Back to Luang Prabang

Having arrived back into Luang Prabang on the back of a Sawngthaew with our rented bikes firmly attached to the roof, we got dropped off around 4km from the centre of town – tentatively we got back on the bikes wincing from the pain in our bottoms and grimicing from the effort of trying to pedal… well I did anyway! Slowly and not 100% sure of our whereabouts we managed to locate our hostel. The rest of the day was a bit of a wash out, siesta, film afternoon, munchies and so on!
The next day was my birthday and even after a good rest and lots of sleep I still woke up feeling every bit double my new age! Note to self – Don’t undertake any silly bike rides in the near future without a full backup team! Having treated ourselves to a nice brekkie in a posh cafe we took a slow and picturesque tuk-tuk ride outside of town to a popular but very nice waterfall complete with natural swimming pools. We spent half a day checking out the falls, but as we hadn’t really planned on heading out there we’d left home without our swimming attire or a towel, oh well the water was a tad cold anyway! The rest of the day was spent sipping beer on the bank of the Mekong watching the slow pace of life in Luang Prabang meander past, it was a very pleasant afternoon and something we don’t actually do enough of – relaxing that is, the drinking beer I try to keep up a certain level of, even if it is just to a basic level! It seems that over the last few days it has become field burning season in Laos, the already hazy air is now thicker than ever and visibility is even worse, plus there seems to be a constant flow of ash coming from the sky! Not in my beer though thankfully.