Boating on the Mekong!

---

Another day in Luang Prabang gave us the chance to relax and eat nice food.. a spot more shopping and a climb up three hundred and twenty something steps up Mount Phousi to watch the sunset.. the clouds had other ideas and blocked the sun from view until it reached the hills..so we never really saw the sun although the views of the city were nice enough and the heat was definately enough!
Our final supper in luang Prabang and into bed for an early rise!
We attempted the 5am rise to go and give the monks their alms but were driven back to bed by sick feelings that we wanted to clear before we ascended the boat for a million hours!! Apparently we didn't miss much and they sat there for about 40mins bfore the monks even arrived.. so we didn't regret it too much.

We hopped down to the harbour and boarded our private long boat..home for the next couple of days. We each set up camp in selected spots and most people spent to 10 hours reading although there was some serious card playing and random abc games going on for hours!! Arriving in Pakbeng early evening we dropped our stuff and rushed out for dinner before the electricity in the village was switched off at 10:30 pm. Still we had to endure a cold shower electricity on or not as there was no heating in the bathrooms, altogether very bizarre but not as stiflingly hot without the aircon as we had anticipated.. definately an experience..! slept until it was switched on again the following morning and loaded back onto the boat for another long stretch!

We stopped on the Laos border the follwoing night, on one side of the river..this one at least had some electricity! and the largest Gecko Sasha and Alexis had ever seen..by the sounds of their screams anyway.. (to be fair it was rather large!).

In the morning we hopped on tiny boats.. a bit dubious whether they would take the weight of both us and our bags!but we made it in small groups. I have to say crossing the border..on a boat is very bizarre... i am used to a border being an invisible line on a road kind of thing not a bloody great river!!

After we cleared the immigration office in Thailand we headed to Chiang Mai on a bus and checked into our final hotel as a group. Out last supper was a lovely meal and we had some reminiscent moments about everyones trip highlights and best activities etc.. a little browse in the night market gave way to several drinks in several places and then a final goodnight!!

---