Luang Prabang Part deux

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We were knackered after the day at the elephant village and so decided to get some food then go to bed, then we realized that the camera was missing aaarrgghh. We briskly made our way to the booking office to ask if it had been found a few telephone calls later and luckily it had been found to our huge relief as you can all see we love to take a few snaps!

We went for some tea at the night market and met a couple Steve and Christine from Guernsey who were really nice so we had a few beers with them, we were supposed to be leaving the next day but they told us about a waterfall they were visiting that was beautiful so we agreed to tag along with them. The next day we got a picnic and shared a tuk tuk between the 4 of us to the waterfall, along the way disaster struck we run over a puppy and the driver didn’t stop – it was awful a memory that will always stick of the poor mite wriggling in the middle of the road and a little girl running towards it – HORRIBLE.

On a nicer note the Kouang Si waterfalls were beautiful. We started out by looking at the endangered Asiatic Black Bears in an enclosure; the Chinese still hunt these for medicinal purposes and use their paws for bear paw soup – really not good and soon these bears may only exist in captivity. After this we walked up and came to a pool that was turquoise, so stunning, there were people jumping in from a rope swing. Dim and I left Kristine and Stevie there whilst we trekked up to the top of the big waterfall which was worth it for the view, but it was a tough old hike in the heat. The lovely pool was now even more enticing after the hike; Dim enjoyed rope swinging into the pool and jumped off the top of a small waterfall. When we got back to Luang Prabang we decided to go for a nice beer near the Mekong and say a farewell to Stevie and Kristine. 1 beer turned into 3 and so on, we ended up back at our guesthouse playing shit head and helping Henny make rice parcels for the monks, she was doing this as it was her birthday in the morning and it is tradition so that was really interesting.

In the night Dim got really ill and was on the toilet with food poisoning all night and all of the following day, (so we couldn’t leave again, but neither did Steve and Kristine) he was the only one of the 4 of us who had chicken in his sandwiches the day before. In the evening we made a brief appearance at Henny’s birthday party as she invited us; it was lovely to experience a proper Laos celebration and we got some lovely food and cake. We said a final farewell to Stevie and Kristine as they were moving up North and we decided to stay a few days extra to make sure Dim was fully recovered; never mind, we really enjoyed our stay in Luang Prabang, it is such a beautiful town; lots of arty cafes and shops and nice places to eat alongside more authentic food market stalls and a great craft market so a real mixture.

Our next stop was Vang Vieng..

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Photos

Contemplation..
Steve and Dim enjoy the view

The biggest fall
We climbed to the top and looked over but had to wade through a bit of mud to do this

Steve and Kristine
Cheers mo fos!!!!

Sunset over the mekong
we watched this over a few Beer Lao - nice

Me and Henny
Helping to prepare the rice parcels Henny to offer to the monks on her birthday for good luck

Laos party
Everyone just sat on mats on the floor enjoying food, exchanging stories and listening to loud music.