All by myself

I left Nikki in a scummy hotel room early Sunday morning. It was sad saying goodbye, but I'm glad to hear she got back okay and is enjoying being back in HK. I was meant to meet Joel in Luang Prabang but there was a mix up with his bus journey so, I was heading north on my own. I was a little worried I wouldn't meet anyone because it can be difficult to meet people when your traveling alone but luckily, as soon as I had left Nikki I met Kristine who was also heading to Luang Prabang so I had someone to talk to on the long 11hour journey.

When we arrived we checked ourselves into a nice, clean hotel with a hot shower and big bed, it was such a luxury compared to the crappy places Nikki and I had been staying in. We went for dinner and had a look around the night market where I wanted to buy everything!!

Luckily Joel had managed to sort his bus out quickly so he arrived in Luang Prabang the next day. It was great to see him again and exchange stories, but we are missing Nikki's presence (we have no one to take the piss out of now). We spent the day walking around the town, shopping and relaxing in all the little cafes.

Luang Prabang is a gorgeous town filled with modern resturants, bars, temples and shops selling handmade jewelry and crafts. It's surrounded by the Mekong river and big green mountains, so it's absolutely beautiful! It's very peaceful and laid back here. There are lots of young children and teenagers attending Buddhist school and training to be Buddhist monks, so the place is filled with young people wearing orange robes doing their duties around town.

We met Kristine for dinner and treated ourselves in a nice French resturant with a bottle of wine (definately not on the backpackers budget!)I'm so classy now Nikki's left me! Despite the name 'Crazy Bob' the wine was delicious, especially after not having a glass for months! We went to Lao Lao bar which has an awesome beer garden, where we met Alex and Karl.

As usual, 11.30 came and the music stopped and it was last orders. There is a national curfew of midnight here! Quite a shock to someone who is use to seeing the sunrise most days. Apparently the place to go after midnight is the bowling alley, so we made our way there. The bowling alley was packed with travellers and was more like a dodgy night club than a bowling alley. After here we decided to head to the only club in the town, which was filled with young locals (we were the only westerners in the place) and they were playing terrible Lao dance and pop music, so we didn't stay for long.

I woke up early today to meet the boys at the Swedish bakery for a yummy (but very unhealthy) breakfast. Despite the hangovers, we hired bikes for the day to explore the town a bit more. We stopped off at Xieng Thong temples, a courtyard with five pretty temples on the Mekong. Even though I've been to see a thousand Buddhist temples, i'm still amazed at them all as there's always something original about each one. These temples were very funky, quite hippy-like actually. They were brightly coloured and full of beautiful, colourful mosaics, inside and out. Joel called them the 'party temples' which is a perfect way to describe them. I loved them!

We stopped off at a couple of little antique shops which sold gorgeous jewelry and lots of buddhas! One of the guys in the shop taught me alot about the buddhas, so now I want to buy them all (Nikki look out for a large package heading to the flat!) We stopped off at a funky bar for stuffed crust pizza (what a treat!) and beers (probably not the best idea whilst riding a bike).

This afternoon we went to a temple at the top of a huge hill, it was a difficult climb! But worth it for the fantastic views of the town and the Mekong at sunset.

I'm off to the night market again now...if I continue shopping like this I'll be back in Hong Kong with Nikki in no time!

xx