Hey all,
Well we've made it safely to Laos.... After a 13 hour overnight bus journey, which was pretty uneventful, we made it to Chiang Kong which is the last town in Thailand before the Laos Border. We headed over the Mekong inot Laos and a palce called Huay Xai where we got our visas issued on arrival. We stayed the night there just to chill out for a day and then caught the slow boat to Pak beng which is halfway between Huay Xai (Laos Border) and Luang Prabang.. The slow boat was, erm, interesting. Pretty numbing on the old bottom for 8 hours but we met a nice group of people, a couple from London on their way to Oz to live, a Northerner called Nick and an Australian called Mark who all at least helped pass the time... On arrival in Pak Beng there was an almighty scramble for the bags which was quite amusing and then we found a place to stay for the night... Met up with the others for some Beer Lao - oh so good and only 60p, and then some Lao food. At 2200 all the electricity in Pak Beng goes out for the night so we had to find our way back to the guesthouse by torchlight!
Next day it was back on the boat and the 7 hours flew by... mainly with the help of more beer Lao!! The scenery on the approach to Luang Prabang was incredible. We stuck together as a group and found a guest house on arrival for the night and headed out for some food. Next morning Mark and Nick found us a better, in fact pretty amazing, guest house for only 7.50 pound a night...
Yesterday we all went as a group to the Kuang Si Waterfalls which was amazing. It's a tiered waterfall and after a steep walk to the top we rewarded ourselves at the bottom with a swim.. Back to the town centre for more drinks and food last night.
Today Carl and I are chilling out together before a final farewell to Dean, Suzie and Mark who are all leaving Luang Prabang. We're going to treat ourselves to a foot massage this arvo - only 2 pounds - and then we've also put nearly all our clothes in the laundry - cannot wait for clean clothes!
Tomorrow Carl and I are doing a half day Lao cookery course - only 12.50 pounds - and then we'll wander around the town a bit more and arrange our travel down to Vientiane.
Luang Prabang is a UNESCO World Heritage sight and is beautiful, it has a very French feel to it and there are lots of shops and restaurants so we're staying for a day longer than planned..
Sunday we'll make our way to Vientiane we think.
Oh - we're having some difficulty with uploading our pictures on to Flickr but we'll give it another go soon...
Love to you all,
B and C xxxx
