First full day in Luang Prabang starts early! I ate way to much rice yesterday so my mission is to have a rice free day today!

I'm still in love with banana pancakes so I scoff some of those and Sabrina, Tony, Pip, Paap and I head to Kuang Si waterfalls. We decided to do a 3hr trek with our lovely local guide Savat, instead of taking the easy way and getting a car to the falls.

It took an hour on a dirt road to get to the village our trek starts from. the road was sometimes treacherous with some deep ravines and we had to get out the tuk tuk and walk while our driver navigated up the hill! Talk about hectic!

With a mouth full of dirt and raring to go we arrived at Ban Nong Lao to start the trek. We got to say hi to some of the local kids and a few of the girls used the toilet which appeared to have poo on the floor. Luckily, I had already relived myself in the bushes a bit earlier. Hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go!

A local man guided us for the major part of trek which was 15km in total. The first part was flat but out in the open so it was quite hot. The scenery was spectacular with large mountains surrounding us. After about 45mins we headed up a steep rocky incline into the coolness of the jungle which was a relief. The next part was a mix of flat walking and some climbing up and down rocks and hills, bit slippery in parts. Tony stacked it and I know was close a couple of times. But everyone made it through relatively unscathed.

We then made it to the waterfall, which was beautiful, limestone made the water an aqua blue and gorgeous. We met up with the rest of the group here. Feeling a little hot we decided to swim at the base of the falls, but the water was bloody freezing! We persevered and the water ended up being good for my poor tired feet! Relief! You could jump in with a rope swing, not for the faint hearted! I was happy lolling about in the water!

We then visited a bear sanctuary. They were brown bears and all very cute!

Second meal of non rice day was makeshift 'KFC' chicken and crinkle cut chips. Tasted nothing like KFC, which was probably a good thing, but it was nice all the same.

We then headed back into town to visit the ethnology museum to learn about the different lao tribes their culture and ways of life. Especially interesting was the different courting and wedding ceremonies.

We then hit the night markets for some shopping and fine tuning of our bargaining skills. I'm rubbish at Paap is even worse! So our mate Tony, an experienced traveller and therefore bargainer gave Paap and I some tips and off we went. got a few good things!

Third meal on no rice day was at a lovely little place called coconut garden. It was modern with a gorgeous courtyard. Paap, tony and I all had western food, I had an awesome spag bol! Just what the doctor ordered! After my delicious spaghetti, a beer lao and the days activities I'm ready for bed so we jump in a tuk tuk back to the guesthouse.