Luang Prabang

The bus journey from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang was very picturesque as it meandered through the mountain- or so we were told! I won't mention the hangovers, but we slept a fair bit! As the bus took all day it was dark and we found a hostel which was like a massive treehouse (and paper thin walls).

We went on some bikes the next day while we decided what to do next! We seemed to cycle far but was probably only a few kilometres. By the way we will stop talking in kilometres and dollars when we get back!

We went to a few places out of town where the locals live and a dodgy bridge that used to be a train track. Our bikes weren't the type for 'off road' so if you think 'Raleigh Chopper' you're probably not far off!! It did have a basket though for all of our belongings. Lovely. We got some nice photos by the river and had a fruit shake (we're off beer!) as the sun went down.

We finally decided to do a trip here and unfortunately sacrifice Chang Mai in the North of Thailand. We have saved that destination for a future trip (along with many others!)!

Next day we got picked up at 8.15 and headed to the Lao elephant reserve. We were taken to our tree lodge where we were staying the night which was amazing! It had a roof but was pretty much open air!!

We got a minibus to where we would start our (walking) trek. There was just us 2 and a guide. We hiked for about 2 hours before having lunch. Along the way we stopped at ethnic mountain villages. People were going about their daily live as the 3 of us walked through which was great to see. As we continued we mainy saw women working (unlike Britian, JOKE!). They were carrying huge sacks of rice on there back with a strap on their forehead. We saw them making tobacco and sticky rice as we walked through. The guide picked a fruit off a tree which was called a maxim. It was citrussy and once you ate into it a white froth appeared which turned sticky like cobweb needless to say it put us off eating the rest! He also pointed out papaya and pineapples growing. Emma saw a huge spider (see photo) as we cooled off by a spring!

We met up with another group and headed to a water fall. We stopped en-route as the locals were gathered around. We got closer and saw a lady holding and tugging at the end of a poisinous snake! She dug it out and knocked it on the head with a shovel! Apparently that was their dinner for that night!

The water fall was better than we expected. It wasn't the tradition single drop fall but instead had pools and lots of short drops. The water was torquiose and really really cold - but needed after our sweaty trek!

We had a suprisingly good night sleep dispite the 2 huge furry spiders (hand size) in the bathroom. If we had seen the scorpian in our bed that we saw in the morning, we may not of slept so well!

In the morning we went to 'get' our elephants to take them for a bath in the river! Emma got on first and sat on the elephants head with a mahoot (elephant driver) behind her. Then my elephant was brought out and was told to get on without a mahoot! There wasn't anything to hold onto (we were straddled on it) and the elephant immediately went down a steep bank as our first challenge! They got in the river and splashed about a bit which was fun. If anyone has ever tried to bath an elephant (not an everyday occurance we know!) whilst sat on it you'll realise that its quite difficult to try and hold on (to nothing) whilst splashing them with water!
We ended our time with the elephants with a trek around the jungle.

In the afternoon we went kayaking down the river. We were doing it for quite a while so and it started to ache. We're getting quite good at kayaking now (we've been twice) so are thinking of entering into the mixed doubles at London 2012!

We went to the night market and spent more money. Our Bangkok package is getting larger and larger - may need a ship container at this rate!

There is another reason to send a large package home and that is due to Miss Sealeys cone hat. She has carried it from the north of Vietnam in a large blue plastic bag.