Luang Prabang

I am sitting out in the garden under a palm tree gulping down my Beer Lao and feeling so at ease with the world....
to write about Luang Prabang is a pleasure but I know i will not do it justice With my writing.

Luang Prabang is rich in history culture and natural beauty. Colonial french buildings the mekong river to name a few of the sites. Renting bike for a 75p a day we cruise along with out a care in the world and without a watch to tell the time knowing that a watch is a waste of time here you eat and sleep when you like. So when visiting a shop to buy water you may have to wake up the shop assistant.

on our 1st day we bumped into Razal and Violla ( you may remember them from past blogs)  we have been enjoying Luang prabang together. A place we all schedule into our day is the market a colourful bustling aray of all kinds of things made by the good people of Luang Prabang. Puppets, clothes and my personal favourite a man that turns bamboo into weapons.....

one day whilst biking around we came across an organisation called uxo( unexploded ordance programme which is a charity set up by the Government to deal with the problem of having 80 million unexploded bombs still left dotted around the country. A timely reminder of the painfull past this country has had and i fantastic example of how remarkble the people here really are for more details visit the website http://www.uxolao.org/

with the poverty across the country I have been amazed at how little we have been heckled to buy things even more the fact that i have to literally wake up the people of Laos for them to get a sale. I think its amazing that the relaxing ethos and friendly nature of the people here seems to be put first before any financial dificult they may face.

So a day in our life in Lunag Prabang goes like this we get up and me Amy Razal and Viola cycle to the art house were we have breakfast by the river to quote Amy (its the best breakfast i have ever had)
then we do a few erons like swap a book at the l'estranger book shop or watch a film maybe just take in the beautiful views. like a monks walking over the bridge to a small village. By now more than likely Razal has persuaded us that we need lunch so He gets me to try chicken rice which is fantastic apart fron the fact there is to much garlic... now it is time for a nap(I have to clean my teeth 4 times to get the garlic smell to almost disapear. Then we are off to drink red wine for the equivalnet of 75p by the glass our italy friend Viola says the wine is good and i have to agree further more we accompy this with lots of breads and play a card game called swimming. to finish our day we venture back into the market to pickup a bargain which we feel we have....... i could expain but it would be tough.

then back to bed to start the cycle again......

Luang prabang is so beautiful and I really think this is one of the best places i have ever been in the world a fantastic mix of Laos, asia and european culture and history coming together in the most relaxing enviroment and setting.We have also been in fantastic company thanks to Razal and Viola. We stayed for a week we could have stayed for a month.

tomorrow we get a boat and head up the Mekong to Thailand on a slow boat

I hope all is well in Nelsons county

Love Adam