Laos PDR - Please Dont Rush

After all the excitment and exersion of the gibbon experience we decided to slow thigns down a little bit on the aptly named mekong river slowbvoat - a two day trip floating from the thai border to Lunag Prabang - Laos' most picturesque city. After meeting a fellow ex gibbon experiencer we swapped stories and settled in; playing cards, watching ash rain down as the bamboo forests burnt around us. occasionaly we would stop at small villages delivery fridges and picking people up along the way. Ocassionaly groups of young locals leant off the rocks as we went by dangling homemade items for sale.




After an overnight pitstop we arrived the following evenign at Luang Prabang with a newly formed slowboat family in tow. We soon managed to stumble upon the cheapest, and grottiest guesthouse Luang Prabang had to offer. The novelty of the free bananas and water soon wore off as it transpired that it poisoned half our guest house- D included. We soon bumped into a gruop of travellers, who intorduced us to the super cheap street BBQ and buffet. We then all ventured to two of LP's finest clubs, finally ending up at the bowling alley THE place to be from 12-3am thanks to the Lao 11.30pm curfew. As the drinks flowed the bowling progressively deteriorated...(not that we were that good to begin with). The following day we had arranged to meet the others and check out Lp's famous waterfall- a 40 mintue tuk tuk ride and arduos climb to a beatiful network of pools, almost artificially blue in colour. As it was the weekend the area was full of crazy Laos letting there hair down on the rope swings.








As Daniella lay in bed with a stomach upset, R and our new roomie/ fellow slowboater Artuur went out in search of a goodtime..as the bar was about to close a group of gay laotians and 'Peng' (whose name we were much amused by) invited us to drink with them and play cards beyond curfew - however with its flumoxing rules - a combination of Poker, Rummie and Whist with 2 the highest card - we were content to just watch. turned out to be rather wealthy club owners who treated us to free nights in LP and later in Vang Vieng...loads of fun.

One morning, in search of a truly authentic Luang Prabang experience, we woke at dawn and headed to observe the monks recieve alms from the local community- beautiful. We were also a little shocked by the size of the smaller ones who looked about age eight. By this point, Luang Prabang was experiencing some stormy weather. The night before, we had climbed (mid thunder storm) the highest peak of LP home to it's famous Wat. Stunning views of the city, outlying hills and rivers. Expecially witht the backdrop of a storm. After a good couple of nights of partying and bowling, we decided to chill out and dry off in front of a movie in a french bookshop come cinema.



thanks to the french colonial influence we indulged in many bakery snacks: cinnamon wirls, pasteries, crepes and baguettes galore. after our longest stay so far we were sorry to leave and a bit apprehensuive of the notorious road aheadm - Laos' windiest 5 hour stretch. This was exacerbated by tales of minivans getting trapped between slash and burn fires...