Arrived in Vietiene the capital of Laos last night. Big difference in hotel as we are now in a 5 star compared to the wooden huts in the Luang Prebang. Luang Prebang was a small town by the river with excellent views of the sunset over the mountains. We visited an organic farm which had been set up by one man, Mr T. Who was a real character and doing a lot to improve the area and create jobs for the farmers. That evening we had lunch in his restaurant which was...

Today was a long day traveling by bus from Luang Pertang to Vang Vieng (Apologies again as spelling is probably not right but all my posts are done late at night in bed without any notes). Fantastic mountain scenery on the way and a number of stops to see local life which broke the journey. Most interesting was the stop at the local "wildlife market" where they were selling just about anything you could think of for the table - some of it illegal. We came accr...

Well another packed day. Out visiting sights this morning including a very interesting way covered in paintings (sorry can't give names as I don't have guide book with me at the moment) also visited a stupa and an interesting local market to see all the fruit, vegetables and every bit of animals and fish you could imagine being sold. After all the visiting treat myself txo a coffee and a mango crumble cake. Afternoon was fun as we visited a local waterfall and...

It's nice to have 3 nights in one place. Gives us a bit more time to see the place and have a rest in between visiting. Yesterday did a walking tour around Luang Prabang which used to ge the royal capital of Laos until 1975 when it became a communist country and the king abdicated (and was taken up north and never seen again)! Strange to visit the royal palace which has now been turned into a museum and see things the way they had been left in 1975 including th...

Have arrived in Luang Prebang after two days on a long boat cruising down the Mekong river. Our exit from Thailand was fairly smooth, just queue up, hand in your departure card and get your passport stamped. Then it got interesting, after meeting our Laos guide we boarded a little boad with all our suitcases piled on and crossed the river to Laos. Caotic scenes as everyone qued to get their passports stamped and an entry visa. Complete contrast between the two c...