The Mekong and wooden seats

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When our minibus picked us up in Chaing Mai, It looked like it was going to be a nice trip... 11 people cramed later we were off to Chaing Khong to cross the boarder into Laos. 255km and 6 hours later... the most windy roads on the planed and we had to stop or take some out of the way road so the driver could drop some stuff off to his cousin or something We arrived in Ching Khong where we apply for and pay for our visas. A 2 min river crossing, 25Bhat and a 1 hour tour guide that cant speek english later we finaly get checked into our guesthouse. We were lucky that we got the nice room out of the bunch, It was part of the Tour package. We had only had breakfast and a few snacks throughout the day but we had no appitete and could only force ourselfs to eat a little rice and a few beers >.> The next morning we are rushed down to the dock without a chance to have breakfast, we sit around for about 2 hours and are piled onto a huge wooden "slow boat" (a tire tube would have been faster) And we are off.. the first bit was abit lame but once we got into the mountains the views were spectacular, the benches however... not so much. 7 hours and a numb butt later we arived at a small town Pak Beng, it was straig up crazy, the Laos locals were comming onto the boat faster then the tourists could get off, trying to carry our bags or sell us a guesthouse. We eventually got of the boat and after a bunch of "you have geusthouse" and "no thankyou's" later we walked up the street till we found a nice looking place.. super cheep about 6 bucks was decent but we had twin beds "A" was a little upset but she was mostly just glade to be off the boat, I was glad to be off the wood bench. We found a fantastic little resturant with excelent food. Went for a short walk to get the blood flowing in our legs and off to bed. In the AM the smoke from the sourrounding fires was crazy thick . We headed to the same resturaunt and orderd breaky and a lunch to go. Headed down to the boat and found our lovely wooden seats. About an hour into the trip i hauled the bench to the back of the boat and we sat on the floor way more comfy than the bench. The trip took 8 hours but it seamed to go by pretty fast as we keep occupied playing cards with a Canadian, Brit, Italian, and a swed. We arrived in Luang Prabang and started the hunt for a guesthouse again. We found a nice one (with twin beds again "A" pushed them together) and headed out for an ATM something to eat and doin the internet thing. the town has a cool feel to it sofar but we will see how things got from here.

Stay tuned for many more tailes of adventure

A and Ray

ps. will add picks in a day or so from another cafe.. this ones usb ports have a short and shock you has to be awsome for the camera.... dont think ill risk it

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Photos

Slow boats
when they say slow they mean slow!

Meakong
still slow

Gateway
"A" d'ont lean it might fall

Monks walking
Looks like my painting

Breathtaking
Cool and refreshing also