Day 14 and 15 Sloooooooow Boat down the Mekong River and panic stations!

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So up bright and early this morning to catch the slow boat. The place we stayed was not great at all but such is travelling. When we got up we didn't bother with food decided to get that at the pier we knew we had to be at the pier early in order to get good seats up the front as the slow boat can hold anywhere from 70 - 120 people and we were going to be spending 14hours on this boat!

So when to this little place just at the pier ordered toast and jam and while we were waiting a little boy (local) just decided to stand on the table on pee over the side with his mother holding him...wtf but I guess that is just how they do things we are getting used to shrugging our shoulders and getting on with it!

Anyway plan worked we were ticket number 1 and 2 😊 so we settled in for the trip we had a four hour wait before the boat actually moved but it was grand we got chatting to a group of people who were sitting next to us and actually got really lucky with the seating arrangements we had 9 seats for 7 people and had nice room to move.

Just as the boat pulled out a group of 3 girls and 2 guys came up near up to sit on the ground and produced a bottle of watermelon Vodka and drank the whole thing they were really loud and obnoxious we wanted them to just fall off the boat but then one of the girls ended up throwing up over the side surprise surprise!!!

It was kinda cold and wet for awhile but we got over couldn't wait to get off the boat ! When we eventually got off the boat in Pakbeng, for the overnight part of our trip we ended up picking the same place as the group that we had been chatting to on the boat. There was Liz and Roy who were on there honeymoon this was their 3rd month of their trip. Stevo from Oz, Tall Paul from the UK and Byungkyu from Korea.

So we had dinner with them and then played cards all night. The game was Benny it was soooo much fun I won the 1st round so I was happy out 😊

We all agreed to get up early the next morning again to try and get the same seats. So we had breakfast at 7am then we were waiting on the back of the truck to take us to the pier, Stevo and Tall Paul were in the room and didn't realise we were waiting and then it started raining AGAIN! Within 5 minuets we were drowned not fun to have to sit in those clothes all day 😞

So we were successful in acquiring the same seats and we settled in for the 8 hour boat ride, it was pretty laid back most people were just sleeping and chilled.

UNTIL...about 3 hours before we were due to dock the boat pulled in, it had done that a few times along the way to drop off and pick up locals so didn't think much of it until we saw a man being carried down the hill covered in blood with a bandage around is middle.

There was a big commotion this man looked like he was about to die, he had a 6" gash on his jaw and gash from his shoulder to his elbow on his left arm and a hole (it is the only way to describe it) in his stomach.

So we shouted out for a doctor on the boat and luckily there was a doctor and a nurse who both spoke Spanish so they could communicate with each other. The family of the man got on the boat with some medical supplies they had saline and antibiotics but didnt know how to use them. The doc and nurse hooked up to IVs for the saline and antibiotics and but they needed to stitch the guy up so they asked everyone on the boat for any supplies turns out tall Paul had silk thread, iodine, gloves and bandages (all the things someone might need to save his life!) so he handed them over and they managed to stitch up his arm and suture his face and pack and bandage his chest wound. Within an hour they had him stabelised and he wasn't losing as much blood and he was a bit more lucid. So only another couple of hours till we got to port in Luang Prabang. When we got to port there was a tuk tuk waiting to take him to hospital and there was a big cheer on the boat. The man was blessed that we picked him up and there was a doc and nurse on the boat!

So anyway panic over next we had to figure out where to stay so we searched. The first place we went to was a DIVE no bathroom mould and one of the rooms even had a puddle on the floor! So the 7 of us kept on searching we eventually came across a place that had enough rooms for all of us, the 3 boys ended up sharing a room and practically had to sleep in the same bed!

Next was dinner, we went to the night market and when you go down this side street there is the food stalls for the locals. I got a whole fish on a stick BBQ'd it was amazing G got chicken which was nice too and then you could get all you can eat of rice and vegetables for 10,000 kips so after stuffing our faces we had a look around the market, we headed back to the hotel and then dropped off Liz and Byungkyu, who were going to bed, and the rest of us headed to a local bar for a few drinks nothing too mental and then we headed back to bed and straight to sleep! Up early tomorrow we are all planing to rent bikes and ride around Luang Prabang tomorrow.

Night all miss ya loads 😊

Rosie xxx

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