Mon 13th Feb
Up early for breakfast at the Lodge as departure time was 8am! Few of the young ‘uns a little hungover from the Happy Bar and our “sickie” guy not sure if it was the bug or the headache ailing him anymore – anyway said he felt great at the Happy Bar! Another day of gentle cruising, another village stop to make us feel guilty about how privileged we all are (learnt that all villages have water provided by Unicef and many have electricity so a few satellite dishes around!), and again selling their scarves! We also stopped at the Pak Ou caves which are just 25kms from Luang Prabang (an hour by boat) . These 2 main caves are a shrine to the Buddha and the River Spirit and one of the most respected holy sites in Laos. Their history dates back 1000’s of years and are packed with over 4000 Buddha images (statues of all shapes and sizes!) . Some light filters in the caves but you needed a flashlight for the upper one. Quite a steep climb to the upper one! The guide told us that the villages had hid in these caves for 2 months to escape the Hmong invasion and anyone who went out was shot!? Also apparently the royal family spent their final days being hidden in here before being assassinated and are buried in a mound you see here! We are not too sure about this story as can't find anything written to back this up! We passed several large limestone karsts on our entry into the dock at Luang Prabang – very impressive and stunning scenery. Sadly our journey came to an end as we had really enjoyed it and the company was so young at heart and very entertaining! Yet again proves that there are many adventurous oldies out there who have a lot of the travelling spirit in them! There is hope! We all said our fond farewells and piled into various minibuses hired to distribute us at our various hotels around town . Our driver had never heard of the Global GH that we were destined for so had to show him on my Maps ME App. What a wonderful App that Annie had told us about – you download the region you are in when you have availability on wifi and then you can use for directions when you are actually offline -no idea how this possibly works but it does and is a must! 20 mins later arrived at our friendly little 11 roomed GH – greeted by a friendly girl with her gorgeous little toddler daughter! Checked in and left bags in the room (CA$38.50 per nt), we got a large room with 2 king beds in it so ample room for Al & I – small bathroom in their typical style for everything we have had so far where the shower is just in the middle of the bathroom floor – so everything gets soaked! Headed out to explore this Unesco protected city which sits at the confluence of the Mekong & the Nam Khan Rivers. It is a beautifully restored, quaint area showing its French influence from the protection of the French after Chinese mercenaries and gangs invaded in 1887 . It was one of the few towns to survive the merciless bombings of the Americans during the Vietnam War and many evacuated it! In 1995 Unesco took over the preservation and restoration so that any buildings on the peninsula have to retain the French architecture! This makes it a charming area in the middle of Asia! As we wandered into the main tourist street, the night market was being set up and turned into a walking street as such! We found a quaint coffee shop overlooking the street to sit and have a few drinks at whilst watching people walking by. Such a different mix of tourists – both backpackers and more dolled up tourists breezed by! Heard many English accents here too! Bumped into a few of the Nagi gang and the young English couple told us to go and eat in the night market street as food was so cheap! We decided to try the night market eating street for dinner and for LAK 15,000 each could do the buffet! Well we must have been hungry as the food really was pretty gross and cold, the street was packed and you could hardly move to help yourself – Al got all excited grabbing chicken legs, sausages, kebabs to reheat on BBQ only to be told they were all extra! So put all the protein back and settled on LAK 10,000 for a sausage instead! Squished in a grubby bench and table to eat and get out of there asap . Was so busy, not really a pleasant experience! On the walk back to Global found a minimart and stocked up on water, wine, beer and woo hoo Smirnoff ices!

Tue 14th Feb
Happy Valentines Day today and what a lovely place to spend it! Breakfast of scrambled eggs and bread with fruit smoothie, cut up fruit and a small strong instant Lao coffee. Rented bikes for the day – all way to small for us, except Sal (benefits of being 5’4” (or thereabouts!) – very rickety but could get us around faster than walking! Once in the tourist street and trying to find a bank we chatted to a guy about taking us by minivan to Kuang Si Falls to next day.  “Mr Boon” gave us good price of LAK250,000 and gave us his phone number to call if he wanted to book. Decided to bike around the peninsula but soon discovered the way we wanted to go to do our “walking tour” was going in the opposite direction – no probs – just went against the flow! Found a lovely coffee spot with tables overlooking the Mekong River . This Saffron café is run by an Australian teacher who gave up life in Aus to come and set up a sustainable coffee plantation and get the locals involved in the production. The staff were super smiley and friendly and made the cutest pics in the cappuccinos, bunny, bear and fern leaf! The Aussie guy told us the highlights of LP and what we should get up to and referred us to White Elephant Tours if we want to book excursions. After our fab coffee with such a relaxed and peaceful surrounds we head off, again in the wrong direction on a one way street, to get to Wat Xieng Thong. We passed the most beautiful guesthouses and small colonial styled hotels looking over the river, just beautiful architecture! The Wat is the most popular in LP and has a mosaic “tree of life” on one exterior wall. It has heavily stenciled gold paint on the walls and ceilings making it pretty dark on the interior. 3 chapel halls are dotted around and we wandered around the one with a ceremonial carriage in it. It was used to carry the huge funeral urns of the royal family and is decorated with seven naga snakes, amusingly enough the undercarriage is mounted on Bridgestone tires! We continued around the ring road, passing one bamboo bridge on the NE side and then headed for the bamboo bridge on the E side . Again many lovely buildings and accommodations overlooking the river below – on this side you look over the Nam Khan though – did cycle past the Apsara Boutique Hotel where we were due to meet the owner, Ivan, the next night (Mum again with her never-ending roll of contacts around the world!). We parked the bikes and crossed over the rickety bamboo bridge, paying our toll of LAK5000 each for a return crossing! The bridge gets taken down in the rainy season as would be washed away and its maintained by an Hmong family who use the toll money to maintain the structure! Climbed the steep steps up the bank and saw a lovely looking restaurant in the shade trees on the left – decided it was a perfect spot to have lunch, the Dyen Sabai. Many people were having the hot pot dish where you cook your own veg and things in the broth filled, domed dish. Way too hot for us to contemplate this! The restaurant was very rustic with recliner cushions on low tables, dotted around under open-sided pavilions. We had decided by now to book Mr Boon for the next day trip and went back to the spot to find him – wasn’t there but a young girl in a store agreed to call him for us. Hard to read the numbers he had written but she finally got him. Agreed he would pick us up at 8am. On we pedaled, to the Royal Palace Museum. Time to put on long sleeved shirt and wrap sarong around waist as couldn’t enter the museum dressed in the skimpies! Had also had to do this for the Wat earlier in the day! Had to leave belongings in lockers too! Very sparse Royal Palace but interesting to see the rooms and original furnishings that the Royal Family had used . By now hot and needing to put feet up for a bit, we headed back to GH for a few coolies and to rejuvenate before heading up the hill of Phu Si with its 24m gilded stupa called That Chomsi! We thought it would be great to take some pics of the sun setting from the viewpoint. Climbed the stairs up the hill, only to find everyone had been reading Lonely Planet guidebook and had got there way before us! Very crowded but managed to weasel our way around to get some pics – mine didn’t work out so well as phone doesn’t take great night pics and also many hands all raised in the air trying to take the ideal pic! Back to the GH to have a drink and scoop up the rest of the wine and head to find a spot to eat on the main street – definitely not heading back to the night market again to give it a second chance! Found a busy little spot and sat in the back, Sally & I happily sipping on our wine – a a rarity to have at dinner these days ! 
 
Wed 15 Feb
Sal & I had decided to get up at 5.30 so we could go up to the main street to see the apparently 200 or so, orange robed monks collected alms. Arrived at 6 when it was still dark – oh dear, guess the photos wouldn’t be so great now. Many rugs set up by vendors to sell tourists food and snacks to donate to the monks! They certainly were persistent in their attempts to get us to buy. We settled into standing spots near an attractive building as a backdrop but soon got pushed out by the bus loads of CML’s arriving and standing right in front of us! Moved on to a quieter spot and were joined by a nice Dutch man but while we were chatting our street light went out – the only one of the street to do so! So we scurried into the boulevard in the middle of the road as the monks approached and tried to take pics…too dark and they moved too quickly and split into 2 directions at the intersection! Looks like our early start was in vain! Walked back to the GH as the sun was appearing and low and behold, there were ladies sitting in the street waiting for monks to arrive there too! No one had told us…could have had another hour of sleep! I went to get some tea and Sal rushed in to tell me they were there so by the time we got back they were wandering off already! Just not our day for our National Geographic captures! Had breakfast with the men who were quite smug about not having joined us! All ready for Mr Boon at 8 – needless to say Mr Boon either couldn’t find our GH or had a better offer but didn’t pitch! Our landlady tried to call the number that was illegible and we couldn’t reach him so finally gave up and walked off in search of someone who would take us to the Falls. A very old small sorng-tau pulled up and insisted he take us – wouldn’t take no for an answer – cut him from LAK250,000 to 220,000 and hopped in! We weaved around, cutting through back roads, our man stopped to either pay a toll, a debt or the mafia in a hut under the trees somewhere and we continued on the 30km distance to the jungle park. We had been told to get there early as gets extremely busy around mid day! On arrival we left the car park, agreeing with driver that we would be back in a couple of hours. Paid LAK 20,0000 pp entrance and followed the path. Firstly came across the Tat Kuang Si Bear Rescue Centre which had many “sun” and “moon” bears in large pens around the Centre. Am sure there were at least 20 – 30 and a lot were lying on platforms sleeping in the shade – one very amusing one splayed out on his tum, arms splayed and looking very human like! They get their name from the crescent shaped marking on their upper chest – the yellow one being the sun bear and the white one the moon bear! Saw one play fighting with his buddy who had no upper limb! Carried on through the beautiful tall trees to the first of the many cascade falls. The water is a lovely murky blue-azure colour and the pools ideal for swimming. It was still a little cool for us so carried on to the main waterfall, cascading down at least 25m. A bridge over the pools provide a beautiful backdrop for pics. We climbed up the left side of the falls on a path heading to the top. Sal & I decided to forgo the last climb up steep, narrow steps to the very top. Guys scampered up while we slowly headed down. Bumped into the 2 young English couples from the cruise again – so caught up on what we had been up to – and Sally practiced her photographic talents on a few people who were searching for someone to take a pic of themselves! Guys made it down and said that apparently there was a 2km hike at the top that one could do – to the source of the water! As we headed down to car park it was getting extremely busy and were glad of the advice to get there before crowds! Stocked up on some nuts at the market by the car park (now jammed full of minibuses and Sorng-taus!) and Alan found our driver – sleeping in his hammock strung up in the back of the vehicle in the shade! – and off we went back to the GH. Beautiful falls and definitely worth the visit! Grabbed some stuff from the rooms and then headed to the baguette stands off the tourist street as we had all been salivating over the avo baguettes that we had seen the day before! Picked up delicious baguettes and smoothies and ate in the market place. Had a more lazy afternoon – strolled over to the Wat Wisunarat area which included the Wat Visoun that Sal & I had read resembled a watermelon and is called That Makmo “Watermelon Stupa” – all very disheveled and abandoned – the main Wat is obviously being repaired but not much too exciting to see! Back to the GH for some R & R before having to head back that way to meet Ivan at the Apsara Hotel at 7.30pm. Al & Mike actually took off to visit the UXO Information Centre. This centre depicts the suffering that Laos went through during the 2nd Indochino War and how 40 years later they still live with the daily dangers of unexploded “bombies” – deaths and maiming still happening every single day! All the guidebooks tell you not to stray off the path in any area of Laos! The guys found it a very interesting place – we put our feet up and tried to catch 40 winks! Set off to walk to the Apsara and stopped at a café for a drink and snack on the way but as Mike’s potato dish took so long we left them there and scooted on to meet Ivan. The Apsara has a beautiful open entrance with pub and sitting areas overlooking the road and onto the Mekong. Very stylish – found Ivan chatting to a patron and introduced ourselves. Good to chat to him and find out a little about working and living in Lao as a foreigner. He actually spends more time in Vientiane with his partner and boys as also has an hotel there and she also has a Guesthouse in LP. Mike & Sal arrived and Ivan treated us to drinks – I think he was a bit taken aback by the firing of questions from us and he had to dash off to the Tamarind next door for his dinner date! He was apparently the first foreigner to set up a hotel in LP about 16 years ago and he redesigned the building but had to stay within the strict Unesco building codes. It really does have charming French colonial buildings everywhere, old, restored and the new! We found a restaurant nearby called “Sabaidee” (Hello in Lao) and I had a tasty cashew chicken dish (very similar to Thai food – not as flavourful though!). Feeling pretty tired after our early start so home to bed!