I bathed an elephant today!!! Laos is known as the Land of a Million Elephants, although the numbers have fallen dramatically (due to mistreatment and because in the war, the bombs scared them and they ran away). Luang Prabang is particularly known for elephant treks, as the city is surrounded by lush countryside where there are several elephant sanctuaries. Having done some research into ethical companies I went with one called Elephant Village, which is home...

Luang Prabang is celebrating the end of Lent, so the past few days have been party time (not so easy when the city has an 11:30 curfew, seriously - we have been locked out of our guest house twice and had to wake the owners to get back in). The people of the city have been busy making floral offerings and gorgeous little boats; they're about the size of a rowing boat usually, with a wooden frame and decorated with coloured tissue paper, illustrations and candles...

Luang Prabang is such a nice city; it's very small, really an island with two main streets, but its just lovely. The architecture is French-inspired, and its really charming. In Vang Vieng we saw teams of kayakers training along the river, and having arrived in Luang Prabang we realised that it was for a big boat race tournament. So, having picked our V.Vieng team to support, Cords persuaded me to set foot on a precarious-looking longboat over to the other side...