Luang Prabang

I forgot to mention on the previous post - on our way to the border we stopped off at a temple called the White Temple. It was a really beautiful building but seemed to be going through something of an identity crisis. Inside the temple the had the usual Buddha and spiritual stuff on one wall and then on the other a massive graffiti wall with pictures of Spiderman, Batman and Converse shoes, lots more stuff like that. Bizarre! They also had a statue of predator sunk into the ground around the temple. Never seen anything like it!

On to matters more recent; we're now in Cambodia, and are staying at a place with a decent internet connection and free computers - so the photos are constantly uploading and the blogs should be up to date within the next few days (hopefully).

Luang Prabang is a picturesque little town in northern Laos situated where the Mekong River and the Nam Khan River meet. It was the capital of the old Luang Prabang kingdom, which used to be protected by the French. Because of this it has a pretty unique flavour, it seems more like a quaint village somewhere in France than in Southeast Asia. The food was great; baguettes sold on the street, we found a great little Italian restaurant as well as an incredible bakery that sold some great bagels for breakfast. There was also loads to see and do, and it had a completely relaxed vibe about it - we loved Luang Prabang.

We headed out to check out some waterfalls about 30km out of town. Originally the plan was to cycle but we were warned off doing that by the guys at our guesthouse who told us it was all uphill and that it would be too much in the humidity - after the tuk-tuk ride up there i'm pretty thankful for the warning. The waterfalls were incredible, we met some really cool people on our tuk-tuk up there and later on bumped into the guys we had met on the journey to Luang Prabang. The waterfalls were a series of smaller ones all leading up to a huge one - along the way there were some little pools where you could swim - one with a ropeswing too. Lots of fun!

That evening we headed bowling. In Luang Prabang there is an 11.30pm curfew, so that is what time the bars finish and the noise stops. For life after the curfew you have two choices; a gay friendly discoteque, or a bowling alley. It was all a bit bizarre to be honest. So we hit the bowling alley and bought a few bottles of lion whiskey (a local brew), we later bumped into some more people who had stayed behind to catch the slowboat, and the guys we had been with for Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta (the southeast asia travelling circuit is smaller than one might think). The bowling was good fun, though it got progressively worse as the whiskey kicked in. I managed to win both games too - great success!

The following day we chartered a private boat to to take a group of 11 of us (the guys we met on the journey) up to Pak Ou Caves, a journey which would allow us to see some of the scenery along the Mekong that we would have seen on the slowboat. The boat was great, and the scenery on the journey was beautiful - I can't really state enough how beautiful Laos is as a country. The caves were a waste of time though, and really not worth the entrance fee, we also got taken to a dodgy little village with people trying to sell us things - we didn't stay there long. That night we got some dinner, went for a massage (I think I got the short straw because mine wasn't very good, everyone else loved theirs) and then crashed pretty early.

On our last day in Luang Prabang we rented bicycles - because it was so quiet it was a pretty easy place to cycle around. We headed to a couple of temples but we were really feeling templed out by this point (to be honest, most of them are pretty much the same) - and everywhere kept trying to make us pay entrance fees all the time which for alot of the places really wasn't worth it. We climbed up to the top of Mount Phoussi (pronounced Mount Pussy, apparently), which gave a spectacular view of Luang Prabang, and generally had a bit of an explore. Finished up by going to a swimming pool and chilling out.

That night we finally got a chance to check out the night market properly - we had been meaning too each night but kept missing it as it started to pack up at 10pm. Got some awesome cozy little slippers and some more hippy baggy trousers. I'm anticipating they will both get rolled out for some lazy sundays.

Forgot to update my reading list but in the meantime I finished Nineteen Eighty Four and Freakanomics. Both good in their own very different ways.

At the swimming pool the played this tune, which is probably my favourite by The Cinematic Orchestra. It's got a completely chilled out vibe which fitted the setting perfectly.