Waterfulls in Luang Prabrang

After our éxciting' baot ride, we arrived in Luang Prabang at the mouth of the Mekong River. We were feeling pretty sore after the boat, but since it was Mike's birthday we quickly brushed ourselves off and headed out for dinner. In comparison to the last town we were in, Chiang Kong, Luang Prabang was luxury. It is a beautiful place set on the banks of the Mekong with high cliffs enveloping the town and an eery mist which settles on the town in early morning, throughouyt the town there are loads of temples. WE had some lovely meals sitting on the edge of the river watching the sun set.

One highlight of our time here was doing a day trip out to a beautiful waterfull. we hired a tuktuk who took us on a 40 minute drive through the remote hilly countryside to where the waterfull is. We walked through the bush to find a beautiful waterfull that cascaded down into several lovely swimming holes set in the middle of the bush. The water was crystal clear and the whloe setting was idyllic. Once again we, being from a colder climate, jumped eagerly into the water and had a very refreshing swim.

We did not spend long in Luang Prabang as we were keen to get a move on to our next destination, we hopped on on early morning shuttle bus to Viang vieng the next day. As the crow flys the distance to Viang Vieng is only about 150km, we couldn;t understand why the van was sceduled to take 5 hours. But once we begin the journey we quickly realsied, the road was a tiny dirt road that wound up and down hills for the entire way. On the sides of the hills, almost on the road we passed tonnes of tiny remote village communties, it was amazing to see them living in such a way. Our van driver was fairly enthusitaic and combined with the skinny road, roadside villages and other traffic, we had quite a few close calls on the drive. Fortunately, hot and sweaty 5 hours later we arrived in Viang Vieng for a well deserved beer.