Packed in into seats clearly designed for 5ft Lao people there were two possible seating positions depending on which diagonal I squeezed my legs into. The aisle was piled with luggage and about half an hour after we set off (on what was an exceptionally windy and hilly road) the woman beside me was sick on the floor at my feet. She then proceeded to puke at roughly hourly intervals, having by this time gained some (transparent) plastic bags which she tied up and heaved over my shoulder and out the window (it is sad that the Lao people just chuck rubbish out the window of the bus without a thought). In lao they also have the habit I previously met in china of loudly clearing the throat and spitting out the window. The bus got more and more packed so that there was a column of people sitting on top of the luggage going up the aisle. There was a lunch and wee stop at 130pm, but strangely the dinner stop was not till 930pm! On this journey you pass through lots of little villages with no electicity, people washing in streams and lots of naked children running around. The houses are wooden huts on stilts and it does seem very undeveloped and rustic without ever having the squalor that you see in India. I got to LP at 130 or so and checked into a guest house, despite a tout's offer to take me to the infamous all night bowling alley.
Next morning and a made a quick shift to a cheaper guest house. Then I started bumping into people I had met in Vang Vieng, in fact I bumped into one person 3 times that day and thus found a group of people to hang out with, which was nice! I went to the palace museum, which had a lovely mosaic made from coloured glass on a red background in the throne room, had lunch and then retired for a nap! In the evening I climbed a small hill covered with temples for the sunset and then checked out the night market, where I replaced a couple of worn out T-shirts that I had to chuck with new shiny ones, but couldn't haggle my way low enough on anything else. Luang Prabhang seems quite an easy town to do nothing in, but the next day I went to see some more of the town's many (Buddhist) temples. I saw four before I couldn't face another one. In the afternoon I took a short trip to see the nearby waterfall. This was a very nice one, with a large drop at the top and many smaller ones over some distance below. There was opportunity for swimming but there was a downpour just as I was descending the other side of the falls, so although I was already soaked to the skin I only had the briefest of swims as I had my camera in my bag and needed to shelter it more than me. They also had some rescued bears and a tiger at the site and when the rains came he became a very grumpy tiger indeed.
That evening I had some street food with Jenny, who had been in Vang Vieng, and a guy called Ian who had bought this weird devil baby which I might just have to include a picture of. Somehow I wish I had bought one too. The next day was time to get the slow boat to Huay Xai, a 2 day trip.
7 headed Naga at temple in Luang Prabhang.
View from Phou Si hill at Sunset.
Pools at the waterfall.
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