This town once had a reputation as a major party destination, with drugs available in the restaurants and bars, and many accidents on the river.  Not somewhere for children…  It’s been cleaned up though, and we were one of many families here!  The town itself is touristy and uninteresting, but the surrounding mountains and rivers make this a great place for some outdoor fun on a budget.

Day 121: Heading to our Christmas wonderland – Vang Vieng

Our morning pick up was super straight forward (and actually early!).  We’d gone with the minibus option as there’s not a lot online about the local bus, I’m not even sure that there is a direct one, and it takes something like 8 hours, whereas our minivan was 4 hours.  It’s Christmas Eve, so the 8 hour possible local bus ride didn’t appeal. 

Our minivan was packed, and they had to fold down the two extra seats in the boot space to get everyone in!  The poor chaps in the back were boxed in with suitcases and had a backpack which kept falling on them.  They laughed through the whole thing though. 

The minivan was officially the nicest we’re ever been in, comfy leather seats, wooden floors, air con; all the mod cons.  We’d read people’s stories about travel sickness on route as the road winds up over a mountain range and the driver is on a serious mission so were a bit nervous, especially when Aiden said he felt sick as soon as we got on, but he was fine once we got him by the window. 

The ride out was bumpy due to the speed, and being at the back, the kids and I were thrown around quite a bit (not as much as the chaps behind me!), but that was actually more fun than anything. 

Chris and I spent the whole time looking out the window as the stunning countryside just kept unfolding.  We passed through small towns and villages, crossed rivers and wound through farmland, all with the green hilly backdrop of Laos. 

Then we started to climb, switching back and forth up some very high gradient roads.  Pretty much the only traffic through here were lorries and minivans, with the odd local pickup shipping things (mainly people) around.  The lorries are literally moving at walking pace up, and running pace down, so there’s a lot of overtaking required around the bends.  At one point we had a double overtake going on with one from either direction.  They just about got around before both directions met!

The trees gave way to highland scrub and grasses; land with few people.  We continued to climb, before finally starting our descent.  This was also painfully slow, made worse by sections of the tarmac being covered in crushed rock, seemingly where landslides had covered the road and been mostly cleared.  Large rocks sat in the road, freshly fallen perhaps?  At one point, the road was briefly gone, as a bulldozer did some repairs in front of us.  We waited until it pushed a flat trail through the mud and rock for us before bouncing through it and carrying on.  The driver seemed nonplussed by it all, I guess he’s seen it a thousand times. 

We finished the journey on flatter roads, surrounded by steep karst outcrops on either side. 

As he refused to stop to let us off early, even through they were driving past our place 10km north of the town, we arrived in Vang Vieng around 4 hours after we left.  The reason for the rushing?  He was filling straight back up and heading back to Luang Prabang with barely a 5 minute break!  Yikes!

Having seen nowhere to eat as we passed our resort, we decided to eat in town before checking in.  Shouldering the bags, we set off for the town, but stopped in the first restaurant we saw.  It was rather basic, but the price was right!  The food was ok too, with cheap drinks 😊.  We didn’t get food poisoning from it, but I was glad we didn’t order a salad as there were flies all over the uncooked veg…

Around this time we realised that there was no sign of the sunglasses case so headed back to the bus place to ask if they could get the driver to look for it.  The poor ladies had no idea what we were after initially and thought we wanted bus times.  Luckily I had my sunglasses as a prop, and using Google Translate and some re-enactment with a chair, I think they got that the glasses were on the bus.  They tried our driver and he promised to look in 20 minutes at the lunch stop.  We had to wait. 

I took advantage of the wait to go on some Santa business trying to find Aiden some Banana Bread/muffin as he loves the stuff.  Despite seeing it everywhere in Luang Prabang though, the café’s were devoid of any banana creations so I had to settle for some normal biscuits for him.  Back at the bus station, the bus was too full for him to look properly, so the driver had promised to check when he got home that evening.  We’d need to come back another day. 

A tuk tuk got us to our expensive resort, which was pleasant enough, and was probably very nice when it was built.  It’s looking a little shabby now though.  Still, at least the scenery was stunning, the outlook from the place was nice and it was peaceful. 

It’s a bit out of town though, and there is no food here other than breakfast, so we had to use the (free) shuttle to get into town for dinner.

Vang Vieng is nothing like Luang Prabang.  The town itself seemed to exist purely to cater to the hordes of tourists here, mainly westerners and the Koreans!?  The streets are lined with cheap buildings, all either a restaurant, a guesthouse or a tour shop.  There is so much choice here it’s ridiculous – we struggled to pick somewhere to eat and so somehow ended up in a cheap sandwich place which shows Friends episodes on repeat.  Not very conducive to good family conversation as the kids started at the TV the whole time and I struggled not to turn and watch.  I love Friends!

Walking back to the free shuttle, we stopped in at JTP tours as we’d read good reviews about them, and booked in our post Christmas activities. 

Day 122: A sunny Christmas day

Definitely our strangest Christmas ever today.  Possibly the worst too, not that it was a bad day – it had a lot to live up to!

The present opening didn’t take long, and the kids were great as we had no wrapping paper.  Instead we’d stuffed some in socks, and wrapped some in leftover coloured paper from our crafting.  We’d put them all in a plastic bag each so they couldn’t see the bigger ones.  There was no moaning or sadness about the measly 5 tiny presents each, instead they spent ages amusing themselves by feeling the bag and trying to work out what everything was.  At least that stretched it out!

With no tree, we had made some decorations in Luang Prabang from the paper we managed to find.  Evie decided to decorate a backpack, which seemed rather fitting, so we spent the morning before breakfast finishing our decorations and making paper chains. 

Breakfast was not our normal full English like at home, but it’d do.  Can’t say I’ve ever eaten breakfast outside on Christmas day either!

Back in the room, we tried to re-create another family tradition by drawing our own Ludo board and making some screwed up paper counters. 

Then it was out to town in the shuttle to try to find our Christmas lunch.  With a ridiculous number of options, no budget and each of us wanting something different we ended up in a pretty cheap restaurant which I’d seen the day before and knew did pretty much everything that we wanted.  In the end, the kids both had a pizza, Chris had Carbonara and I had a jacket potato with cheese and beans.  This sounds odd, until you think that I haven’t had a jacket potato, beans or cheese for months!  This is the first place we’ve seen them.  I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. To add to our list of Christmas firsts, or even to the list of first in general, some cows wandered through town past the restaurant…

Back home to find the rest of the family had finally woken up so we could call them!  Hours of Skype calls interspersed with some Christmas films later it was bedtime! 

We’d stayed up to catch all Chris’s family when they got together for lunch, so it was really late and the kids were tired by the time we put them to sleep.  Evie had a little meltdown about missing family.  Skype calls didn’t help today – they just made her miss them more! ☹.  She wants us to slot in a trip home somewhere…  perhaps when we’re in the Middle East?  Hopefully she’ll be feeling better tomorrow…

Day 123: Cave Tubing and Kayaking in Vang Vieng

Today we’d opted for a group tour of a couple of the caves to the North of Vang Vieng, including the Water Cave, where you can ride on a ‘tube’ (large ring) through the flooded caves, the Elephant Cave and then a kayak down the river.

Our pick up was a little late, but that didn’t seem to matter as we only had one thing to fit in before lunch, and that was tubing in the Water Cave.  The area was pretty busy with tour groups so seemingly we had to wait for a slot.  It wasn’t an awful place to hang out though, with zipliners to watch, the river emerging from the cave with tubers coming out and the usual mountain backdrop. 

We were a little worried about the coldness of the water, as it was coming from a cave and at only 10am we weren’t nearly hot enough to need a cold dip!  People emerging seemed very wet, but didn’t seem that bothered about it, so we took that as a good sign.  The last time we saw people coming out of a tubing trip through caves was in NZ, and they were shivering and looked pretty miserable!  Not this lot!

We had some issues with the lack of child gear, so the life jacket was huge on both, especially Aiden, and we had to overlap it.  We didn’t really need them for this, as the water was never more than knee deep I don’t think, but they kept us a little warmer and drier (and provided extra padding in the caves when we were crawling through the rock tunnels).  The helmets were also massive.  I have a  tiny, child sized head, so had the same issues as the kids, not being able to see anything because your helmet has slipped forwards.  Haha.  Still, it’s around 80p for entry here and to tube, so you can’t expect too much!

At the mouth of the cave, where the river exits, there are loads of rings, and ropes heading into the cave mouth…

Even though I wholeheartedly disagreed with them when they said the water was warm, it was bearable after the initial cold bum shock!  Using your arms to pull yourself along the rope, you move through the cave tunnel, watching the rocks as they unfold in the headlight. 

Our tour group was around thirteen people, and we’d followed another group in, so the going was pretty slow like a traffic jam.  There were so many people in front of us!  Luckily, we were at the back, so turning around we could see the pitch black nothingness we’d come from and shine our headtorches down the passage. 

Around halfway down, our group split off from the other and beached so that we could walk (crouch walk) into a cavern and follow another river back.  There were some really good rock formations here, including one which looked like a chain of skulls from a distance, well, I thought it did anyway! 

Then it was back to the tubes, where we had to walk a bit as the water level was too low for us to float.  More floating and we were at the end of the tubing bit.

Time to turn around and go back.  This time we were in front, with Aiden leading.  The ropes take the shortest route, so take you very close to the rock walls in places.  It was like abseiling sideways with our feet on the walls 😊.  Evie saw a spider when we were nearly out, and said as much.  She’s not bothered, and we weren’t bothered, but some in the group were and screamed! Oops! 

After our cave fun, we emerged to find a family we’d bumped into a couple of times in Luang Prabang playing on a tyre swing, trying to kick piles of tubes down.  Ours were delighted, especially when we were told that we had to spend 40 minutes here whilst some of the group went ziplining.  They had a great time; so happy to have other kids to play with!

Chris and I sat with our toes in the river, being nibbled by fish, watching the kids and chatting to one of our group from Hong Kong.  Then lunch was served before we were taken to the next cave, the Elephant Cave.  It’s close by, and pretty underwhelming, a pretty standard cave monastery with some Buddha’s and a large ‘Buddha footprint’.  The reason to come here is slightly around the corner, a rock in the shape of an elephant!  It’s pretty good too, and totally natural. 

Next stop, the river bank, further down the road towards Vang Vieng.  We think we had around 4km to paddle to a site near the southern end of the town.  Whilst the river flows fast in the wet season, in the dry season it’s slower, but much lower and riddled with rocks which creates its own problems!  Where the river widened, it became more shallow and looked like white water as it flowed up and over the rocks.  What’s a little confusing is that it also looks choppy when rushing through the deeper channels so you’re constantly wondering whether what you’re headed for a rock or the safe channel!  The first boat with a guide led through these sections, but was often 50m ahead as the boats strung out a bit so it was hard to follow if you weren’t right behind.  Especially if someone else went wrong as you were generally following the boat in front.  Aiden and I stuck to the guide through the first couple, and it was funny to turn around and see everyone else zigzagging around when I knew we’d taken a pretty straight course along the side.  It turned out Chris and Evie had gone for an overtaking manoeuvre part way through and the others were following that – haha!

With only a few sections like this, the rest of the time was spent drifting downstream, enjoying the mountain scenery and trying to stay away from the guides’ boats as they kept splashing people with their paddles! 

Aiden and I managed to stay clear, luckily we are pretty adept on a kayak so could escape!  Quite a few of the group had not kayaked before and were sitting ducks as they hadn’t mastered steering.  One boat capsized in their desperation to join in the water fight!  They were trying to go really fast, but were out of control and couldn’t steer properly so they crashed into another boat and flipped Themselves.  Muppets!  Luckily the river is very shallow most the way at this time of year so they could stand and climb back in – it’s not so easy when you’re out of your depth!

We arrived back in Vang Vieng and drifted past all the river restaurants and bars before beaching.  The bridge across the river to our place was visible, so when they said they’d give us a lift over to our place we thought they meant the bridge.  We had all our bags with us as we’d checked out of the nice but expensive Christmas resort and were moving to a much cheaper option.  They’d been looking after them in the tuktuk all day.  When they started unloading our bags we were confused.  Then we realised they were putting them in the kayak and ferrying us across that way!  Like a water taxi.  I was nervous, as I really didn’t want a bag to go in, but they are seriously good on a kayak and we were never in any danger of capsizing. 

Once on the other side it was a short 300m walk down a super dusty path and over a wobbly wooden footbridge to our place.  Maylin;s Guesthouse is ok for what we’re paying.

After chilling for a bit, we walked back out to the river bank and up the river side to the bamboo bridge to cross into town (the bridge next to us is a toll bridge so we declined!).  At this end of town there’s an area slightly up a hill, looking out over the islands and over to the mountains.  The slightly elevated height makes it an awesome spot to watch a sunset during dinner.  Watching the hot air balloons go up to see it from the sky made us excited for tomorrow when we’re doing the same 😊. 

The walk back in the dark revealed a totally different scene, with the whole riverside lit up by the bars and tables.  Then we couldn’t find our bungalow at the Maylyn – there are too many paths here!  After wandering a bit we did find it.

Day 124: Hiking up Pha Ngern and a hot air balloon ride!

Time for another big day.  We tried to get up and out early, but the breakfast was super slow coming out – how long does it take to fry an egg? 

We wanted to get out early as we planned to walk up Pha Ngern, which promised to be about 8-9km walk, with the first couple of km on the road to the base, and then straight up from there with the assistance of ropes and bamboo ladders. 

Evie surprised me by saying that she was actually not not looking forward to the walk, which is a big improvement!  Completing the 14km walk in Chiang Mai a couple of weeks ago has given her a lot of confidence apparently!

The road walk was in the sun, but we managed to get this done whilst it was still cool, and the day seemed fairly cloudy once the morning mists had dispersed.  Unfortunately, we seemed to have picked a particularly poor day for visibility, and the hills were lost in haze. 

Along the way we were overtaken by numerous tuktuks with Korean (?) tourists heading out.  Many seemed to stop in the numerous buggy companies along the way and headed out, presumably to other caves and the lagoons? 

We were greeted at the start of the gravel track by some young boys, who were clearly fascinated by us, but also nervous.  They all followed us down the track, with the smallest one seemingly bringing us a flower branch he’d picked.  Except when Evie went to take it he wouldn’t give it up!  They were singing and messing around – we have no idea if they were laughing at us or made us part of some game but we provided them with some entertainment for a few minutes!

A couple of men are sat at a hut near the start of the trail and charge you for a ticket.  This seems to be the way in Laos – enterprising locals find a spot that tourists like and charge you for entry.  They seem very unofficial!  Still, we got a printed ticket (which was mainly in Loatian so could have said anything!) and wandered around the corner where a boy came out to check out tickets – rather pointless!  Perhaps they think that whilst you’re paused there you may spy their drinks and snacks and buy something. 

Time to start the climb, and you really get stuck straight in with steps heading up into the forest.  It’s supposedly only around 750m up to the first viewpoint.  I don’t know how true this is as it seemed longer, but then going uphill is always slower.  The path was certainly interesting, and we didn’t feel like we were climbing.  Much of it is almost scrambling, with the use of this bamboo bridge ladder (don’t use the wobbly handrails!) and ropes up through rocks.

The first viewpoint is a short detour from the main path and is a proper scramble up rocks – all four limbs required here!

Our exertions were rewarded with lovely views back down the valley.  It seemed we’d picked a particularly bad day for the dust (/smog or whatever it is) as long distance visibility was poor though.  We could hardly see Vang Vieng and it was only a couple of km away! 

There are locals here, with drinks available to buy and a roofed shelter to sit in and enjoy the views.  I’m not sure who brought all this sawn wood up here but it must have been quite an effort!  There’s also one of the buggy’s up here which must have been airlifted – it’s so random!

It took nearly 10 minutes to get back down the main trail as scrambling up is always easier than climbing back down.  There were some big steps too – the ropes came in handy.

As soon as we set off up to the second viewpoint we bumped into our friend family from the USA/Kazakhstan coming down.  We have to stop meeting like this!  They informed us that the sign stating this was 400m further on was very wrong and that it was hard.  At least we were now aware!

They weren’t lying.  The climb continued to be tough, over rocky terrain, using trees and rocks for balance and using the provided ropes to haul ourselves up.  Nearly three hours after we’d left the bottom, we arrived at the second viewpoint and the top of Pha Ngern.  Phew!  Again, we lamented the lack of a clear day, but we could still appreciate how high we’d climbed.  Well done kids!

After taking it all in for a while we started back down, it was getting very close to lunchtime.  I wasn’t allowed to mention that word or Aiden said he would realise he was hungry and lose energy.  Evie had her sights on food though and motored down. It only took us an hour even though it was so steep! 

Arriving back on flat land for the first time in hours (seriously, I don’t think any part of that path was flat!), we made our way back to the road and headed back, looking for a restaurant for lunch.  On the way we had a rather sobering reminder that we don’t have tuktuks in England for a reason (besides that it rains and we’d get wet and cold) when we saw one with the front all smashed up.  Looking back into the truck on passing, there was a fair amount of blood on the floor, and a face mask which was drenched in it.  Scary stuff – hopefully superficial wounds rather than anything serious. 

The Valhalla restaurant was soon after and proved a great spot for lunch, with hammocks for the kids to play in and the kids favourites – chicken and pork fried rice!  Chris and I were more after a cold drink, and then realised we were hungry too. 

The walk had taken us a lot longer than anticipated, so we only got back to the guesthouse at around 3.  This only left us with an hour until we had to be on the bridge to meet the tuktuk for our next activity – hot air ballooning!! 

The bridge is an old wooden construction, which creaks as you cross it and has some planks which need re-nailing.  There are also some nails which need to be rehammered, as Aiden found out when he fell over on the bridge for the second time (!) and caught himself on one.  Poor lad.  He properly face planted, adding a head bang and a grazed elbow into the mix.  He got up covered in dust.  I really don’t know why we bother washing his clothes at all!  Or him for that matter! 

The tuktuk was waiting when we arrived and took us straight up the road, where we picked up a couple of others, including a lovely Spanish lady we’d met on the trip through the water cave a the day before. 

We were taken to a field just north of Vang Vieng, where there were large ground sheets spread out and they were just starting to roll out the balloon.  Aiden soon perked up and forgot his tiredness and injuries as he watched them start up the massive fans and start to inflate the massive balloon. 

None of us have ever done this before so it was pretty exciting to watch it go up, and see how they do it.  Once it’s been mostly filled with air by the fans, the burners in the basket (which is on its side at this point) are turned on to heat the air and the balloon quickly rises before being held by the weight of the basket.  There was a team of around 10 men working to get just this one balloon up into the air, and as soon as our balloon was inflated they started to immediately work on the second. 

We were loaded into one third of the basket with another young couple, and other people were in the other end.  It was impossible to talk to them though over the noise of the burners.  The heat from the burners was massive, and we were glad of the metal roof above us which deflected most of it.  When you leaned out beyond it you could really feel the heat. 

With us all in and the burners on full, the men held the basket, guiding it as it started to lift from the ground, presumably making sure it didn’t tip over on the uneven ground, or get blown into the tuktuks before it gained enough height.  They needn’t have worried today.  There was almost no wind so we went straight up. 

It’s a very strange feeling watching the world drop away beneath you.  I have no fear of heights but the first look over the edge once we were pretty high did make me feel a bit funny because there was nothing below me to hold me up!  It was exciting too though so I quickly looked again!  The kids, including Aiden, were not bothered by the height and happy to look down.  No fear there!

With a fair few clouds in the sky and a lot of murkiness, the views across to the mountains were probably not as good as they could have been, but it made for a pretty atmospheric sunset.

The balloon reached its maximum height, we all enjoyed the serenity of floating and the gorgeous views, and then we started to descend.  Our 30 minutes was over which was disappointing.  Except that this was where our fun really started!  With very little wind (although the balloon which went up after us had shot over across the river somehow) we had not moved far, and the trucks awaiting our descent in a large area which looked like an old airstrip running through town soon had to move when it became obvious that we were not going in that direction.  We were following the river instead, so they moved off across the river.  It was fun watching to see where they went and where we might land therefore. 

But we didn’t cross the river, we flew very low over the town along the riverside, passing over the roof of our sunset restaurant of the night before, looking at all the places we’d been and waving to all the people taking a picture of the balloon passing so low over the town. 

Then in our path was the tallest building in Vang Vieng (or this part of it anyway) the Amari Hotel.  A rather furious burn was required to lift us up and over it and we headed back up into the sky again. 

Meanwhile, the other balloon which had gone up after us was also trying to land, but there are more fields on the other side so they dropped height quickly and landed in a field. 

Our trucks had moved again to spot south of town which we actually seemed to have some hope of landing in.  We lost height, and were coming in quick, but the expert team of men, running around trying to work out where we’d land and not fall over, caught the basket and guided it down for a pretty smooth landing, and then held it when it tried to keep moving.  Nicely done all. 

Whilst we were sad it was over, we had had a long enough go, and the landing excitement was great.  I had initially been disappointed that the sky looked so murky, and that we’d be flying over the town, but that really added to the enjoyment for us – I really don’t see how it could have been better 😊.  Is there a better Christmas present than this?  The kids thought the ziplining had been better.  I think all in all, although the kids opened about 5 present each this year, and they contained Pringles and Oreo’s and some cheap toys picked up in markets, the addition of the ziplining and the hot air balloon made this a rather great Christmas for gifts!

Rather than getting a lift back, we wandered into the town to look for some dinner, and then realised we weren’t that hungry after our big and late lunch.  So we headed back for baguettes at the guesthouse.  But then we passed the little restaurant/bar seated area place on the river.  It’s hard to describe, but there is literally a wooden jetty built out along the bank, with low tables and some wooden seats you can pile up to your required height surrounded by fairy lights.  You are literally sat with the river flowing past and below you.  We decided to stop here for a quick drink and half a baguette each, we could top up in the guesthouse later.  A pleasant little place to stop. 

Then it was back down the dusty unlit road on the bank, over another rickety wooden bridge and into the guesthouse.  We will all sleep well tonight!

Day 125: Onwards to Vientiane

As there was no space at the Maylin for us for another night, and we couldn’t face the thought of a third place to stay in Vang Vieng we decided to move on and booked the 1.30 bus for a change from the minivan.  The minivan is quicker but not as safe as they go at serious speed!  We were in no rush. 

We spent the morning chilling, playing and on admin, and met Toby from England.  Nearing 50 he was quite a character and a self confessed alcoholic.  We spent some time chatting to him about places in Laos as he comes here often; particularly discussing the seedier side of things!

We ordered some baguettes to eat on the bus and walked across the bridge to our pick up spot for 1pm.  We only had to wait a couple of minutes for the tuk tuk to arrive, but then drove around town for 20 minutes picking people up.  We were dropped off at an almost empty shelter on the long strip which looked like an old runway running through the town.  1.30 came and went with no bus, then loads more people turned up with tickets for a 2pm bus.  Then more people turned up after 2pm.  A bus finally pulled up at 2.15 and everyone scrambled to get up and on board.  There seemed to be too many people for the bus and there were no signs saying where it was going.  Was this even our bus? 

We joined the throng of people, and left Chris to load the bags whilst the kids and I tried to get on and secure a seat.  We were right, there were not enough seats for everyone, so they put the final 10ish people on a minibus.  We could only assume that they’d decided to combine the 1.30 and 2pm buses due to lack of uptake and somehow got their sums wrong? 

Ah well, we were nearly an hour late in departing but we had no plans for the evening, and had our lunch with us so it was fine.  What was sadder was that most people immediately closed the curtains and fell asleep – seemingly a super skill of the east Asian people is their ability to sleep anywhere!  We’ve seen this many times – they even fell asleep on the tuktuk to the hot air balloon yesterday!  It was only about 10 minutes!

With the curtains closed it was hard to see out of any but mu own window.  The scenery was flatter than above Vang Vieng, although a ridge still followed most the way down on the left.  The road is patchy in places as they continue to upgrade it which slowed progress.  Legroom was reasonable though.

There was a small climb up through some hills, but nothing on the scale of the journey into Vang Vieng.  At the rest stop we picked up some mini ice cream tubs for 40p each and carried on. 

After this the mountains left us and the volume of towns and houses increased. 

Finally arriving in Vang Vieng at around 6.30pm, we walked the 400m to our guesthouse and then headed out around the corner for dinner.  Which was pretty good in the end.  The kids wanted fried rice again, but we talked them into sharing some other meals with us, and tried the Laos fried pork, chicken curry and fried veg.  All of which the kids enjoyed.  It made a nice change!

Back in the room, which was a triple but had a queen bed and two large singles so plenty of space for us, we started our war against the mosquitos.  With the room seemingly sealed, we have no idea how or why so many were in our room, but we clocked 47 kills between us!  That is no exaggeration!  With the floor littered with the dead, we put the air con on so we could hide under the covers from any escapees…

We’ve got one day in the capital before heading down to the South of Laos, where the Bolvaen Plateau is calling.  Read about it here (coming soon) or head back to our favourite city so far, Luang Prabang.