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evening!
Yesterday was the day we left Thailand and headed for Laos. Breakfast was at 7 and then we left about 0745. We drove through the village in our large tuk tuk,, stopped off at the 7/11 for water and scooby snax and then headed for the border. Silly me had mislaid my exit paper work for leaving Thailand, but they gave me a new exit form to complete so I could leave the country.
Once through the Thai side of the border we had to pile in a bus complete with purple curtains and accessories lol. It was a bus for everyone crossing from Thailand to Laos. There were various groups of travellers some young and some older and some local crossing the boarder.
We then had to fill in the visa application form and entry/ exit form And then queue up to get processed And pay the $36 for a visa it's one dollar more on a weekend to pay for the overtime lol.
So,after sorting out the visa I changed up my baht to kip and now I'm a millionaire! Well not really it's just i
got about 14m kip for my 6k in baht. Our current tour guide Pet said we needed about 1m kip for the time we would be in Laos. 6K baht is about £120 if that helps.
Once through border control we got into another tuk tuk style form of transport, all piled in the back with our bags loaded on top. We then headed back to the Mekong river to take our slow boat to Luang Prabang via Pak Beng where we had our overnight stay. We stopped off in a village on the way to,get some beers as it's Fliss's 19th birthday today and we wanted to celebrate.
It was taking a boat for a change. No traffic jams, use of horns, crazy driving etc, just a nice sedate pace along the river looking at the lush green countryside and seeing small villages and random huts along it's bank. Although there was a breeze it was still very hot even in the shade.
When we arrived at the boat we were joined by 3 girls Alex, Georgia and xxxxxx Two of them had been travelling for a while and one
had recently joined them for a few weeks. They all looked about 18 or so and probably heading off to Uni in October.
We had lunch around 1pm rice and sticky rice which is exactly as it says on the tin and you just have to pull a chunk off with your fingers, fish goujons, green soup which was a clear soup with cabbage or Pak choi in it, another kind of soup with carrots, potatoes and some kind of meat and a dish of some kind of veggies in a sauce. All very nice followed by water melon and bananas. Flo came out of the kitchen with a small chocolate cup cake with candles and we all sang happy birthday which was lovely and Laura had bought her a Barbie fashion designer toy as a little silly present bless her.
After lunch we played a game of who am I where some one writes on a piece of paper the name of someone famous they give it you, but you don't look at it and stick it to your forehead then have to guess who you think it is by asking questions so
you can suss out who it is, and cheat with cards and then we all chilled out and got some shut eye, bodies strewn all,over the seats, which by way seem to be seats from van or cars and mini buses lol. All very random.
We arrived at xxxxxxxxxxx which is a small village on the river. The accommodation was ok clean ish with semi comfy beds and wet room but you had to,hold the shower head to,use it as there was no notch on the wall.
We all met up at 6.30pm for dinner and then headed off to the restaurant. after ordering we all sat chatting and then realised it took nearly an hour and a half for the food to arrive! When it did arrive it was very nice but I had lost my appetite by then. Before we ate Pet a bottle of Laos whiskey which is white and tastes awful I have to say, and leaves a very warm feeling in your mouth and throat for a few minutes. I only had a small shot and that was enough.
After dinner we continued our chatting and
we were then joined by some people Laura knew from previous hostels and parties etc so we all got chatting. We offered them our Laos whiskey some took the challenge and others declined. The bottle also came around our group again, but it politely declined. I bailed about 9.30pm as I was knackered and I knew I wouldn't get a decent nights sleep as there was no AC again grrrr just a ceiling fan again!
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