Lovely Laos

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Back by popular demand!

Sorry that we've lagged so far behind, but have been busy and internet access patchy at times.

Anyway, we left Hanoi and vietnam happy that we'd done it but glad to be moving on! Not sure what to expect of LP as had heard so many cool things about the place. Oh my, how true they all were. LP turned out to be a real relaxing chilled out haven after the chaos of Hanoi. The fantastic atmosphere, lovely scenery and buildings well preserved and the people were very friendly and almost no touts to be seen.

The night market was great with all the locals pedling their wares down the length of the main street as if by candle light. No one ramming it down your throat and plenty of bargaining to be had!! (after the rest of asia I think we're getting good at it, watch out Northallerton!)

There were loads of eco-trekking ideas available. Trekking, mountain biking, kayaking to say the least. My idea to spend 2 days living and breathing the elephants at the elephant sanctuary fell on completely deaf ears(!). What an experience that would have been! Anyway we ended up riding the things instead (the mahouts even letting the odd tourist such as myself sit on the heads and stear them!) and then kayaking 17km back down the Nam Khan river which was fantastic. (I never told Kate the distance in retaliation for my elephant experience rebuttal!) Suffice to say we were suitabley tired after paddling so far that falling asleep that night was no problem at all.

The other must do in LP is to visit some of the temples. Quite different from all the others we'd seen on the way around asia and beautifully painted with old scenes of apsaras and animals. We called it a day at about 4-5 temples as 32 would send you to sleep!

There is plenty to do in LP and the surrounding countryside and we wish we'd had more time but alas at least we got to see some of it before returning to Bangkok and moving on to our next step of the journey, Sydney and NZ!!!!!!!!!!! Can't wait.

Pictures to follow, love Mark and Kate.

p.s thanks to all those who have send messages, even those we don't even know!

TTFN

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Photos

Luang Prabang
picture taken from the plane showing the penisula.

by moonlight
the Nam Khan river nicely lit by moonlight.

carvings
just a small part of the carvings seen on some of the temple walls

Night market
the best place we found to indulge in some souvenir hunting. Very atmospheric.

Mekong at Sunset
taken from the highest point in Luang Prabang. What you can't see are the 100 other tourists scrambling for photospace.

The locals
Space at the night market was in short supply!

the monks
mark partaking in the morning monk feeding ritual.

Kayaking the Ham Khan
17km down the Nam Khan was a shock to Kate's poor little arms!

The authors on an elephant
Not the smoothest of rides experienced so far on the trip but nice nevertheless.