second night in the guesthouse I get a smaller room with balcony overlooking the street and the river beyond it, nice. The town sits on the meeting point of Mekong and     river which I did some good exercises in, running and swimming against the current, happens to be rather smelly due to sewer discharge! Met with Dave and El at the guesthouse and join them on a waterfall visit. There was also a black bear sanctuary before the waterfalls and a rope swing where you jump off a tree about 3 meters from the pool, holding onto the rope and let go when you reach your highest point, second worst part is climbing the slippery tree to get to the rope, this is new one for me and I was apprehensive. is trip I am facing lots of things and trying out new experiences.

Louang Prabang has lots of lovely temples and I visited a few. I also crossed the rickety bamboo bridge  across the river, before 5 p.m you pay 2000 Kp to a woman at the bridge, she has built it and it tends to get flooded in the wet season and in the little settlement beyond I see Emersons English school which seems quite well attended.

Town is sweet, I stayed far too long, 8-9 nights, lots of walks in town, food at the night market, where I bought pair of cotton trousers and a nice clothes trousers and top. I also walked to the Phousy market and bought a ivory and a black top, both same style long sleeved, quite nice, I look very slim! On the way back had a pretty good hair cut at a very basic looking barbers.

Half way down the main street there are various food kiosks and fruit shake stalls where I spent a lot of time chatting to many people: spanish couples, American paranoid, Japanese girls, it is a good socialising spot.

One evening ended up at Utopia, nice bar and met up with some Irish guys amongst others and ended up drinking some Snake drink (jar of cobras and sometimes other animals such as scorpions covered with strong rice wine), stuff is awful, only managed half bottle between 11 people. We then visited a bowling alley which is the only place serving alcohol after 11 p.m the games werent too bad either.

One of the couples we met there ran into some trouble with this French guy who has setted in town for about 20 years and is doing them a "favour" getting them cannabis, he is pretty deranged and came back into town with us hanging off the back of the tuktuk. the guy who got himself into trouble and had to be rescued is an idiot too and is still moaning about not getting some cigarette paper!

Had a few pool games at LaoLao bar with Matthew, English guy , after watching a film at the local book shop where foreign books are available and tends to be a meeting point for travellers.