LP is a fantastic town! Small, very chilled out, tuk tuks riding around, monks walking down the street. The town is “Unesco Heritage Listed” which bans all buses and trucks and makes the place feel so much more relaxed than previous cities/towns we’ve been to; it also has a curfew of 11.30pm, so its early to bed and early to rise – we can definitely vouch for this, each morning we were woken at 6.00am by the monks beating the drum in the temple opposite, not to mention the bloody cockerels.

The first day we decided to chill out, get to grips with the town and spend time with the guys. We all met for breakfast and afterwards started out with a bit of sightseeing then headed off to experience some local Lao massage – a past time LP is renowned for. Thankfully the place we went to could accommodate all 6 of us;  the majority of us had traditional Lao massage (similar to Thai massage but a little gentler), Dan & Adam however got in touch with their feminine sides and opted for the “Body Polish”. After my 40 min neck & shoulder massage was up, I walked through the ‘boys’ room (which I had to do to exit) to find Dan & Adam laid out with only their boxer shorts on, which were pulled up their arses and female masseurs rubbing their feet – interesting – what’s been going on here?!?!

Fully relaxed we headed for a cheeky beer in the sun on the river front, where we bumped into Vinney and Tom – say no more, the afternoon/evening ended up being a bit of a drinking session with us nearly burning the restaurant down when the Lao BBQ flames got a little out of hand. A great day, although I felt terrible the following morning.

The second day we had all arranged to go to the waterfalls, 20 odd km out of town. The waterfalls were impressive (again not quite Niagara, but better than those in Chiang Mai). We had read in the book that most people stay at the bottom rather than trek up to the top – I can now see why, what a climb, although it was fun walking through the mud at the top – not quite sure if the view from the top was worth it but was good all the same.

With not much time on our side now, the following day we got the bus from LP to Vang Vieng, which is halfway to the capital city Vientiane, and a place famous for tubing. 

Once we had reached the border town, a short tuk-tuk whisked us down to the border which was basically a shed on one side of the river, then a little boat across the Mekong to the Laos side. Here we had visa formalities to take care of (i.e. pay!), then we had the task of finding accommodation, in what is basically a through town where people only stay one night – it showed.

Now, even though we were in Laos everything was priced in Thai Baht. There was a moment of excitement when we went to the Laos ATM, worked out the pound -> Lao Kip exchange rate then tried to withdraw a MILLION kip and be a millionaire – but that was short lived as the maximum withdrawal was 700k We paid for a room and then went to book our slow boat tickets to Luang Prabang hoping we could save on the 1000 Baht price the guesthouse manager was quoting – we couldn’t – the official pier prices were 950 The guesthouse we did stay in however had a fantastic balcony where we got these stunning (if I say so myself!) sunset photo’s from…

The next day we arose and set off for the slow boat, I was really looking forward to two days drifting down the Mekong, to relax and take in the scenery…well, once we were aboard we could certainly enjoy the scenery as the boat was very open, but the seats, were, er, like church pews! Very upright and with 8” of leg room! They then proceeded to fill the boat so that every 2-seater pew was full, then added three more for those without a seat! But we were away and the river & scenery were all that I expected – time to get out a good book, pop the iPod on and sip a cold beer!

comfy!

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juice of Lao life

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day 2…

We arrived in Pakbeng for our overnight which is described quite interestingly in the Lonely Planet: “rat infested place”. With our expectations quite low we had a pleasant night with Tom & Vinney (i.e. several beers), some good food and a mossy-free night – thanks to the mossy net provided! The room was only 3 quid too!

Next day we were aboard a different boat and being early we managed to get a couple of 1st class seats out the back of a Fiat Panda (or something similar) and we were off again! After an eight hour cruise we arrived in LP to the usual hustle & bustle of guesthouse touts and here we are.