Luang Prabang

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I woke up early and had some breakfast with Manuel (the German dude from my dorm) and the lady from the guesthouse took us all in her van to the border crossing. I paid my fine and crossed over to Huay Xai where we had to fill out our visa forms and be granted our 30 days.

The boys and I hopped in a tuk tuk to take us to the river where we paid to get a slow boat to Luang Prabang. Little did I know it was 2 days worth of travelling to get there. This was ok. The slow boat took 7 hours to get to Pak Beng, where we stayed 1 night in a guesthouse and got chatting to Lea and Romain (a nice French couple). Pak beng was nice. A very small village just up from the riverside.

We all went to dinner together, plus some other people we had got chatting to on the boat. Oh, it was also Dennis's birthday so we were drinking whiskey (I think his favourite drink). The Germans and french could just down it neat without making a funny expression on their face - unlike myself.

The next morning I set my self up ready for the next part of the slow boat which took 9 hours, by getting some baguettes and snacks as I literally had nothing on the first trip. Arriving in Luang Prabang at 5pm, their were many people at the riverside trying to promote their guesthouses and restaurants. My little group (also including Ted from Holland) decided to stick together and head to Nammavong Guesthouse. There were now 7 of us and I shared a room with Ted.

Dennis was staying at a different place but he came and found us and we all went to dinner. We walked to the night market where locals sold their handmade goods. It was very bright and colourful. At the end of the market we found a street food stall where you help yourself to different foods that were laid out and one plate cost 10,000 kip (just under £1). So we piled our plates up high and the guy threw it all in a big wok and heated it up for us.

Wanting to head out for drinks, we find Utopia bar where we played drinking games. Due to Utopia closing at 11pm, we got a tuk tuk to the famous Luang Prabang bowling alley that opens til late. This was a fun evening of bowling and beer.

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