1010 km (luang prabang).

laos is really beautiful.

and hilly.

i've been in luang prabang for the past few days after taking the two day slow boat from houay xai. this all came after two days of biking from luang namtha on a brand new (hilly!) road (built by the chinese, intended to connect china and thailand, but still without a bridge over the mekong into thailand, so largely unused). i stopped at the village of nan phe on the way, finding a place to stay by making sleeping gestures to everyone i saw until a lovely family took me in. we made baskets and ate cucumbers. it was nice.

biking through laos has been really great, despite the hills. both the people i've met as well as those i just see as i pass on my bike have been so warm and friendly. there are small villages every ten minutes or so along the road, and often groups of kids come out to the road yelling sabaidee! (hello). sometimes i even get a high five. it's pretty great.

luang prabang has been a nice break from biking. i met two german women on the slow boat who introduced me to their swedish friend who grew up in laos and speaks both laos and thai. he, and the four laos bartenders we met through him, have been great guides over the past few days.

on the slow boat from houay xai.

there are lots of waterfalls around luang prabang. this was the first we visited - tad sae.

after this photo was taken, i got in.

bathing elephants in lower tad sae.

returning from the waterfall.

this morning i biked out to kuang si waterfall which was just spectacular.

after this photo was taken, i got in.
are there other ways you can pose in front of waterfalls? maybe i'll have to think of something more exciting.

tomorrow morning i'm going to start heading towards vangvieng, which will probably take about three days. i'm hoping to stay at an organic mulberry farm a bit outside of town, and exchange my mulberry picking expertise for free room and board. we'll see how that goes.