R&R in Luang Prabang

A very pleasant place to spend pretty much our final days of this trip, Luang Prabang is very relaxed and scenic, and has excellent food to boot :) We're loving the Beer Lao, and after joining a 3 day trek, we've got some friends to knock around town with. The sun shines every day, and in the evening it's cool enough to wear trousers and still sit outside with a tasty dinner. The temples here are fantastic, and the local monks are talkative - yesterday, we had a monk explain to us the different horrific things that will happen to us in Buddhist hell if we drink alcolhol, harm other animals or commit adultery. Amongst the gorgeous gilded bas-reliefs of the ancient temples were graphic depictions of the hellish consequences of gathering bad karma in this life.

Also, a friendly chap with the same camera as us has helped us out of the automatic modes and into the full manual mode - we've had some satisfying results too. The local waterfalls here were a perfect subject for longer shutterspeeds, and the sunset last night was a great chance to practice metering the exposure with sharply varying lighting. All good :)
The same chap has started his own website - www.guesthousereview.com - which has great potential as a source of up-to-date info for travellers. We've begun posting reviews for all the places we've been staying on this trip :)

did you know....

....that in Pokhara, Nepal, the streetlights have switches on them so that you can turn them on or off as you walk by?

Leaving Krabi

Got a long wait before a sleeper train from Surat Thani to Bangkok, but there's usually an ADSL connection nearby here in Thailand :)

We had a couple of closing experiences on Ko Tao before we left, one good and the other bad. Bad one first - we thought outr bungalow was pleasantly bereft of vermin, but on our last night there I surprised a rat that was hiding amongst our bags. Horrible. It esacaped down a hole in the floor. That night, I was woken by the sounds of the damned thing scrabbling around and squeaking right next to our bed... time to check out! The good experience was our last day's diving - excellent visibility at the first dive site, around 15 metres, and at the second dive site we saw a Titan Triggerfish right at the bottom of the anchor line. Beautiful. Felt like we were swimming in a huge aquarium :)

Since then we've been in Krabi. Krabi town itself is nothing fancy, but is actually a real Thai town rather than a tourist hole, so we liked it. Stayed at a fantastic little guest house where we paid 200baht a night (just under 3 quid) for a double room with shared bathroom. We managed to go climbing for a couple of hours, and made the most of the only really clear and sunny day to relax on Phra Nang beach and explore the West and East Railay beaches. Overnight to Bangkok today, then on to Camobodia!