Luang Prabang

One thing about travelling that can be either great or awful is that you tend to see the same people over and over again. We left Chiang Mai with one group, met more at the border and more still on the boat trip. This time we’ve been lucky and have spent the past few days here with a bunch of really cool people. It’s almost impossible to lose each other as there’s really only one bar and one main street.

Today we decided to go out to the Kwang Xi waterfall. After we’d been shouted at by about a million tuk tuk drivers and one of the group had almost had a fight with one of them who’d been following us around, we piled into a minibus and went to see the waterfall. In the past we’ve sometimes been disappointed with attractions which have turned out to be nothing like the description in the guidebook. This was totally different. “This beautiful spot…features a wide, multi-tiered waterfall tumbling over limestone formations into a series of cool, turquoise green pools”. It’s hard to believe that it hasn’t been man-made to look like a ‘jungle paradise’. We dived off a rock into the pool at the bottom of the falls. It was literally breathtaking.

We had a wander round a temple perched on the hilltop with a spectacular 360° view of the city and surrounding area. That wasn’t the best bit though - on the way down there was a monkey jumping around and playing in the trees. Its owner came and chased it away from us. Next thing we saw it climb into an outdoor bathroom, then come leaping back out clutching a tube of Colgate toothpaste, which belonged to a slightly bemused monk who came wandering out after it.