thurs day 104

---

Today was a bit more of a relaxed day spent with katya after the previous 2 days feeling just a little too hectic. So, after not setting any alarms we headed out for some breakfast at a French patisserie, from here we popped into a couple of tour agencies to have a chat about possibly heading north for a few days. We decided to have a walk around the town and our first stop was to see where the nam ou river joins the Mekong at the far end of the peninsula of Luang prabang. Turning round and walking back towards town armed with a map and a guide book we stopped off at a few temples to have a look at the beautiful architecture and lavish golden decoration that adorns them all. Walking past the grand palace museum we found Big Brother Mouse which is a small charity run organization which has volunteer opportunities to teach English to the locals. Having an open session from 7-9pm we thought we would pop back and have a go at helping the locals to improve their English and therefor get better job prospects. Deciding that we both wanted to head north to do some trekking and experience village life we opted for a 4hr minibus ride to Nong Khiaw in the morning so went and got that booked before meeting Caro ( katyas friend) for coffee. Both feeling pretty whacked from the intense heat of the day we headed back to our room for some chill time. Missing the opportunity to go and chat to the locals at Big Brother Mouse which was a shame, but later I headed out to meet some friends for dinner. Katya wasn't feeling too well so I headed out to find Jenna, Erica, Griselda and Guillaume ( German, American, Argentinian and French!) and a French couple - Griseldas friends for dinner. Found a nice restaurant, had a lovely meal then went onto bar utopia - very popular with foreigners for a few drinks. This was my last night in Luang prabang and it felt sad to say our goodbyes at the end of the evening. From doing the 2 day boat trip along the Mekong id met some brilliant people who I spent some really nice times with - but we were all starting to go our separate ways. A brilliant excuse to go travelling again to visit them one day.

---