Cup Chi Li Li

Well, this is what happens when you leave it too long between posts - you end up with too much ground to cover.

So, where to begin...

Luang prabang was a lovely town, situated right on the edge of the Mekong river. I stayed for 2 days. On the first day, I rented a bicycle and cycled around, visiting the temples and various other sights. The Palace Museum was particularly impressive.

On thew second day, I went with a group of people that I met on the slow boat to visit the caves and the waterfall located just outside the town. The caves were a bit average by Jenolan standards, but interestingly they had been filled with hundreds of images of Buddha that had been broken during numerous wars.

The waterfall was amazing. It was hundreds of meters high and fell into a series of pools surrounded by jungle, where we indulged in a bit of a swim.

While the town Luang prabang was lovely, it didn't have much of a night life, certainly not enough to satisfy my fellow travellers, so on Monday, 11 of us hopped in a mini-van to head south to Vang Vieng.

The drive was amazing. We were driving through the highest mountains that I've ever seen. And dotted all over them were tiny villages made from little bamboo huts. I made several attempts at taking a decent photo, but nothing I managed did it justice.

Vang Vieng was everything that every other backpacker said that it was. People from all over the world get stuck there and end up staying for weeks or months on end. It is also set on the side of a river and rocky peaks rise up all around. Days are spend lazing by the river, drinking beer lao, or tubing.

Tubing is one on the best recreational activities ever created for backpackers. For $3.5 you can rent a tractor tube for the day and be driven a fair way up the river and take you time floating down. The true genious is the riverside bars.

As you peacefully float down the river, bars will throw ropes or extend bamboo poles to pull you in for a drink. Many even have giant swings and jumps set up, and the main entertainment of the day is watching people land ungracefully into the water.

It's a beautifully relaxing way to spend the day.

I had to get out of that town, at the risk of spending the rest of my life there.

So now I'm in Vientaine. Only just arrived about 3 hours ago after Kyaking down the river from Vang Vieng. It was a hot day and I'm a bit burnt, but I'm looking forward to finding something interesting to eat for dinner

Cheers