Having arrived in Houei Xai we quickly realised that we wouldn't be crossing the border that night so ever so tired from the 2 day slow boat we dropped our bags at the Lonely Planet recommended BAP Guesthouse, oh were we in for a treat. Crazy is not a strong enough word to describe the 3 sisters than own the place. Every customer greeting, every reaction to a question, every waddle to the kitchen had you in fits of laughter. With only 5 teeth between them a...

Up nice and early, we collected the elephants from their bed deep in the jungle and took them for an early morning bath before breakfast. With free time before lunch we took the elephants on several treks the penultimate one ending with large scale deforestation of the local bamboo hedge rows! For lunch was freshly caught (large) whole Tilapia with sticky rice and spinach, delicious! Lunch consumed we said our goodbyes and headed to the whiskey village to s...

Up with the dawn we were collected and ferried out of the town to our chosen elephant camp, after the not so nice treatment we witnessed in Nepal we planned for a more positive experience and were assured that this camp was ethical. We arrived to the sight of 3 elephants with benches strapped to their backs and were shuffled unceremoniously on. Our hearts sank a little but the trek was weaponless and easy on the elephants, only gentle words of persuasion we...

After a distinctly sleep lacking night we arrived in Luang Prabang at 5am via tuk tuk, as luck would have it we were just in time to see the precession of monks walking down the street passed the temple where locals and tourists alike were seated with rice in hand giving alms to the monks, unable to purchase food the receivers rely on this as a source of sustenance and the givers improve their karma. We rudely awoke a local hotelier and booked into the Watthat G...

Next on the agenda we booked our selfs a caving and kayaking day, we visited the famous water cave where guided by ropes and with head torches on you jumped in a tube and floated through water filled caves and tunnels, even the screaming hoards of Chinese geriatrics couldn't take away from the magic of the experience. After lunch it was into the kayaks for the 2+ hours paddle down the river, apart from the almost epically disastrous capsize in the first 20 ...