After the crazy boat ride down the Mekong River, we had to unwind in the beautiful Luang Prabang. We had met some people from the boat and we hung out with them more for a chat over a quiet drink by the river rather than some crazy nights out. Luang Prabang kept us busy all day exploring the temples and the surroundings of this gem city of Lao.

Vang Vieng, another popular destination, is a small village by the river that’s rapidly becoming a backpacker’s heaven. As Nikos explained to me, since he was here six years ago, it has changed completely and is much more touristic. For me that I saw it for the first time, I must admit that it wasn’t that impressive.

At this point we had to leave the North Lao and head to the south, to “Si Pha Don” (4000 islands in Lao). It’s a huge opening in the Mekong River with 4000 islands. Some of them are uninhabited and some others are just small tropical stretches of land in the river. In most of the books it’s called the eighth wonder of the world. One thing is for sure. In this place you can see the pink sweet water dolphins, so just the encounter with this rare species makes it worth a visit. Add to that the beautiful waterfalls with the small light blue water swimming pools under them and you really feel like you’re on the seaside although far away from the sea.

We stayed in Laos for twenty days but I think you can easily spend a month exploring this country that’s full of surprises. Now we’re heading back to Bangkok to catch a flight to the Philippines. My next posts will be from there.