Expect more climbing on the way to Luang Prabang. Following a 20km descent, there is a 15km climb, followed by another long descent, and then a long undulating section leads you back down to Mekong. Coming the other way would be much harder I expect. Along the way were more friendly villages, and no shortage of sai-ba-dees. Although it is nice, I wasn't particulary blown away by the beauty of the Mekong Riverfront in LP. I have heard it talked up quite a bit over the years, but maybe in the dry season its a bit lack lusture. In the surrounding streets you can find some nice spots to relax for a while. Not wanting to part with much cash I focused most of my energies of finding out if rabies vaccine was available anywhere in town. I eventually tracked down a refrigerated packet of vero-rab at a local clinic. I will return for this on the 16th, and it will save me almost 40 hours of ardous bus transit back and forth to Vientiane.
Petanque remains the sport of choice, but probably due to a lack of internet and other electronic entertainment Lao kids seem particularly active. I have seen them playing hopscotch, badminton, pentanque, petanque with shoes (mainly in remote villages), cycling, chasing tyres with sticks, boating, climbing in trees, picking fruits, spear fishing, hunting with bow & arrow amongst other things. They always come running from all directions when a falang cyclist approaches, and the other day when I rode past a school they all lined up at the roadside to high-five me as I went past. I am assuming this evolved due to the large number of cyclists passing between LP & Vientiane.
Expect more climbing on the way to Luang Prabang. Following a 20km descent, there is a 15km climb, followed by another long descent, and then a long undulating section leads you back down to Mekong. Coming the other way would be much harder I expect. Along the way were more friendly villages, and no shortage of sai-ba-dees. Although it is nice, I wasn't particulary blown away by the beauty of the Mekong Riverfront in LP. I have heard it talked up quite a bit over the years, but maybe in the dry season its a bit lack lusture. In the surrounding streets you can find some nice spots to relax for a while. Not wanting to part with much cash I focused most of my energies of finding out if rabies vaccine was available anywhere in town. I eventually tracked down a refrigerated packet of vero-rab at a local clinic. I will return for this on the 16th, and it will save me almost 40 hours of ardous bus transit back and forth to Vientiane. 
Petanque remains the sport of choice, but probably due to a lack of internet and other electronic entertainment Lao kids seem particularly active. I have seen them playing hopscotch, badminton, pentanque, petanque with shoes (mainly in remote villages), cycling, chasing tyres with sticks, boating, climbing in trees, picking fruits, spear fishing, hunting with bow & arrow amongst other things. They always come running from all directions when a falang cyclist approaches, and the other day when I rode past a school they all lined up at the roadside to high-five me as I went past. I am assuming this evolved due to the large number of cyclists passing between LP & Vientiane. 
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