried to venture out, firstly to Pak Ou caves. I can't tell you exactly why, but basically these caves are just FULL of Buddha's that people just put in there? I mean there are thousands... like a whole mini army. i was a little scared. Anyway, after we were done we got into our little boat to cross over the Mekong to where our tuk tuk was awaiting. Within that 3 minutes journey, the heavens opened, and we were that wet we may as well have swum over. As the tuk tuk was up a muddy hill, we didn't make it there for an hour or so, but eventually braved it as the plan was to get to a waterfall in the afternoon. A massive clear waterfall, many layered, falling into turqoise waters. So we were told anyway... we'll never know cos it jst would not stop raining! It was so wet in fact, that our tuk tuk got stuck gong up a hill on the ay home, and we had to get out while he manouerved it up. Actually it was really funny./ he put stones behind the wheels to stop it rolling back, which didn't work. so he just kept doiung it again. and again. and again. What a genius. But anyway, when we eventually got back to town, we had a hot shower and a cup of tea, and all was well again!

Rain styopped play again the next day, and we pretty much spent the day shopping and using the internet. so comes the misery of the lost skirts. they were so nice girls, i was gonna get them for everyone and maybe 2 for me... but the bitch put up the price when we came back to her stall! so out of princip,e we couldn't buy them! We'll see them again we said.... but yeh, halfway down vietnam now and we haven't. Bollocks. I live in hope though....

and that was that! well, actually we had a bit of a bus kerfuffle as we tried to leave. We arrived at the station, tickets in hand, and some guy ran up and grabbed opur bags, another our tickets... it a bit of a worry but you get used to it. This time however, he returned and shoced some rubbish local bus tickets in our hands! Man did we have to kick up a stink. Its not the first time we've had to yell at people (who did little but laugh in response i might add), and it certainly wasn't the last! But this time, it seemed to work! andhalf an hour later than planned, another bus turned up to whisk us off to Vientiane. I sat next to a smelly man, with massive sprawling legs, who leaned over me to spit out the window. Didn't sleep a wink. Had worse though....

---

---