Laos - Luang Prabang

Ladies and gentlemen,

As I promised a very good friend of mine this post will be in english so he can read along as well.
So here we go...

As of today I'm traveling alone, my companion Tina had to go home because of medical reasons and I bet she's waiting in Bangkok for her flight home right now.
Tina it was nice traveling with you, get well soon and don't forget to peek around here once in a while.

Today was another traveling day and I just spent 9 hours in a mini bus to reach Luang Prabang.
Normaly the ride should only have taken 7 hours but due to circumstances and one dead chicken it became 9 hours of sitting on my bum and enjoying the view, I also managed to get my right arm sunburned, it's looking as red as my bloodred T-shirt because I constantly held it outside the window like a real Johnny (yes, sometimes my macho-side gets the better of me).
Our driver drove incredibly slow and my guess is that he was either a student driver or the troubles with our brakes were the cause of this slow speed.
A littlebit over halfway we finally got those brakes fixed.

So I had lots of time to enjoy the view as we drove and I must say it really was stunning !!!From Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang we had to cross the mountains so we U-turned our way up and down to here, all those lush green valleys and mountain peaks created a wonderous view.
We passed lots of mountain villages where we could see how the "normal" Laos people live.Most of them are farmers and they live in wooden or bamboo huts with absolutely no luxury at all. Most of them don't have running water, their furniture is limited to a large platform that serves as a bed for the whole family and as a sofa at the same time, kitchens, bathrooms and toilets as we know them don't exist at all, the only luxury they all seem to have is satelite TV.
These people even wash themselves outdoors in rivers or streams.Their livestock wanders freely around; cows, buffalo's, chickens, pigs, ducks, goats and dogs.
No way to tell who they belong to and I really 'd like to know how they catch a chicken when they want to eat it.
All animals look scrubby and live of offal and what else they can find.
What surprised me the most is the huge amount of children running around in this country and how much their parents love them.Each village has it's own school which the children attend wearing a kind of uniform.
After school they help their parents doing chores, gathering food or whatever.
All in all the Laos people lead a very simple live but also a happy one I think.

Luang Prabang is the former capital of Laos and protected by Unesco (just like Bruges).
I haven't seen much yet because I arrived so late but I like a lot what I've seen up till now.
I'll update you in my next post about more Luang Prabang details.

Big hug and cya laterz alligatorz