OnTheRoad

Now located in Luang Prabang, which I'm dubbing the city of smoke and ashes. Slash and burn is underway on the hills and mountainsides nearby and the sun can be looked at safely with the naked eye from about three in the afternoon, there's that much smoke in the air. Looks pretty cool though! The ashes occasionally drifting out of the sky aren't so cool. Check out an underexposed photo of the sun if you're keen.

Had an interesting ride up here. We intended to catch a sang theaw up here, but gave in and flagged down a bus instead. One of the local busses, rather than a tourist one. Peter and I were the only tourists on board, which was kind of cool, and definitely something novel for the natives. Very crowded though - we ended up sitting on little plastic stools put in the aisle. For an eight hour bus trip. I was almost in a trance by the end of it, it really didn't seem to take that long :D For a brief glimpse, see the movie. It may not work right - I had to chop it off half way through - net connection so slow here :(

You could really see the slash and burn in action on the trip though. The land between Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang is pretty much exclusively mountains, with the road winding along just below the ridgelines most of the way. Many fires everywhere, great stretches of land burnt clear. Not much planting going on yet, the rainy season being months off yet, but I imagine it will look beautiful and green in five or six months. I've got some photos to show you, but I'll get them up later, just dropping in to update things at the moment.

Went and saw the Kuang Si waterfalls yesterday; every tout in the city is trying to get you to go there, but it really is quite cool. Lots of photos to upload here. Basically a large series of pools and waterfalls, with cool, refreshing water (a rarity here) to swim in. Heaps of people there, but the area is quite large, so it doesn't feel to crowded.

Not sure what we're doing today - rumours of an abandoned monastry on the other side of the Meekong require further investigation I suspect.