See you soon Thailand..

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So the border crossing into Laos was the fastest so far no problems at all. We caught a little boat that took 2 minutes from Thailand to Laos. We were glad that we already had our Laos visas sorted as when we arrived, a girl had been stood waiting for 30 minutes to get her visa processed but the official had told her to wait as he was taking a nap! It was so funny he was just sat at the desk with his head on the table having a nap with her passport at the side of him; so near yet so far! Now we know what people mean by Laos time!!

There was not much to do in Huay Xia; lots of cafes and shops selling supplies for the 2 day boat journey that most people do from here to Luang Prabang, which we too are doing. We ended up in this café expecting a chilled night in preparation for our big journey tomorrow. Instead we ended up playing cards and drinking with some English, German and Aussie people until 2 in the morning, which was a good laugh. When we arrived back at our hostel it was all shut up and we thought we might have to spend a night on the bench outside but the woman eventually woke up and let us in.

The next day we got the slow boat, we had heard lots of horror stories about it being cramped and a nightmare but other than the fact we had a hangover and was late to meet Dan (the same guy that Dim reminded me I had asked if he was gay to which he replied NO – me and a few beers not a good combination) a guy we promised to meet it wasn’t too bad at all. The scenery on the boat was amazing and it was great to see Laos people getting on with their daily lives at the side of the Mekong; I think we are going to like Laos. We spent a night at a half way point in Pak Ben and didn’t do much other than eat and sleep, well tried, but these young oz guys were playing drinking games outside till late – we have never done anything like that!

Then it was back onto the boat for another full day; this one was a lot more cramped and took ages to set off but we had ok seats and again there was beautiful scenery so not a bad journey. The oz guys from last night were getting hammered first thing in the morning and surfing by the side of the boat – idiot, he splashed some Russian girls who went mad it was funny to watch but glad he didn’t soak me!!
We arrived in the expensive but quaint Luang Prabang at 5.30pm and I still felt I was on the boat until the next day!

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