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So we arrived in Savannakhet and spent a day recovering from the long bus journey. We visited a dinosaur museum which Josh loved, apparantly many fossils have been found around Savannakhet which made it really interesting. We also visited a Monastry and chatted to some monks for about an hour and learnt quite a bit. Until a boy is 21 he is a novice and then he can decide to become a monk, they were really intrigued by Josh and took him around and chatted to him. They loved talking with us to pracitise their english and even offered us lunch but we had already eaten but it was a great experience.
The next day we journeyed south to a town called Pakse, in the Bolaven Plateu. We met two travellers from Holland which was fun and got on really well with them. We parted ways when they decided to rent a scooter and do a three day tour of the Bolaven plateu of which we were really jealous, but couldn't be possible with us three and not the safest I guess, but we did meet up again in Tadlo and caught up on the day over dinner. Beatiful scenery and plenty to do, we decided to travel by bus to a town called Tadlo where we stayed beside a river with the Tadlo falls above us. A really quiet village, Josh loved playing with the local kids, swimming in the river, catching frogs and having fun. We also went for a hike of which was cut short when we came face to face with a cobra, so decided to opt for a elephant trek instead.
Back to Pakse after four days and took an overnight bus to Vientienne. Vientienne surprised us as being a really quiet city, a lot of french influence in the buildings which made a city tour really interesting. We then made our way up to Vang Vieng a town famous for it's river of which you rent a tyre tube and tube down the river stopping along the way at bars and rope swings, not a good combination of course but lots of fun. We opted for the tour which we tubed through a cave and Kayaked down the river. We did have a go at the rope swings on our way down which was quite nerve racking and definately got the adrenalin going for the ride back. Vang Vieng is surrounded by limestone karsts making it a stunning place, we hiked the next day (15km) to some caves and a beautiful swimming spot called blue lagoon, obviously for the colour of the water from the limestone it was stunning. We went for another hike the next day, up a mountain of which we had splendid views of the town. This was Josh's idea and he had the pleasure of succeeding a challenge he set out to do himself.
After all the relaxing we headed north to Luang Prabang, a 7 hour journey with non stop bends, really nausiating but again beautiful scenery. We will be spending the next few days here and Christmas, it's very festive and lots of people so should be fun.
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