Luang Probang

26/4/11

We like Luang Probang. Its clean ordered and calm well it is in comparison to Idia and Vietnam. This combined with the fact the the next destination in Laos is 20 hours away on a bumpy bus helped us to come to the decision that we would base ourselves in Luang Probang for the whole 18 days we are in Laos. This brought on a rash of planning. How could we get the most out of our time here and how could we fly from here to our next destination Bangkok. Well four hours of trolling the travel agencies (of which James had pre researched so knew which was the best) we had an 18 day schedule planned. We booked ourselves on a days kyacking, a two day trek, 3 days working and living with elephants and a days climbing along with flights to Bangkok. The upside is that we have a fun packed few weeks the downside is that the budget for food is rather tight. With this in mind we had street food for lunch and dinner and at about 10,000 kip (66p) per meal we will be ok even if your taste buds are not going to be in overdrive.

The afternoon was spent exploring a Temple, playing more scrabble and relaxing. It is now official we are addicted to scrabble. Its the first thing we do in the morning and last thing at night. I have even taken to remembering 3 and 4 letter words as I see them in books...

27/4/11

I had been left in charge of organizing the day cycling to a village to look at handcrafts. I knew my planning was not up to the quality of James but for some reason we could not find the name of the village we were supposed to be cycling too. Despite trawling the travel books that we had read the previous day it was nowhere to been seen. I had also not thoroughly researched the best place to rent bikes instead opting for the two bikes the hostel had on offer. We set off on rickety bikes with no real destination in mind. I was sure we would have fun and see interesting stuff. James did not quite have my confidence. James of course was right. Whilst the ride is nice the village that we eventually stop at is less then exciting. On the return trip I saw sign for a waterfall just at the same time my bike chain came off and stops functioning properly. Not to be deterred I locked my bike up and I walked along side James and he rides. 1 KM later we arrived at a trickle that in the rainy season is a waterfall but is not much cop now. James is unusually gracious and does not critisise but I know he is thinking that this would nver happen with Bo travel services. He would know to the millimeter how much water would be there for each day of the year... Oh well at least I apreacte his planning even more!

That afternoon we successfully get cash out of the cash machine. Over 6 days ago I transferred some money to the card that we use abroad. What I had not factored in was the 2 bank holidays and the weekend... damn those banks and their holidays. Also what happened to my (admittedly tiny amount) of interest!

The evening was spent relining in the upstairs of a pub watching eat pray love a film by Julia Robbert. It was nice to lie back and watch something in English and the movie was not half bad. At the headdy time of 10pm we emerged onto the streets being careful to observe the local please laws of which we have a copying our hostel room. The highlights include 1) keep quiet after 10am (big tick from James) not bringing to your room men or women who you are not marred to in order to make sexy time and not bringing local or foreigners to your room to make sexy videos.