Slow Boat to Luang Prabang

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Over to Laos. The morning after my last entry the group from the bus headed to the Thai-Laos border. Everything at the border went extremely smoothly - most likely due to the very efficient lady at our guest house who had arranged our visas the night before.
Although we had woken up at around 7:00, to catch the '8:30' slowboat...we were still at the boat terminal at 11:30, waiting for the engines to start. The boat was full of 'pharang' - or white people (ignorant rich people, that is). Once the boat left the border town, the views around us were amazing. What an amazing part of the world I'm seeing.
The slowboat trip is a great way to get from Thailand to Laos, but the keyword is definitely SLOW. The first day we spent about 6 hours on the boat, sitting on hard wooden benches. To entertain ourselves Gavin, Michael, and I tried to come up with games. I also tried to chat with as many people on the boat as possible. There was a good group of young travellers there, and everyone seemed to get along really well.
That night about 20 of us went to find accomodation together. I ended up sharing a room with the two English girls I had recognized from Pai (Charlotte and Alex). When we had first crossed the border, some Laos people had tried to convince us to get accomodation in advance...for 300 Baht. Luckily we didn't fall for the 'there might not be any rooms available' scam, because the room we ended up with cost 60Baht!
That night was a good laugh - all of us went to eat at an Indian restaurant and then we splashed out on some Samsung (this is disgusting whiskey that everyone drinks here). Although we had fun, I think most of us didn't reckon the Samsung was a good plan for the night before a 9 hour slowboat journey!
I think I would have been happy with a single day slowboat trip. The next day was a lot tougher, especially on the backside! The worst part of the second day was that I was counting on it being identical to the first. On the first day there had been lots of stops where we could buy snacks and drinks....however, on the second day there was not a SINGLE stop for food. This meant I had to make due with a single sandwich for 9 hours. Tough.
At around 6 we finally arrived in Luang Prabang. Instantly our group was surrounded by a bunch of men shouting about accomodation. Our 20 odd group decided to go have a look at one of them. Sadly, once we got there we realised the boy had been lying, and the price had all of a sudden DOUBLED, and there were only 4 rooms available! So those who were most anxious to take showers took a room at the Sok Dee Guesthouse, while some boys went in search of cheaper accomodation. Charlotte, Alex, and I took off our bags and sat down, waiting for the messenger boys to return.
They returned with good news of cheaper accomodation, and so the remaining 6 of us picked up our bags and walked around the corner to our accomodation. Once we were there, we relaxed for about half an hour. When we were about to head out for dinner, I looked for my bag...but I couldn't see it anywhere. I had a quick search of the room,...but I couldn't see it anywhere. I few frantic moments later, I took James along with me to go look in the Sok Dee Guesthouse. I was sure it would be sitting in the lobby of the guesthouse. But it wasn't.
At this point I began to get a bit scared for my bag. I went back to my guesthouse, looked through both or our things (Charlotte and I were sharing a room), came back to Sok Dee - had a few words with the management. I even went back to the slowboat, although I was certain I had had the bag at Sok Dee. I think the most frustrating point about this was my urgency mixed with the lack of understanding from the Laos people. The communication gap had never been more aggravating.
By that evening I accepted that, more than likely, my bag was gone, and with it I had lost my passport, camera, and about 50 pounds. The next day I made a trip around the guesthouses and slowboat once more before heading to the police station. There I made a statement to the police, and they promised to look into the matter. However, they also did not speak english very well, and instead of reassuring me they would try their best to find my valuables, they laughed in my face. I wasn't quite sure about the reason for the laughter, but I was certainly not amused. I left the police station extremely angry and on the verge of tears.
Walking down the street I recognised the man coming my way as the same man from Liverpool I had met earlier in the day who had told me about his previous evening when he had fallen (and gotten stuck) into a deep ditch. I told him about my anger at the police, and in true English style he said we should go for some tea. At this point the rain started. It started as a bit of drizzle, but in a few seconds it was POURING. We could have waited under the safety of a tree, but decided it would be much more fun to run along the streets of Luang Prabang soaked to the skin.
When we arrived at the bakery where the Liverpudlian (Ed) knew they served good tea, I was shocked at the welcome the staff gave him. They all seemed to know him, and when he ordered two teas, they knew to bring him two PINTS of English Breakfast. It was about 2:30 when we started drinking tea. We did not leave the tea shop until they closed at 23:00!! And I can truly say it was one of the most entertaining days I've had - the bakery is on a prime spot in the center of the main road in town - so during the day our friends kept walking by, and each would stay for a bit of a chat before heading on their way. Ed and I DID have plans to go to the internet, and go have something to eat....but somehow the hours went by!! At 11 we decided to head down to the Hive Bar with a few of Ed's friends. Ed ended up going back to his guesthouse early, but I stayed and went with his friends to the Vietnam Bar where I met all my slowboat friends! The Vietnam Bar turned out to be a bit of a drunken affair, and since I hadn't been drinking that much, I decided to head home early and get some sleep (especially since I had to wake up early to see the police again).

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