The journey from Vietnam into Laos was eventful, due to the roads not being completed, and the fact they squeezed as many people as possible into the van . At one point we all had to get out and push our minivan out of thick mud where the road had not been layed yet.
We thought the first bus was bad. Until we got on the second which was a bit bigger, but they managed to squeeze people all down the isle floor and on top of the luggage that was crammed onto the back two rows!

Our first stop in Laos was Muang khua, a small town on the river, by this point we had been travelling with an Argentinian, a German, a Aussie & a couple of swiss on the buses from Vietnam so we all went out for dinner and drinks. The following day we chartered a long tail boat to take us 5 hours down the river to Nong Khiaw. The scenery on the river was beautiful and there were lots of Laos children playing in the muddy water. We found a lovely cabana on the river to stay in, explored the town and went for more drinks! We would have loved to stay here but we knew we had to keep moving as our time is running out and we have deadlines to be in certain places, so we moved on the following day in the back of a truck (also crammed) to Luang Prabang.

Luang Prabang was beautiful, it felt very French, the buildings and temples were lovely and there were gardens and flowers everywhere. We hired bikes to explore the town, in the evening there was a night market and food market, we tried buffalow sausage, fried dumplings and fresh spring rolls, they were all really tasty!
The following day 5 of us hired mountain bikes to cycle 30km to some waterfalls! It wasn't easy and we were dripping with sweat. It was all worth it when we reached the waterfall that cascaded down into individual clear blue pools. d*** nearly died launching himself of the rope swing into one of the pools! The others couldn't bare the thought of cycling back so d*** and I went alone.
The next morning we went on a Laos cooking course tought by two sisters from our guesthouse. We choose the dishes we wanted to make, then went to the market to buy and learn about the ingredients we were using. We saw a butchered dog on sale as well as a big lizard. Everything is cooked on charcoal filled concrete stoves. We made spring rolls with a peanut dipping sauce, moak - a traditional Laos dish of fish wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. Laak - a traditional salad dish, and a noodle dish served in a coconut, pork & peanut soup. It was all incredible. We sat down with the sisters to eat the feast washed down with some whiskey!
We really enjoyed our time here but time to move north onto Huay Xai.