24th December – Luang Prabang, Laos

Well it certainly doesn’t feel like Christmas here.  In LP there is almost no hint of it at all, not even a plastic Christmas tree.  So I don’t know what tomorrow will be like, maybe just like any other day.  The temperature here varies a lot.  I went out enthusiastically this morning in my shorts imagining the cloud would burn off and we’d have another scorcher.  But no, it stayed cloudy all day with a cool wind coming down the Mekong.  I’d been chatting at breakfast to this sweet middle-aged gay couple called David and David (must be confusing for their friends).  They told me where I could get a boat ride to a cave stuffed with statues of Buddha.  I feel I have already seen enough Buddhas to last a lifetime but I fancied a boat ride on the great river.  When I got to the riverbank there was a nice Singaporean man and his wife and daughter desperately looking for two more people to make up five so that we could rent a boat more cheaply.  Being on my own I wasn’t much good to him but along came three young Dutch people who made our party 7.  We spent two hours getting there and an hour getting back. 

Going upstream against the current the wind was really quite cold for all of us, including the chap steering the boat.  The cave was none too exciting we all agreed but it was pleasant to be on the river.  In celebration of Christmas I have bought myself a bottle of Australian Pinot Noir for the very reasonable price of 90,000kip (about £7) so I can’t argue with that.  I’m spending this evening reading and listening to Verdi (through my wonderful tiny portable speaker) in my cosy hotel room.  I plan to treat myself to a fancy lunch in one of the more up-market restaurants tomorrow.