The boat trip

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A little bit delayed in updating but nevermind...

We finally arrived in Luang Prabang after our two day boat trip which, i am pleased to say was a little more sturdy than I had imagined although there were a few rocky times it was more or less secure. The first day a van picked us up from our hostel in Chaing Mai and drove with haste to Chaing Rai where we were able to get out and see the white temple which no photograph can compliment how amazing it was. The whole building was white with tiny mirrored pieces all over it. There was a tree with paper mache faces hanging from it and a sea of white hands grabbing the air at either side of the temple. It was fair to say it was pretty cool.

We then returned to the van and travelled a few more hours to our hostel for the night. There wasn't much to do there so we ate and went to sleep ready for our epic journey on the boat the next morning. It was estimated to be about 8/9 hours. Brutal. The following morning we arrived at a speed boat (you can imagine my horror) and crossed over to the border of Laos. Luckily the speed boat was simply a tranfer and not our actual boat. We then got our visa's checked and found our man who shipped us off to his shop for us to book a hostel and give us our slow boat tickets etc. We finally arrived at the pier and loaded ourselves onto a big boat with lots of white faces. Unfortunately we boarded a little bit later and missed out on the slightly more comfortable seats with tables and instead we were stuck with the dodgy looking seats at the back. The seats were not even fixed to the floor and looked like they had possibly been stolen from a bus and dumped on the boat. Anyway 6 hours later (numbers seem to be an issue here). We stayed overnight here and were told it would be another 9 hours of numb bums and sweaty smells the following day on the boat.

The next day we left even later for the boat and ended up sitting right at the front with what seemed like all the locals. We had some crazy German witch doctor who got everyone making friendship braclets and trying to cure the runny nosed children with her herbal remedies. Amusing to begin with but 5 hours later we were ready for man over board. She didn't even offer us one of her nuts that she was passing around. I can only assume it was because we were white. The phrase there's always community in economy comes to mind.

FINALLY we arrived at our final destination, Luang Prabang. We met two other couples on the boat so we all decided to look for a hostel together. After alot of trekking about we found a place that would do for that evening. We showered and treated ourselves to a nice meal (we even had red wine -lush even if it was chilled).

The next morning we checked out and headed to a new hostel where we met up with friends from home, Polly and Harriet.

We have spent two nights here and tonight is our last. We really love it here. Yesterday we got a little boat across to a small village where there were some forgotten temples (hidden as well since we gave up looking in the blistering heat) and we walked over a bamboo bridge to the other sde of the town. Last night we walked up to Phu si temple and watched the sun set and then ate dinner in the night market which was delicious.

Today we visited the Palace and saw some more temples and sat in a litle french cafe drinking REAL coffee. No petrol in sight.

Tommorrow we have a bus booked to take us further South to Vang Vieng.We wil be heading off with Polly and an English couple, Becks and Andy to explore somewhere else...

Here we plan to partake in some "tubing" which apparently consists of jumping into a rubber dingy, heading down the river and all the bars on the edge pull you in by rope for excessive drinking. Sounds the balls.

Until next time...

Katie and Craig xxx

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Comments

[Lynn]

Looks like you are having a great trip even if your boats seem to be a bit dodgey. Love reading the blogs and seeing the photos. Keep them coming. I am realy envious Have fun xx love Lynn x