tasha - i'm moving to luang prabang. sorry, everyone.

this place is beautiful. no, really - unesco listed it as the most beautiful city in SE asia - i can see why. i don't want to leave! it's peaceful, laid back, gorgeous, and compared to thailand, relatively untouched by tourism. the kids play in the parks, the people have beer along the river (the laos people - not just tourists in beer lau t-shirts), they play bocci ball, they chill out. the laos people are fan-tastic.

yesterday we just wandered about luang prabang, taking in a couple of temples, a short hike to a buddah cave, a fruit shake, a bit of market. we then headed to the night market and ate from the vendors, shea had some awesome chicken on a stick and i had some noodle soup i could sell my first born to have every day. i asked what one thing was and she said "dog". i said "pardon?" and she said "pork" and her and her friend giggled. johnny and jenny ate grilled baby birds - it was really quite gross. bobby beer offered to take me to a private dog BBQ, but no one else was game and i didn't want to go alone. i'd eat dog. i think ringo would be tasty. we were so tired (and slightly hungover) that we went to bed early. today we got up with the sun (almost) and went to this waterfall - bobby beer had set us up with it, it cost us about 8 bucks each to be driven out there and entrance fee - i actually think we paid a bit much for transport, since it costs only twice that to drive 9 hours to vienvieng. it was in this fantastic conservation park that had some asiatic black bears that had been rescued from a poaching/bile operation and a tiger named phet that had been rescued from poachers. then we hiked up to the top of the waterfall - holy crap, it was sketchy, safety be damned, just to see the view from the top really wasn't all that great. so, all sweaty and gross, we clamoured to the bottom of the falls again and found a trail that led us to the most beautiful swimming holes - waterfalls, cliff jumps, rope swing - it was awesome, all into (cold) turquoise blue water. we swam for a couple of hours then headed back for a nap.

now it's sunset in luang prabang, the last one we'll see here. i love this time of night in SE asia - it's warm and dusky, and the people are lively. it's incredible. shea and i have decided we're determined to make it to siagon for christmas, so we're heading to vientiene tomorrow to get our visas sorted out, then make our plan from there. that is if we ever hear from tracey and le, who are organizing it - no word so far, and i'm beginning to get nervous. either way, we'll be in vietnam for christmas, maybe on a beach near mui ne instead of saigon, but i hope that the orphanage thing pans out, i've had my heart set on it for weeks, and now shea is excited too. cross your fingers.

off to eat some "pork", woof woof.