White Water Rafting Pai, Trip down the Mekong, Laung Prabang & Vang Vieng

Ryan the Tiger prepares for his first White Water Rafting adventure on the river Pai (Thailand)

Getting muddy at the hotsprings on the White Water trip.

Crossing the border from Thailand to Laos.

The slow boat fromborder town of Haung Xai to Laung Prabang - 2 days on hard wooden benches - thankfully all the shops before the boat sold cushions!!

Lots of small boats along the Mekong.

Nice views along the way to keep me occupied with some photo's!!

One of the many villages the lined the route.

Boat Parking at Pak Beng where we stopped for a sleep before the 2nd days journey.

Locals waiting for the slow boat to stop so they can use the 'cute kid factor' to sell their stock.

At least you know the fish was fresh!!

Ryan the Tiger meets a fellow traveller that he can relate to and compare stories of thier human mascots!

We arrived at Luang Prababg just before sunset and this is the view over the Khan River.

Next stop was the Night Tribal Market around from the hotel - lots of beautiful handmade crafts (and yes I did eventually give in and buy far too much!!) but it was all too much for this stallholder.

Luang Prabang is one of the most pleasant relaxing cities I've been to so far - it is full of old colonial houses and temples and is very laid back.

I met Silke (from Germany) on the boat trip and we've been travelling together for a bit as heading in the same direction - she takes almost as many photo's as me so neither of us feels bad holding each other up for a good photo opportunity :-)

Ryan The Tiger steps in Buddha's Footprint but feels he can't quite fill it yet!!

Ryan the Tiger is happy to meet the Novice Monks and swap cultural differences.

A traditional Lao Ballet.

Cooking lunch outside the family shop.

Whilst within the shop the baby has a snooze.

A nameless Watt (well I couldn't work it out as it wasn't on any map or guide book!!)

Having a bath.

The monks do the odd jobs around the Temple grounds.

Every morning in Luang Prabang at 5.30am (yes I did get up that early!)the monks have a procession around the town to collect 'ALMS' - people (mainly locals or Buddhist visitors) sit on the street with a basket of food (normally sticky rice) and give a handful to each monk that passes.

Once the monks have passed the young novices get what's left!

A big bug I found on the crisp shelf in the shop.

Silke and I did a 2 day trekk out to visit some of the hill villages near Luang Prabang.

Working in the rice fields.

Xio (our guide) and Silke crossing a river - all the bridges had been swept away with the rain.

The K'mon village where we spent the night. No electricity though some of the houses have generators but they have to turn them off by 10pm.

These kids loved getting their photo taken.

During the day most of the adults are out working on the fields and as it's the school holidays the kids just run around playing in the village with whatever they can find to entertain themselves.

This little boy had made himself a car from a plastic water bottle.

This lady is eating paan - usually this is a mixture of local herbs etc and tobacco which I have seen in most of the countries I've been to so far.

Even the teenagers are smiling :-)

On the way to work in the fields.

Having a smoke.

Happy Families.

And another kid.......

Main Street!!

Ryan the Tiger made a new friend - who wasn't so keen to see the friendship end!

Everyone in the village wanted their photo taken (and no you haven't seen them all not by far!). When we were taking someone's photo we would turn around to see another 2/3 people waiting and looking eagerly until we asked if they wanted their photo taken as well.

Robbi & Marta (from Italy) and our guides enjoying a drink after a days trekking & photo taking - as you can see from photo's life in the villages pretty basic and the kids run around in rags but everyone I have met seems well fed and content.

I enjoyed the trek but I was glad I only went for the 2 day option here as the monsoons made for a very wet and muddy couple of days.

But it was nice to reach this waterfall and have a swim. Next day I caught a bus to Vang Vieng, constant rain for a couple of days made the 6 hour journey through windy hill roads even longer due to various mud slides - the one in the photo had just happened so we had a 21/2 hour wait for the local villagers to clear the road - glad I was reading a good book!

But the locals make use of natural resources to keep dry.

Just after I got off the bus in Vang Vieng I passed this petro station - yes that is an elephant getting refueled!!

On the official map Vang Vieng is listed as a 'chill out' town and backpackers come here mainly to go caving/rafting/kayaking and tubing (down the river in the inner tube from a tractor tire) the town itself is pretty uninspiring and after several days constant rain the river was flowing far too fast with too much debris from the many bridges/houses that had been washed away for me to go anywhere near it. So I went cycling instead and enjoyed the scenery.

Vang Vieng is surrounded in hills and paddi fields.

This poor guy was trying to rescue his rice crops from the flooded fields.

More flooded paddi fields.

A pig under a blanket - maybe they were keeping it warm for dinner!!

Would you get your hair cut here?

When the rain has scared off all the tourists there is not much left for the tuc tuc drivers to do but through up their hammocks and go for a snooze!

Robbi, Marta, Phillipe, Stephan and Silke - we all travelled in the same direction down to Vang Vieng having met in Luang Prabang. At least we managed to find a resteraunt to have dinner that wasn't playing friends!!

I think the photo's pretty much tell you what I have been up to over the last few weeks. I am enjying Laos it is such a friendly country - the people here smile more than anywhere I think I have ever been. It is more developed than I was expecting and the towns/cities I have been to don't have much sign of poverty (which I was expecting) though as you saw in the photo's life in the rural villages is much harder. Heading further south in Laos and then over into Cambodia next as too many landslides to go back north and straight to Vietnam.

I hope that all is going well at home and that you all have something nice planned for your summer holidays.

Jack xxx