Rolling down the river

We left Pai on Friday morning. On the Wednesday night we went to a bar where a fantastic band - mixture of Thai and Ferang (foreigners) played - Paul described them as Asian Kila and that's about right - there were a plethora of instruments - guitar, Bongos, Skin Drum, Didgeridoo, Bouzouki, Greek lyre, mandolin, Thai flute - anyway , they were great. The next night we went to a place just across the road where a 3 piece band played the hits of yesteryear and today with great enthusiasm and dubious lyrics.

We were up early the next morning to get the bus back to Chiang Mai, from there we got another bus to the Laos border (6 hours). The town there is called Chiang Kong - a tiny wee village where we booked into a place for the night and headed out to find out how exactly we get to Laos. By complete chance we stopped at a restaurant and the guy there chatted to us for a while about what we needed to do and then promptly did it all for us including Visa applications etc. All of this for a small fee and then he picked us up the next morning, gave us breakfast, a packed lunch (!!), brought us down to the border and pointed us in the right direction. He even had a guy to meet us at the other side of the river and tuk-tuk us to the boat. Brilliant!

The immigration department in Laos felt a bit like Ellis Island- everyone clambering to get at the window and no rhyme, reason or order to who was being served first etc. Luckily we already had all of our forms in our sweaty little paws so it wasn't too torturous.

The boat was basically a long sailboat with wooden benches, a disproportionate amount of life jackets and a small snack bar. Off we set on our two day journey with lots of other smelly hippies and one old westerner with a remarkably young Thai girlfriend. Yuck. The first days journey was about 7 hours and included magnificent views of both Thailand and Laos - buffalo drinking from the river, children washing/playing, fishermen etc. The journey itself was hot, sticky and uncomfortable but there were plenty of people to chat to and at one stage we were hijacked by snack pirates - a band of little children with crates of beer, pringles, cakes etc who just shouted prices as we all shouted lower ones back etc etc until a princely sum was agreed upon. The engine also cut out several times as well as the boat stopping for deliveries and pick ups along the way but then it is called the Slow Boat. The other option was a speedboat but at least one person a year dies doing this so we chose slow over death. Our helper was able to tell us that 19 Irish lads had been drinking till the early hours in his bar the night before and were all heading off for the speed boat that morning - fingers crossed they made it!

We arrived into Pak Beng that evening - anther small port village where the whole boatload of us got ferried to hotels and offered weed and/or opium about 10 times in the first hour. Our hotel was lovely and very cheap. We went out to a local restaurant and then for a few beers - at around 11.15 all of the lights went out - this is a nightly occurence - and stayed off for the night. Our host at the bar was generous enough to give us a candle to take with us but sadly a) we still couldn't see our hands in front of our faces
b) The skies opened and a torrential downpour that was to last all night began in earnest.

It's a daunting and oddly thrilling experience to run as fast as your mosquito bite ridden legs will carry you in the pitch dark and torrential rain! We were soaked and giddy by the time we, somehow, got into our hotel and felt along the wall for our room. We misjudged and walked in on some poor German guy who didn't know what hit him. Giggling like schoolchildren we eventually found our room! We managed to apologise to the bewildered German the next morning - he didn't seem too upset.

Off to the boat again for another day of sailing - this time we got lucky and with about 12 or so others we got quite comfy chairs (I think they were old car seats) although they were beside the engine which was loud and steamy. The people in this part were all chatty and lovely so the time went a bit quicker - we were also treated to a domestic between an Israeli couple which was amusing if a little odd.

We arrived in Luang Prabang at around 6.30pm and were bombarded by people offering accomodation - we got into a tuk-tuk which was held up for about 20 minutes by.....the Israeli couple who couldn't decide whether they wanted to go in it or not. We got dropped off at one place that we didn't really like and so decided to get another Tuk Tuk - the driver of this one, we have decided, had wandered out of a home for the bewildered and hijacked the vehicle. Before he turned on the engine he stared at us blankly for about 10 mins as we pointed, in vain, to the map and where we wanted to go. He would nod and smile benignly but never move. After a while he turned on the engine and moved off at a rate of about 5 miles a fortnight - bicycles were overtaking us. He stopped at one point to tell us we needed to pay him, although we had done that about 40 seconds earlier. He nearly killed several pedestrians (they too moving faster than us) as Paul and I laughed and grimaced intermiddently. Eventually we just told him to stop and he did - about 5 minutes later. We found a wee place to stay run by an old couple - it was nice apart from the fact that they lock the door at 11.30 so you have to be in at that time! Now, there is a curfew in place in Laos and everyone is supposed to be home by this time (mental) but this morning we found a place that lets you in no matter what time you arrive home. Although the pubs all close at 11, there is a bowling alley that stays open till 3 so I reckon a lot of people from the boat will be going there tonight and we will be joining them. The curfew was news to us so we think it might be a recent thing. Everyone on the boat seemed to know about it though...

We're going to go book ourselves a rafting or kayaking tour for tomorrow - there are caves, waterfalls etc a plenty around so that should be fun. We might go swimming at a waterfall today too....

Anyway, we're safe, well and breakfasted and into country two of the big adventure!Trying to adjust to new money and language but struggling on regardless.

Love to all,

Triona & Paul xxx

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