food later on. It has to be said, Laos food is some of our most favourite food in southeast Asia, it is almost like a cross between Thai and Chinese. We had a great meal at one of the many restaurants that hug the riverbank and topped off a great meal with a couple of beer Laos’s, a fantastic way to finish a great day!!!

We had really gotten into the chilled vibe of Laos by this point and we weren’t in a great rush to do anything but one thing we did want to see before we had to leave was Wat Xiang Thong or Golden City Monastery, Laos’s oldest Wat. It was a pleasant walk up to it and we were pretty blown away by the place. Now we’d seen a lot of temples and Wats in the past few months but this place was special, it was built in 1560 by King Setthathilat. Thankfully this Wat was neither razed by Chinese marauders or over enthusiastically restored therefore leaving it as close to how it

should be! The roof is just the most incredible roof I have ever seen, you need to stand a good way back to get it in your full eyes view, its elegant curves seem to overlap each other and sweep down to almost ground level. The walls are decorated with stencilled gold motifs each telling its own story. There is also some fabulous purple and gold mirrored mosaics which looked marvellous in the bright sunshine. This is definitely a very distinguished, most beautiful and peaceful place, a real treat for us to have seen.

We woke up fairly handy the next morning and finally realised that it was our final day in Louang Prabang. We had got our tickets a couple of days before for our slow boat trip to the Thai border. We thought it would be a good idea to do a big walk on our last day then at least we would feel tired for our 8 hour boat ride!!! In fact it is 2 days of 8 hour boat rides, so we guessed the