Luang Prabang, early monks and late night bowling...

---

Hi everyone,

So a lot has happened in the last week, I have just arrived in the crazy city of Hanoi and have booked into Hanoi Backpackers Hostel for the night of the 23rd but I am leaving again tonight for 3 days in Sapa on a home stay, more about that later, here's what I've been doing the last few days....

So before I left Vang Vieng I spent a day trekking, caving and kayaking with Rosie and Charlie which was brilliant and well worth the money. We caved through water caves on tubes which were pitch black, Charlie recruited a fish to his swimming shorts in the first few minutes which proceeded to flap about for the entire time we were in the cave...I have never laughed so much, he wasn't amused. We also visited elephant cave where the stalagmites look like elephants and another cave (I forget the name) where a giant gold budda was somehow constructed deep inside the cave.

I left Vang Vieng ahead of Charlie and Rosie and got a dodgey bus to Luang Prabang north Laos. I was promised air con and comfy seats, I should have learnt by now that people here are somewhat stretchy with the truth. Unfortunately my seat wasnt actually attached to the floor of the van, so everytime we dodged a pot hole in the road (aprox every 5 metres) I went flying into the lap of a poor unsuspecting dutch woman. Luckily she was very nice about it, but I think after 7 hours the humour was running a little dry, oops.
On the plus side though the scenery was spectacular, beautiful mountains and roadside villages built hanging over a cliff egde.

Luang Prabang is my favourite place so far. It is a protected site, so isnt as built up and abused by tourism as Vang Vieng. It used to be a french colony and there are definitly influences in the architecture. The night market is a maze of stalls lit by chinese style lanterns and you can buy anything from wooden masks to slippers. And I finally managed a sucessful haggle, yippee! Possibly was still ripped off but I felt it was an acomplishment!

I stated in a place called my Lao Home in a hostel where I met a girl (Harry) who went to uni in Nottingham and a couple of her friends joined us who also went to Nottingham uni. I was fairly lazy in Luang Prabang. First day Harry took me to the most amazing waterfall called Kuang Si that I have ever seen, it had about 5 levels, and each level had a lagoon that you could swim in and rope swings (avoided by me - the hopelessly clumsy).

The next day, nursing a slightly sore head after a few Beer Lao I hired a bike and took myself on a little tour of the town to see the temples. I a starting to feel that once youve seen one temple youve seen them all, but a few in Luang Prabang struck me a particulary pretty. I may have just about reached my quota though until Chiang Mai!

Luang Prabang offers a great opportunity to see the Buddhist Monks give arms in the morning. Basically this is an ancient tradition where the monks show there humility by collecting theire food from the locals. Every morning at 5am local people get up and provide the monks with sticky rice and biscuits. There is a procession of what seems like hundreds of monks with little bowls, almost begging for food. It's amazing that even in this day and age people still get up every day to adhere to this tradition. And it was very humbling to watch.

The only other useful day I spent in Luang Prabang was a cooking class at Tum Tum Cheng cooking school. This began with a trip to the market and a lesson about all the spices and various Laos delicacies. I munched my way through all that was offered for me to taste - I wondrered why the others were a little more reluctant - half of what I ate was made with buffalo skin, mmmmmmm. I have been a little ill since, there is possibly a connection! The lesson it self was pretty good and we made spring rolls, and chicken satay amongst other things.

I have to admit I have been pretty lazy in Luang Prabang, the days have been spent mostly lying about in little cafes and pottering about the markets. I did meet up again with Charlie and Rosie for a couple of meals, but they are on a 8 month tour so are spending alot longer in Laos. The most random thing I did was most definitly late night bowling....

There is a curfew of 11.30pm in Luang Prabang, so all the bars close, with the exception of a little night club and a bowling alley (I've no idea how they get round the laws but they obviously do).
So a few nights I've been out with some people to have some beers, and not wanting the night to end prematurely, have partaken in some good old fashionned 10 pin bowling. Turns out after a few beers I'm not so talented, but it was fun all the same.

So this brings me up to today....I flew to Hanoi this afternoon, but I'm not staying here long (although I will be back). I have paid for a 3 day tour to Sapa in the beautiful north of Vietnam where I will spend a couple of days trekking and a day and night in a remote village with a traditional Vietnamese family. This pretty much includes sleeping on the floor, and eating weird stuff, please god not dog :-/

When I come back to Hanoi I'm meeting a few lads who I met in Bangkok and we are planning to do the Halong Bay islands together as a group which will be a lot of fun.

I'm having a great time, obviously missing you all lots, and starting to miss some of the essentials...warm water and pg-tips, but I'm sure I will survive.

Love to you all,

Em xx

---