Luang Prabang

Having run away from Vang Vieng before I got too tempted to buy lots of drawing pins and make my own amusement we headed to the very French town of Luang Prabang. The town, like most in Laos, is set on the banks of the Mekong and is one of the holiest places in Laos with Wats and monks everywhere. Inbetween all the wats are little arty shops selling handicrafts and lots of cafes serving up Lao coffee and cake. The town is also home to the biggest night street market in Laos (I’m guessing there isn’t many others though) which is full of locals selling handmade goods (I really wanted to say tat but that just seemed rude!), slippers, aprons, t-shirts, bags, scarves…and so on – problem is they all seem to sell the same stuff – so I may be completely wrong but it just seems like its mass-produced tat (there I said it!) for tourists more than the work of some hardworking creative slipper makers in a local village nearby! It seems the tubing crazy from Vang Vieng has hit here as well, but instead of drunk western gap yearers its local kids laughing and splashing one another as they float past monks cleaning their robes on stones at the side of the river. The town itself somehow feels a bit more grown up than the rest of Lao, a bit more established and with the times – probably to do with the number of posh French people we saw wandering around – god, I sound so intolerant of people, first western kids and now the French!! We had decided to spend a few day around my birthday cycling the nearby roads and exploring a little so we needed to check out all the bike shops in town trying to find ones that were up to the job. Having finally done so and asking the owner to fit racks on the back for bags and sort us out with a little emergency kit, puncture repair, tools etc we were ready to go…