Luang Prabang - 25/05-28/05

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Our stop over in Chiang Mai consisted of buying an excessive amount of snacks, some water and dollars. We just spent that night at the guesthouse playing cards and drinking beer :D. The next morning we were picked up (an hour late) for our journey to Luang Prabang in Laos. After we went through the border we were dropped off on on what initially looked like a normal bus but we were pleasantly surprised that it was a sleeper bus and was amazing! It was basically a normal bus divided into upper and lower decks with sections for 2 people to lay down and sleep. A relatively comfortable journey and we woke up in the very gorgeous Luang Prabang, a city that runs across the Mekong River and its tributaries. We decided to walk from the bus station to our guest house which was through a local village and across a really cool but slightly alarming bamboo bridge. We also saw the local tradition of the arms giving ceremony which is where local people wait outside their houses and give offerings to the monks as they walk through the villages at sunrise. When we arrived at our hostel it was still too early to check in and so we headed along the Mekong river to buy spicy sausages in a French baguette, a big treat after all the rice and noodles which we had been having! We checked in and both had well deserved hot showers, it's a bit scary when you can only smell your dirty clothes once you've taken them off! Hopefully we hadn't offended too many people!

After a quick cat nap we decided to sit in the hostel and make a rough plan of what we wanted to do in Laos. We met a guy in the hostel called Christian who we chatted to and we chilled with him until it was time to go to the evening/night market. The place looked very different from earlier that morning and was filled with local people selling food crafts and clothes. We were just at the fruit shake stand when jack announced "Char, I think I'm going to sit down I feel a bit fain..." Too late, Jack had fainted onto Char in the busiest place possible. After a few minutes, a lot of commotion and a bit of panic later he came round to find char and about 20 local people staring in on him collapsed on the floor. The local people were lovely, they brought him water, smelling salts, balm to put on his forehead. What really worked was a shot of lime and lemon, finally after that we trundled home with our much needed sustenance with only Jacks dignity left behind. We have since concluded that this was caused by a combination of no sleep, food, water and too much heat.

After a good sleep we headed to the main attraction at Luang Prabang - Kuang Si Falls. This place was beautiful! It is a series of waterfalls flowing over limestone which makes the water turquoise/blue. We trekked all the way up where few go (apparently) and the views were to die for. There were also hundreds of Butterflies up and down the falls adding to the paradise. We spent a few hours exploring, swimming and jumping off the rocks (another spicy sausage was consumed - didn't want Jack stacking it again). At the falls there was also a bear sanctuary for moon bears and sun bears, super cute, all had been rescued from the wild and some sadly had missing limbs but it was nice to see them getting back to full health again. A similar routine again that night of chatting with Christian and going to the night market for supplies, jack was fine this time!

The following day it was vvveeerry hot, so at about midday we decided it would be a smart idea to climb to the top of mount phousi (I think it's pronounced pou-say but jack enjoyed a more English pronunciation). By the time we had climbed all the steps up to the view point we were both dripping and it was a struggle to find anywhere that was shaded enough to cool off and enjoy the view. You could see for miles, panoramic views of the whole valley and well worth it.

After this we decided to check out a bar called 'Utopia'. It was a really chilling place just on the river where we supped on a few cold ones and lounged in the sun for the rest of the afternoon.

We spent some more time wondering the streets of Luang Prabang and enjoyed the sunset over the Mekong. That night a new guy had checked into the hostel called Julian and after speaking to us he decided he would also get the bus with us onto Nong Khiaw in the north the following day

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