We've made it to Luang Prabang!

The journey from Vang Vieng was like most bus rides we'd taken so far. Bumpy, long and winding.
We were another 6 hours crammed in a minibus to get to our next destination. Again a short distance of only 120kms took us hours because of the accents and descents through the mountains.
The drivers here are wild that's for sure. I'm not sure how they have the guts to zip around corners at the speed they do- but they do it.
Everytime I get into a bus, I assume its the last bus ill ever ride. No guard rails on the sides of any of the roads. Even when there is a 300 meter drop into a valley right below. I could picture the bus loosing control and barreling over the edge. I knew this would be a difficult thought to make reality. But alas we survived the ridiculous roads and dangerous drivers and made it to Luang Prabang.

The one thing that is so much nicer than Laos is how even the 'big' cities are not as polluted and built up.
So far Laos has been beautiful. Not only are the people nicer and more helpful- but they also seem to be much cleaner which is nice.

We jumped off our bus and onto a tuk tuk which drove us into town. We quickly found a guest house to stay at and settled in. By this point in time it was nearly dinner. We decided to explore the city a little bit, and then find a spot to eat.
After dinner we were right in time to see the famous Luang Prabang night market.
Now this was cool.
Just as the sun sets everyday, the main street is shut down, and people come and setup their tents for the night market.
Here they sell anything and everything. Some of the most beautiful hand made jewelry, clothing, bags, musical instrument. They are selling teas and coffees. Everything.
Steve and I walked the streets for hours until people starting packing up their merchandise and taking down their tents. Though we didn't buy much of anything is was very cool to look at all the both and try to barter with the locals.

The next morning we decided to simply explore the city and see what it had to offer. Luang prabang has something like 120 temples and watts around and we would definitely go explore some.
One in particular was the most impressive and famous- and once we were there we could see why.
It was some 200 steps to the top of the temple. But from there you could see the entire city including the river and watch a beautiful sunset.
After our climb we sat up top the temple for a couple hours. We met some fellow canadians and chatted to other travelers for a while and then made our decent.
We found a super yummy place to have dinner and ended up ordering our best meal to date! (Vegetable curry with coconut!!!).
We walked through the night market on our way home and practiced our bartering skills some more (successfully!).
Tomorrow we would have a more adventurous day exploring waterfalls and the likes!