Luang Prabang

I nearly missed my bus to Luang Prabeng - I failed to notice that I had to be at the bus station at 8am so when I rocked down to reception at 7:55am there was quite a commotion. Luckily, the nice receptionist man gave me a lift on his bike and I made it, just.

I got sat next to an English guy called Steve, from Essex. He was 80 years old and was just having a little tour of Asia for a few weeks. Here I am thinking I'm doing something brave by travelling around on my own in war stricken countries and then I meet 80 year old Steve.

It was an 8 hour bus ride with a lunch stop in between and we talked the whole way. A very nice man with lots of interesting stories to tell and some quite personal ones!! I won't divulge them here but I've obviously got some kind of aura about me which makes people tell me all about themselves (he said that!). Maybe a should become a Samaritan!

Anyway, we arrived safely. The journey was really nice, we went through some spectacular scenery and I only noticed 2 armed guards on the road. We took a tuk tuk into town and Steve went off to find his pre-booked guesthouse and I slogged about trying to find myself a room. I did, eventually, but it was windowless and right next to reception, so not great but cheap and that's what matters!!!

I went to find Steve at his guesthouse as we'd arranged to go for dinner but he'd already left. I couldn't believe it, snubbed by an 80 year old bloke....... I consoled myself with a nice curry, a beer and an ice cream.

I went on a day trek to a waterfall. We had a French guy, a Swiss guy and a German guy and me in my group so you can imagine how we joked and laughed.... We were late to pick the Swiss and the German up and they sulked for a good hour or so which was quite amusing. In the end it was a really nice day, quite a hot day and so this obviously meant that all the mozzies in Laos spent the day irritating me.

At the waterfall we were all looking forward to a nice swim but when we got there the sun went in and the water temperature was definitely below freezing point! So we all took some photos and headed home.

That evening I went to the Royal Palace to see some Laos theatre. I'm not really sure what we were watching but the costumes were nice although the singing wasn't up to much, Simon Cowell wouldn't have let them on stage!!

The next day I spent chilling. I had brunch with a nice American man and his mom and then I watched a film in the little mini cinema that I found. Then I spent more money at the night market, I just can't help myself!