Our eighth visit to Laos

30 January
So we left our faithful friend Spock behind, with his wonky ear and determinaton to accompany us on every outing, and set off to Siem Reap via Phnom Penh. It was lovely to spend a few days with good friends Roy and Veasna, who moved from the devastation that is Sihanoukville up to Siem Reap last January. They've settled in well and have a lovely apartment - despite the loud funeral that happened to be going on over the road, which made it difficult to fully appreciate what is normally a peaceful neighbourhood. Visits to various bars were made and numerous games of pool were played.
Just a hop and a skip on the Monday via Lao Airlines and we were back in our beloved Luang Prabang, greeted by our Australian friend and landlady Sue and driven to the Greenhouse Studio, which feels like home.

Saying goodbye to our Bacoma hosts - Dara, Michael, Somnang and Shrenak

Siem Reap, Cambodia 

Amazing welcome bed art at our hotel in Siem Reap!

Bridge of baskets

The Siem Reap River runs through the middle of the town, but the water was worryingly low this year. Possibly a result of management at upstream dam 

Roy and Veasna

There are modern temples in Siem Reap as well as the famous Angkor Wat ruins

Happy days!

We treated ourselves to a hotel with a pool for the three nights in SR. It was lovely.

 Over to Luang Prabang, Laos

Frangipani (dok champa) is the national flower of Laos so it was great to arrive at the Greenhouse Studio, walk down the garden and find these blooms.

Our terrace - the tapestry hasn't advanced much since last year but I'm still working on it

This is one of our favourite spots for an evening beer. We call the bar "the ladies of the Mekong" (it's run by two Lao women). BeerLao costs 10,000 kip (87p) for a big bottle so it would be rude not to

And the view is delightful. The sun sets in just the right place on top of the mountain!

This is the Nam Khan River with seasonal bamboo bridge. Our house is on the opposite bank.

Big engineering works have been going on to shore up the banks of the Nam Khan and prevent erosion from washing away the peninsula on which Luang Prabang World Heritage Site sits

One of many

We went to visit the bungalows where we used to stay 5 years ago. The bourgainvillea is all that remains. Sad.

Curious perspective for this photo of the woman drying grasses on the roadside for broom making

Monks cleaning up around the local temple.

Sunset view of Mount Phousi, the temple-topped hill that marks the centre of Luang Prabang.g

We were pleased to see this week that Hissing Sid had returned to our garden. We didn't see him at all last year and feared that he had slithered off - or been eaten by our neighbours!

Such beautiful markings

One of the great things about travelling is the friends we pick up along the way. We first came across Mike and Denise a year ago while they rested on a bench at a small temple in Kep as we passed by. We've met up several times since and kept in touch and here we are enjoying a drink on the banks of the Mekong in LP.  

Yesterday we said farewell to American friends Jack and Kathy who left us with this "khandorkmai" which had been used in their baci ceremony (good luck for travellers). Marigolds are used as decorations in all sorts of celebrations

Some rather good random street art