Laos!

OK, so we haven't got the updates up as quickly as we'd hoped - you should know by now that continental drift looks fast in comparison to us...

Anyway, here's Laos, our favourite of the three countries. We started in the centre of the country, at Luang Prabang. Just down the road there are some lovely waterfalls and rockpools. Here's a pic of a pool we swam in - it was freezing!




The town of Luang Prabang was full of beautiful temples. This one is a quite recent addition, built to house the Prabang Buddha that gives Luang Prabang its name.

One of the old houses we visited was built by a pool filled with hundreds of water lilies. Craig took hundreds of photos, thank goodness for digital cameras!

Wat Xieng Thong was another of the many temple complexes we visited in Luang Prubang. All of the temple buildings were ornately decorated with paintings, glass work and gold leaf carvings.

And one last decoration - Craig (!?)

While we were away, we had the living room at home redecorated...

...No, not really (I'm sure we had you fooled!), this was Wat Mai, yet another stunning temple! Here it is from the outside, complete with backpackers on bikes.

The local hillside is covered in golden buddhas. As Craig had been particularly naughty, he felt in need of a blessing...

Actually, they seem to put buddha statues everywhere. 4 hours of travelling up the Mekong river and what did we come across, yep, a cave full of buddhas!

While we were out in the countryside, we visited a local village, full of such mod-cons as ventilated roofs and underfloor storage... Actually, the poverty was a bit of a shock, especially when it came to the local cuisine - live grubs!

Next we flew down to Vientiane, the capital - and probably about the size of Salisbury! It did, however, have hundreds of temples - I bet that came as a shock! Here's Wat Sisaket.

One of our highlights was the That Luang Stupa, a huge golden stupa. From a distance it looked amazing, although up close it was actually rather grubby!

Being a former French colony, Laos specialised in huge cakes and gateaux. This scene is reminiscent of Craig most evenings...

Coming soon (possibly)... Cambodia!