I may have been ripped off but atleast im still alive

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Well me and linda thought we would take the easy way and join a group to cross the border into laos. It all started off ok with a nice bus to the border,where we then got our visas. Well, as we crossed the border we realized that we had been charged an extra 15 dollars for our visa than we had to pay an additional fee because it was after hours to crossing the borders. We cross and get briefed onto our plans for crossing the border. There were no atms in town so we were forced to exchange money through the travel company, at a very low rate. We were also told we could exchange money at the border. Luckily some vey nice british girl loaned us money otherwise me and linda would have been hungry and living on the streets. Our guesthouse we stayed at was nice, eventhough they ran out of rooms at the real guesthouse we were supposed to stay at and were forced to another one. The next day we took a 7 hour boat ride on hard benches to pak beng. Although it may have not been the most comfrontable 7 hours it wasnt too bad because you bonded with all the other passangers who were suffering with you. Pak Beng was a step up from the previous town. It consisted only of guest houses and resturants. Since everyone was tourists a lot of people tried to rip you off. The food however was nice, and the guesthouse had scolding hot showers. Our first hot shower in over 3 weeks...needless to say we were in heaven. Then we took another 7 hour boat ride to luang prabang. So far the town has been very nice. I lot of tourists here, but we recognize like half of them from our long journey. so far we havent had time to adventure too much because we have been planning how to get to vietnam.

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