Luang Prabang - waterfalls, food, wine and bicycles

Hey

So we've had 3 nights in Luang Prabang and will be leaving tomorrow after our fourth. Luang Prabang is our favourite place so far. It really is beautiful, relaxed and peaceful.

Wednesday 4th July
We have a long lie and enjoy our comfy beds, clean sheets and spotless bathroom - ah the simple things we usually take for granted. We wander up town for some brunch and then around town. The mid-day sun is scorching. I get a wet shave at a barbers for 50p!

We visit the Royal National Museum. Again we see plenty of buddha statues, one that apparently dates back to 100AD. After that we put our passports in a local travel agents to get our visas for Vietnam. At around 4pm we climb Phu Si Mountain, right in the heart of Luang Prabang to see the temple perched on top. It's not actually a mountain, more of a hill! At the top we meet a few girls who were on the slow boat down - Sally from London, who is also travelling for a year and doing practically the same route as us, and Anne-Marie and Maria from Ireland. We end up chatting for ages and watch the sunset over the distant hills and into the Mekong River.

After a quick change we head to the night food market. We have BBQ'd chicken on skewars and then buy a nice BBQ'd fish for only 15,000 kip (under 1 pound). We take it to another stall down the road and for only 5,000 kip each we fill 2 bowls with rice, noodles and veg. We also get two large Beer Lao's! MMMMMMMMM

On the way back to our guesthouse we pass a lovely wine bar, jam packed with bottles of all varieties. Out the front is a small table with beanbags around it, and it's free! Inside Aussies are sampling different kinds of wine. Outside we veg on the beanbags and order the most expensive bottle of wine on the menu. It's $15 or around 7.50 sterling. It's nice to drink something other than beer and we have a very relaxing hour or so doing just that.

Thursday 5th July
We get up early as we have booked a trip to a cave and then an afternoon at a national park with a waterfall and pools you can swim in. On the bus we meet a lovely Australian couple called Matt and Kim who are very well travelled and full of all kinds of helpful tips. We actually passed the cave on the way in to Luang Prabang on the slow boat. It's set in the limestone cliffs that rise dramtically out of the brown Mekong. A bus ride takes us to a small local village where children and chickens run around our feet as we make our way to the jetty for a boat across. I feel like Indiana Jones as we enter the top cave into darkness. I half expect a boulder to come tumbling out of the wall behind me! The cave is famous for being full of 4,000 buddha statues. As if we hadn't seen enough!

Seriously though, the cave and the lower one are very impressive and hugely important to the people of Luang Prabang and the surrounding area. Like Luang Prabang itself, the caves are a listed World Heritage site. Well worth seeing. As well as the 4,000 buddha statues of all shapes and sizes we also see several bats up in the roof of the caves.

We head back to Luang Prabang and have a bite to eat before jumping in another bus to go to the Kuang Si National Park. There is a 30 metre waterfall there (that I have no intention of falling off!) and lovely natural pools you can swim in. The waterfall is certainly impressive and we climb through the jungle to get to the top for a stunning view out over the park. We climb back down and head for the pools. There is a group of travellers from the boat in the first pool and it looks lovely. The water is crystal clue and we jump right in, have a chat and a swim before heading down to the second pool where there is a rope swing and a 3 metre waterfall you can jump off and into the pool! After my previous experience I'm not quite ready to jump off the fall but the rope swing is great fun and a young local kid impresses everyone by doing back flips in off the swing. We have an excellent afternoon there and I would love to go back another time. Our photos may not do it justice so do a google search for Kuang Si waterfall and you should get an idea of how beautiful it is. I'll try and upload some more pictures soon.

At night we have some pizza and then discover a funky little tea house reminiscent of Tchai Ovan in the West End of Glasgow. We both have a pot of tea and read the National Geographic magazines they have dating back to the 70's! We are both tired so opt for an alcohol free night instead of meeting some people from the bus for a drink.

Thursday 6th July
We have a relatively long lie, waking at 10am. We head out for breakfast and meet Alex from Perth Australia who is a top bloke and arrange to meet him for a beer tonight. After that we hire bicycles and spend a pleasant few hours cycling around the town and outside it as well. We've booked a VIP air conditioned bus to Vang Viene for tomorrow morning for 125,000 kip each (around 5 pounds each). We'll spend a couple of nights there before heading down to the capital and figuring out the best way to get to Hanoi in Vietnam.

I'll post from there if not before.