Not Laosy At All

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After a bit to eat at the hotel it was time to say goodbye to Cambodia and move onto Laos. Our original itinerary had is travelling up through Cambodia by bus, crossing the border and visiting various places in Southern Laos before arriving in the capital Vientiane. After doing so many bus miles in Peru, we decided to scrap this itinerary completely and fly to the Northern part of Laos, to Luang Prabang, so we could spend our time doing stuff. T
It was whilst we sat in the airport, bags checked through, that we remembered we needed our passport photographs for the Laos entry visa. Well, there was nothing to be done but wing it. We needn't have worried, they took our $30 per person and didn't even ask for the pic.
Luang Prabang is a UNESCO world heritage site and is situated on a small peninsula, surrounded by rivers whose banks are studded with flame tree and mountains of lush tropical jungle. It's a big religious centre with many orange robed Buddhist monks receiving daily alms every morning. It's also only 40 miles to the Golden Triangle of the SE Asaian poppy growing areas...
Hotel Mekong Riverview sent us a taxi to collect us and it was therefore a very smooth and speedy arrival. Our hotel room had a great terrace from which to view the mighty Mekong river (staggeringly, this river nets more fish than the entire Mediterranean Sea, some 2 millions tonnes per year). It starts high up in Tibet, down through Thsiland, Laos and Cambodia before entering the sea in Vietnam
We were all hungry so we popped over to the hotel's restaurant Which is located high up on the banks of the river. The lights in the trees attracted thousands of moths, some as large as my hand; I won't mention the two insects that flew into Ed's mouth!
Ed and Hat we particularly delighted with their grilled chicken breast and mash, their first mash since New Zealand. Cas was equally delighted with the wine tasting that was also taking place, hosted by the Scandinavian owner. And I was very pleased with the chicken noodle soup which I'm using to ease me back onto food.

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