Luang Prabang

Now on to the other stuff that happened:

Back from Muang Noi we stayed one more night in Nong Khiaw, in the same guesthouse where we left our luggage for the short trip up north. From there we took the local bus - read soengthaw - with 20 other people to Luang Prabang. Not a lot of space to stretch out in this one ;). After arrival we checked into our overpriced guesthouse. The city was just full. Almost all accommodations were fully booked.

On the 30th we did some sightseeing and checked bars for new years eve. There we ran into a British girl we had met on Don Det who was with a bunch of great Australians with whom we spent that night and also new years.

The highlight - sightseeingwise - came on the 31st when we headed with Nancy and Perinne to the Kuang Si waterfalls which are absolutely fantastic (we have started to watch the BBC documentary series "Last chance to see" about endangered species with Stephen Fry on YouTube, so imagine us saying fantastic with a thick British accent!). Pictures can't really capture the colour of the water which was a bright blue. Of course we went for a swim although the water was bloody cold. But it was so cool bathing in those waters!

After recovering from our hangovers we finally had our cooking class in Lao cuisine! It took place outside which was really nice. We were 15 people with only 3 cooking stations but since we cooked 5 dishes everyone got to work with the wok in front of the watchful eyes of teacher and group. But we again learned a lot of great stuff but as always it remains to be seen what of it can be reproduced at home!

And in the latest news: coming back to the hostel on the 30th after our unexpected evening with the Australians, we saw a mysterious mail from Claire's mother: "around 16h" - followed by the encyclopedic description of the name Finn. We directly skyped with Claire's parents to know all the details about our new born nephew, and it is then that we noticed that we were actually quite drunk ;) Claire is obsessed with the baby and tries hard not to watch his pics and pronounce his name more than 10 times a day. It is tough for her ;)Read more