20th June - Louang Prabang

For some reason last night was a restless night and so when the alarm went off at 5am, my desire to see the alms procession was overcome by my desire to get some more sleep.

We had arranged to go and spend some time at a waterfall with Sam and Nick last night and so met them around lunch time to take the long tuk tuk journey there.  There was a bear sanctuary there and though it was good to see the bears that had been rescued from miserable lives of 'dancing', fighting and general abuse, it was still distressing to see their repetetive and peculiar behaviours.

There were quite a few people swimming in the nearby waterfall and we watched people swinging from a tree into the water. I was particularly taken by a Japanese lady who did the jump wearing a pink rubber ring. I'm not sure the ring helped much as she hit the water because she came up looking rather shocked and disorientated.

After plucking up the courage to climb into the freezing water, I was glad to have the Isle of Wight sea shoes that Rachel bought me so I didn't have to cope with the sharp rocks underfoot too (Ta Rach!). After a short swim and a sit under the waterfall with Sam, we climbed back on to dry land and had a wander around some of the other waterfalls in the area.

The biggest waterfall had a path that led to the top of it and we decided to have a look. It was more of a scramble than a walk in places and although Nick skipped ahead like a monkey-man, the rest of us laboured behind. I was determined to get to the top and left Matt and Sam behind with my bags - it was a good job I did because I couldn't even hold my towel on properly and so ended up scaling the hill in just my bikini.

Much to my disdain, even though I made it to the top I could not get to the only bit where there would have been a view over the waterfall without wading through bigs pools of water and making my shoes all wet and muddy for the descent. Given how slippery it already was, I was glad that I hadn't. Especially when it started raining on the way down.

By this time Matt had decided to swim after all and slipped into a deserted pool near a smaller waterfall. After joining him quickly to wash off the sheen of sweat, we headed back towards the car park where the tuk tuk driver was waiting for us - along with some other passengers who'd ridden there on bikes and didn't fancy the ride back.

Due to the general problem of a lack of change that seems to plague anyone who sells anything in Laos, there was some confusion over money that meant that we nearly cheated the tuk tuk driver. Luckily, we'd stood for a while making arrangements and so were still only meters away when he realised the mistake. After lots more confusion and money swopping we were fairly sure that if anyone was out of pocket it was us and not him.

After a chat with my mum, we booked our bus and headed to the night market. This time we were late rather than early and so many stalls were packing up but this was probably for the best because there were lots of lovely things that I would have been tempted by. We have resisted many beautiful things so far but I did give in to a lightshade. It was made of real flowers pressed between paper and looked subtle and delicate. However, he way the flowers illuminated and glowed with colour when they were put near the light filled me with such emotion for my family that I'm amazed I ony left with one.