Laos

My mother has rightly rapped me on the knuckles for not updating in a while, so here I am. To be honest, the reason why I didn't update, at least in Kunming anyway, was because it was just a bit boring; it had a lovely park and the hostel handily had a pool table and cheap internet, but besides that the only interesting thing to happen was someone swipping my jeans off the washing line (bastards).

But Laos, to be fair, has been much more interesting. After a horrible overnight bus we arrived into Luang Prabang after night fall so just had dinner and went to bed, but I got up fairly early the next morning and just had a wander around. The place really is amazing. Most of the town is located on a penninsula formed by the joining of two rivers, its surrounded on all sides by hills covered in jungle and its dotted with really ornate Buddhist temples, with lots of orange clad Buddhist monks wandering around. Its also a real tourist hub also though, so many here; every third building is either a travel agents, a restaurant or a shop selling silk and paper products. So I spent a few days looking at museums and temples ( not Dim's thing really) and one day we went on a package day tour riding elephants, swimming at a local waterfall and kayaking, which was probably one of the most memorable days of my trip so far, so much fun. The waterfall especially was very cool, so idyllic, if a little chilly. Unfortunately we got rain our last few days, but its really bright at the moment so all is good.

The day before yesterday we moved down to Vientiane, the capital, which unfortunately lacks a lot of the charm that Luang Prabang had, so we spent yesterday be the side of a pool swimming and trying to de-farmer our tans. Today we're going to look at concrete replica Arc de Triumph in the centre of the city, and tomorrow we leave for Vietnam. We're getting an overnight, non-sleeper, 22 hour bus, so Im really dreading the journey. You'll find out in a week if I survive intact.

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