The busride to luang prabang seemed fairly long, but maybe just due to the fact that the minibus carried more passengers than it should have. Again going slowly on partially bumpy roads, through green & hilly landscapes, passing mostly small villages along the way. Upon arrival in town a hostel was quickly found just in time to watch the sun set from the banks of the mekong river. Had a pleasant evening walk around theBeautiful towncentre on Peninsula with its Colourful nightmarket (mostly textiles/fabrics, great choice of food & lao coffee). Drugs seemed to be offered at every corner, where the lights werent strong...
went to watch Sunrise from the temple on hill in the middle of luang prabang & afterwards on to  Rent a bike to go to tad se, a cascading waterfall literally through the forrest, in the rainy season that is. to get a bit of this feeling I went for a rivercrossing. Back in luang prabang it was time for a visit to the local phosy market, closeby an atm spontaneously kept the creditcard, yet everything was solved within a matter of minutes. Museum on the local ethnicities was closed as it was yyet another monday. During an evening walk it was obvious the day hadnt gone great for the streetfood vendors as there were heaps of Leftovers, later to be thrown away. It seemed a bit odd, on one side obese vendors & hours later people eating out of plastic bags found on the streets. Meanwhile a visit to a broadband internet cafe proved yet again to be very different perception of broadband...
on a Crowded bus through mountainous landscape, the journey went on towards phonsavanh. Along the way through Small villages the locals wealth visible no longer on SUVs but on material for construction of houses (rattan vs concrete), stopping many times to refill cooling water for brakes of hyundai bus. Many times garbage & plastic bags filled with vomit were thrown out of its windows. At the accommodation for the night, my fellow travellers & I were first presented the facilities, then the opium grown directly at the front door. Later went for a Market visit at phongsavanh.
next morning we Rent 2 motorcycle for 4 people, heading for the plain of jars, where ancient carved stones in the form of big jars were supposedly used for burials. On the unpaved roads it didnt take long to have a flat tire, but everytime help was only a short distance away. Aparts from the threedifferent archeological sites we drove to a dry waterfall & on the way back went to watch an old soviet tank. back to phonsavanh for watching the documentaries at MAG, an organisation that helps the locals in professionally clearing villages & farmlands from unexploded ordnance. (UXO).
over what first seemed decent, paved road yet halfway turned into bumpy dust road it was the following day on the bus to paksan. Nice mountainous scenery as we came down from the plain it got much warmer, dry rice paddies abound & saw an MAG team at work in one of the many villages., the bus was used by the passengers for shopping on the road & transportation of all sorts, incl. Live chicken, seemingly having endless capacities as it was following the windy path with a few washouts. in pakxan the bus transfer worked well & soon reappeared the mekong, bigger than ever,tree & corn farming plus else on its banks.
Close to takhek is a large karst area & one of the countries biggest hydropower stations, which can be visited following a route called the loop. For the next 3 days I was following this route through the beautiful scenery, visiting a number of caves of which a few are actually used as temples, passing odd areas of now flooded lands where dead trees are sticking out of the water, hiking through an insect-noisy forrest to a tall waterfall, seeing tabacco farms before heading to one of the biggest caves in the area & crossing it by boat & afoot.
On it was to savannakhet where everything of interesting seemed closed as it was monday, including tourist office & Dinosaur museum, however found a place with excellent vegetarian tofu dishes & best maracuja shake
At the late arrival in pakxe all hostels seemed either closed already or full. After quite some time searching Found a dorm with phone, a friendly host & tourguide.
closeby to town is yet another greater are that can be seen on a Loop, the bolavan Plateau, where tea & coffee is grown, the latter being filtered, served in espresso like quantity but of almost sirup consistence. The banana harvest seemed to be done with as there were many burns ongoing, often the root of a plant called mann, used for food & animals, was left in slices to dry in the sun on the roadsides.
returning to pakxe I Was asked for my advice in regards to marketing for the hostel (proud).
from there by bus & makeshift ferry to champassak to visit the 6th century khmer remains of vat phou in the heat of the day.
After a longer ride arrived in nakasang where the mekong is very wide & exist si phon don, the 4000 islands. took a boat at sunset on to don det & went cycling don khon in search for a place to stay.
To get to know the island I went cycling around don khon, got to see waterfalls, more dry rice paddies, crossed a collapsed bridge, learned that french had to build a railway system on these tiny islands when due to tensions with siam steam boats had to be transported past the (during dry season impassable ) waterfalls & rapids - by trains (back then the laotian road didn't exist).
what followed was a fun day of kayaking around the 4000 islands on the Mekong, where we paddled to waterfalls, some minor rapids & got to see a few river dolphin, watching from a distance.
Then a day of rest before setting off for cambodia.