Luang Prabang

In the morning, we got up and decided to rent bicycles for the day (20,000 kip each). I was still feeling a bit tired from the weekend so it was really nice and relaxing to be able to cycle around the pretty little area that Luang Prabang is, and coast along the side of the Mekong river. We went in to view one of the temples (10,000 kip to enter) and found we had to go back to the guest house to unexpectedly cover our legs as well as our shoulders, but it wasn't far and the temple was interesting to view. We then cycled to find where a couple of bars where that we'd read about in lonely planet so we weren't wondering around at night not knowing where we were going, stopped off by the river for 10 minutes then went and got a fruit shake, shared a sandwich, found a bottle of wine to drink later (so much more expensive out here) and returned our bikes about 4pm.

During the day we'd bumped into Kelly again who said to meet her and some friends later on the corner of a street, so we went back and showered and came back out for 6.30pm. We never found Kelly and co, but we did use her earlier tip on using my lipgloss to knock the cork of the wine into the bottle so we could pour it into our plastic cups and enjoy as we watched the parade (all class out of the window at this point...) Anyway the streets were crazy and crowded and we sat waiting for it to begin with some street food to go with our wine; hot dogs/Lauren's interesting chilli sausage, and some Laos dumplings. Our friends from the gibbon experience had arrived in the area and we chatted to them as they went past looking for somewhere to eat. They were getting an early night but said they would be out tomorrow and would organise us all meeting up within our Facebook inbox group 'beasty hearts', so we waved them goodbye for now.

The parade was brilliant with extravagant costumes, lanterns and detailed boats all candle-lit which were numbered so that they could be rated in a competition. Lauren and I found ourselves being boat number 7's biggest fans (again coincidentally my fave number). We ended up walking along with this boat practically in the parade as we bobbed along to the drums that this large group of teenage Laos lads were a part of and joined in parts of the shouting that we could of which were part of the songs they were singing. They had loads of energy and we're all so smiley and happy to be there. The boat was so big that it took 16 of them to carry it, including 4 guys managing large bamboo sticks which were being used to lift the electricity lines in the street for the boat to pass on under. Each time this occurred, the crowd all waited intensely and then there was a massive applaud when the boat after many struggles made it under the wire.

All the boats reached the temple and were lined up to be marked. We went and got a beer and climbed up on a wall to sit among locals and travellers on a bank, watching the police attempting to patrol the traffic and pedestrians (which was chaos with the giant boats passing inbetween). We saw the boats descend down to the riverside and then went back to the restaurant we'd been at the day before to have a beer as we watched a couple in the distance go past. Both of us made phone calls to home, and then by 11.30pm places close so we headed back to the hostel and passed out.

xxx