Day 1: Up early to catch the slow boat for part 2 of our trip. After doing some rock-climbing (just to get on to the boat - seriously, sooo dodgy), we set off about 10ish. The day was much the same - lots of banter with Kent, Stafan, Adam and Abbie and plenty of cards along the way. This trip also took about 7 hours and it did tire us all out more this time. Would have been nice if the journey had been as advertised but still far better than getting the bus. The swedes were a bit more annoyed - they had been told it was a double-decker boat, where you could sun-bathe on top! Haha. All had a good laugh about it though.
Arrived in Luang Prabang about 5pm and, after trudging round several guest-houses, the 3 of us found a good deal. We checked in and went out for some food and to check out the night market. Stafan is a pretty harsh negotiator - seems to work though. They both also sorted out a flight to Bangkok for Saturday as they are heading down to Pattaya to finish their trip. Few more beers along the main road.
I'd read in my travel books that Laos was a lot more chilled than Thailand and it certainly seemed that way. If you walk away from a market stall, they don't hassle you and instead just let you get on with it. Much better and my early impressions of Luang Prabang were good. Pretty small place and didn't seem a huge amount to do but the very mellow atmosphere was definately welcome.
Day 2: Got up early again as the 3 of us had planned to check out the town and see the sights. After some breakfast, we went to visit the Royal Palace Museum (pretty cool - very impressive mosaics inside). There won't be any pictures though as cameras aren't allowed inside. Also checked out the main temple, which is pretty nice - although I've seen A LOT now. Good photos of that though.
In the afternoon, we hired mountain bikes and embarked on a gruelling 35km ride to a waterfall outside of Luang Prabang - one of the few sights to see. Most of the journey was downhill and yet, we were all shattered on arrival (me more than the swedes though - the guys are machines). After getting our breath back we had some lunch and went to check out the waterfall. Very nice so we went in for a swim and to jump off the small (but looks high when you get up there) cliff above. Also several fish nipping away at your ankles in there - a bit less comforting than the Fish Spa in Bangkok, especially as you couldn't see them and some felt quite big. Met a couple of english girls there and got chatting to them as well as the 4 english lads (who all looked severely hungover - what a surprise).
I'm ashamed to say that I opted for a tuk-tuk back to Luang Prabang as I was still knackered and didn't fancy the ride. Kent and Stafan wanted to ride back though (like I said - machines) so I arranged to meet them back at the guest-house later. Got in a tuk-tuk with an older couple from New Zealand and their daughter who lives in Sydney. Going to both places later in the trip so I picked their brains about places to visit etc and we compared places we had been (that's basically the first thing you talk about with fellow travellers - of which, there are many). All really nice people and gave me some good recommendations.
I didn't get off the bike ride completely as it happens. The tuk-tuk driver decided to drop me about 3 miles outside Luang Prabang saying that ''he doesn't go into there''. Great - what did I say about tuk-tuk drivers!! Probably karma for me whimping out of the ride back. So I rode back to the guest house.
The lads arrived a short while later, havng done the trip back in about 1 hour 20 mins. Glad I took the easy option as I couldn't have kept up with that. Went out for another cheap but vey nice meal and some more beers. I also booked my mini-bus trip to Vang Vieng for the following morning. Luang Prabang is nice and very chilled but we had basically seen it all in about a day and I wanted to move on. Another good evening of laughs with the lads.
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