Our stay in Luang Prabang began on Sunday. We found a lovely guest house where the owner spoke perfect French (Laos used to be a French colony) and he seemed really glad to have us around just for the chat. Within a couple of minutes he had told us his life story. We had a fabulous dinner (see picture) at the restaurant in the main - and really, only - street, I (Silvia) had the biggest fish ever and it was extremely good!!! All for less than 10 Euros (ah, I forgot to mention before, in Laos the money is really weird, we keep on having to calculate over and over again what is what and this is crazy. 1 Euro is 50 Bath in Thailand and 1 Euro is 12000 Kip in Laos … it is sooo confusing and banknotes are soo dirty, honestly you have to wash your hands every time you touch one. They look like they were issued in the 1800s or even before!!!).Anyway life in Luang Prabang was really cool, just all about walks, relaxing, massages and a bit 
of stress when booking flights/trains! We had a bit of a hassle trying to get back to Bangkok, which was not welcome after having to cancel our trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia due to the flight from Vientienne to there being fully booked. We were told that all the overnight trains to Bangkok this Thursday night were fully booked and, according to a travel agent, we would have had to stay in Luang Phrabang until next Monday … no way! We can't wait to get to the beaches so that would have been terrible!! So, luckily after some negotiation with another travel agent, we booked flights to Bangkok, the overnight train from Nong Khai to Bangkok and, the most terrifying, an overnight bus from Luang Phrabang to Vientienne.
of stress when booking flights/trains! We had a bit of a hassle trying to get back to Bangkok, which was not welcome after having to cancel our trip to Siem Reap in Cambodia due to the flight from Vientienne to there being fully booked. We were told that all the overnight trains to Bangkok this Thursday night were fully booked and, according to a travel agent, we would have had to stay in Luang Phrabang until next Monday … no way! We can't wait to get to the beaches so that would have been terrible!! So, luckily after some negotiation with another travel agent, we booked flights to Bangkok, the overnight train from Nong Khai to Bangkok and, the most terrifying, an overnight bus from Luang Phrabang to Vientienne. As Luang Prabang is really small, so we went for a walk on the Monday (see picture) and 
discovered a lovely side of the town, with plenty of colonial buildings, lovely colors, and nice cafes, such as one called Tamarind, which served traditional Loatian cuisine, really nice. I had a refreshing tea (Amy had a watermelon and chilli drink thing - differrent anyway....) and then climbed up the hill to the top of the village from which you can admire the Mekong River at sunset. Really really nice … apart from the fact that on the way down we bumped into the biggest scorpion even seen on Planet Earth!!! (see picture). I am not really scared by these animals ... I mean, I am, but I do not really get mad ...on the contrary, it is quite hard to decribe Amy's face 
when she had to pass next to it ... but with all the reasons, as the animal was HUGE indeed. And probably very dangerous!!! After our walk we did some crazy shopping, buying all kinds of presents for friends and family and then we met Noeami, a friend of my (Silvia) friends Agnese and Federica, who is currently undertaking an internship in Luang Pragbang. She came with some colleagues and friends and we went for dinner together! That was really nice, Lao food is great, it tastes better than Thai and the sticky rice is lovely!!! Justin and Veronica, the Irish couple came with us.
discovered a lovely side of the town, with plenty of colonial buildings, lovely colors, and nice cafes, such as one called Tamarind, which served traditional Loatian cuisine, really nice. I had a refreshing tea (Amy had a watermelon and chilli drink thing - differrent anyway....) and then climbed up the hill to the top of the village from which you can admire the Mekong River at sunset. Really really nice … apart from the fact that on the way down we bumped into the biggest scorpion even seen on Planet Earth!!! (see picture). I am not really scared by these animals ... I mean, I am, but I do not really get mad ...on the contrary, it is quite hard to decribe Amy's face 
when she had to pass next to it ... but with all the reasons, as the animal was HUGE indeed. And probably very dangerous!!! After our walk we did some crazy shopping, buying all kinds of presents for friends and family and then we met Noeami, a friend of my (Silvia) friends Agnese and Federica, who is currently undertaking an internship in Luang Pragbang. She came with some colleagues and friends and we went for dinner together! That was really nice, Lao food is great, it tastes better than Thai and the sticky rice is lovely!!! Justin and Veronica, the Irish couple came with us. After dinner we decided to go to the Lao DISCO!! (see picture) The four of us (me, Amy and the Irish couple) went by tuk tuk 10.30 p.m. as discos close at 1 at the latest. When we arrived at the disco, called Daofa night club, I thought for a moment that something was wrong … people looked like teenagers and there was a girl on the stage singing some horrible and boring music … 
Oh my god! And, on top of that, the pannel at the entrance said "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!". Which was confirmed by the fact that the room was covered with panels advertising "Malasya 2007" … Bizarre! Anyway, after the four of us putting the last of our Kip together we were able to have a beer Lao each and then … some good music started!! Honestly, the music was great!!!! Amy can tell you!! We even had a bit of a dance and it was good fun!! Well, we can say we have been at a disco in remote Lao at least!! On the way back, we said our goodbyes to Justin and Veronica as they were leaving the following morning, while we would spend an exta day in Luang Phrabang before taking our bus at 7 p.m.; Destination Vientienne.
Oh my god! And, on top of that, the pannel at the entrance said "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!". Which was confirmed by the fact that the room was covered with panels advertising "Malasya 2007" … Bizarre! Anyway, after the four of us putting the last of our Kip together we were able to have a beer Lao each and then … some good music started!! Honestly, the music was great!!!! Amy can tell you!! We even had a bit of a dance and it was good fun!! Well, we can say we have been at a disco in remote Lao at least!! On the way back, we said our goodbyes to Justin and Veronica as they were leaving the following morning, while we would spend an exta day in Luang Phrabang before taking our bus at 7 p.m.; Destination Vientienne. No major events happened on our last day in Luang Phrabang following day, apart from a massage session that has almost killed Amy as she still feels in pain.
Back to Amy now: As Silvia said, we booked a bus to go from Luang Phrabang to Vientienne on Tuesday night so that we could cross the border back into Thailand and make our way down to islands. We were really dreading it though, but we thought that nothing could be as bad as our trip along the Mekong in THAT boat or our trip on Eurolines to Copenhagen with no toilet for 13 hours. We were wrong. Obviously. Just to be on the safe side, before we got on the bus, we sang "The final 
countdown"and did the Haka, but it didnt make any difference..... We got on the bus and next to us was this guy, only to be described as a total psycho, who had just bought a new mobile phone, it was enromous, and he wanted to use it. He had no credit so he kept on lighting his lighter to see the numbers on his card so that he could put them in the phone (the driver put the lights out in the bus at 8 o'clock) and we thought he was going to set us all alight. He then called what seemed to be everyone in his phonebook, with the loudspeaker on, so we could hear both them and him shouting at each other. Everyone on the bus were ending themselves though, as it was pretty funny. He obviously hadn't heard of bus etiquette.
countdown"and did the Haka, but it didnt make any difference..... We got on the bus and next to us was this guy, only to be described as a total psycho, who had just bought a new mobile phone, it was enromous, and he wanted to use it. He had no credit so he kept on lighting his lighter to see the numbers on his card so that he could put them in the phone (the driver put the lights out in the bus at 8 o'clock) and we thought he was going to set us all alight. He then called what seemed to be everyone in his phonebook, with the loudspeaker on, so we could hear both them and him shouting at each other. Everyone on the bus were ending themselves though, as it was pretty funny. He obviously hadn't heard of bus etiquette. We were glad that the bus went at night though as we could tell that we were hanging off the cliffs - I, Amy, didnt sleep a wink as I was sure that death was imminent. Not sure what difference it would have made in me staying awake though :) At 4 in the morning pyscho guy decided to play music, which can only be described as cats being murdered, blaring on his phone. Silvia asked him to turn it down a bit but he flatly said "no". Nice :) So we drifted in and out of sleep for the last two hours as we literally couldnt keep our eyes open out of pure exhaustion.
We arrived in Vientienne around 6am and made our way to the bus station to catch our bus to the Thai border and further on to Nong Khai. Immigration went smoothly apart from the fact that we were shitting ourselves that we would be stuck in Laos coz we mixed up our departure cards and couldnt tell which belonged to who. We discovered that they dont really care though - it seems most of the paperwork just goes into a basket and straight into the bin.
We got a tuk tuk to our guest house in Nong Khai, which is lovely and peaceful.We had a romantic bedroom, with a four poster bed :) And a nice lizard to keep us company. The rain was LASHING it down last night though. Silvia told me in the morning that she thought at one point that people were coming to take us away to safety as there was a hurricane (there was a bell at about 4 in the morning). I just told her that it rains all the time like Scotland, so I wasnt bothered. I'm hard, me, so I am :P
Today we are going to visit some ancient sculptures made by some Laotian artist (can tell we are riveted) with some German girls we met last night who seem really nice. We had a beer with them, which seemed to make us feel better, as yesterday it became obvious that the travelling over the last week and a half had taken its toll on both of us, and we felt really sick. We were in our beds by 23.00.
Next stop, Bangkok and then Koh Samui. Cant wait :)
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