Thousands of Buddha

We wake up and it seems that no bugs of any sort have entered our net fortress. A look around the room suggests they have all gone somewhere else, not a single cockroach to be seen. We pack our things and go for breakfast. We get a break from the bus today and are traveling by boat. The bus is to meet us in Luang Prabang so we dump our heavy rucksacks in it, bringing only some hand luggage. The boat is long and thin - two car seats wise and there are literally car seats bolted to the floor to sit on. It's actually quite comfortable. Rachelle and I get seats at the front, which we would come to regret.

I'm very tired but the scenery keeps me awake. More beautiful mountains with clouds surrounding them pass us by. unfortunately these clouds grow, cover the sky and pour down rain. The boat has a roof, but because Rachelle and I are sat at the front, rain still gets us wet and the cool breeze makes us uncomfortably cold. It's the coldest we've been since we got to Southeast Asia (apart from the showers). Thankfully, our guide Tony makes room at the back and we sit there, a lot more sheltered. I nod off every now and again for two hours. 

We eventually make a stop at  some caves that go into a mountain. The boat pulls up and we jump out. The caves are filled with Buddha statues, some of them very old. There are thousands; all shapes and sizes. It's a nice little break from the river cruise. When we get back in the boat it has stopped raining.

Another hour and a half later, going from the Nam Ou to the Mekong and we arrive at Luang Prabang, the orange Stray bus waiting for us with our bags. We check in to a very basic, but cheap, guest house. The room has no windows, but a proper toilet and only costs five pounds a night between the two of us. 

We get food, explore the city and the night market. There are three very long main streets in Luang Prabang, making it very easy to navigate: expensive hotels on one, restaurants and night market (only at night) on the second and some bars on the third. Our guest house is on the third too. Later we meet two of the others traveling with us and head to a bar called Utopia. It's very chilled out. We sit on mats on the floor with a low table, drinking whilst music plays and a projector shows random videos of base jumping, wildlife and such things. The other two inform us that Tony, our guide who took us to Luang Prabang from Chiang Mai, is actually English, which is odd because of his Australian accent and Australian catch phrases.