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Published: October 18th 2007
After Chiangmai I headed to Laos with a Swedish couple I met on the trek. The journey was probably the worst yet since travelling! Left CM at 10pm, arrived at the border at 6am, waited another 2 hours at the border then a 3 hour journey in the back of a pickup truck followed by 6 hours down the Mekong river....it sucked so bad! We actually missed the 'Slow boat' at the Mekong and had to catch it up on one of the speedboats they have! They are so dodgy...basically a longboat with a massive engine strapped to the back! They skim on top of the water at high speed and I've heard loads of stories of them hitting logs in the river and 'Disintegrating' Hence the dodgy helmets they make you wear haha!
Anyway we arrived in Luang Prebang and were so tired the first night that we all went to bed.
On the second day all the others we had been treking with had caught up with us. They done a 6 hour journey on a speedboat down the Mekong!! We all went out to this cocktail bar which was awesome. 2 for 1 on cocktails...needless to say we
all got smashed. The bars in Laos stop serving at 11pm which is crap. The only option is to go to the local bowling alley where you can continue drinking, which is exactly what I done!
There wasn't alot going on in Luang Prebang so me and the Swedes caught a bus down to Viet Veang which is about 5 hours away. Again there was nothing to do there because the weather was horrible which meant we couldn't do the famous tubing down the river. Tubing is basically sitting in a massive rubber ring whilst floating down the river stopping at bars on the way getting pissed! Apparently its awesome but I didn't get to do it. Instead we spent 2 days sat in bars watching movies.....crap!
After Viet Veang we caught another bus to Vientiane which is the capital. This was equally as boring considering itwas the capital! I hadn't realy thought about my Vietnam visa either so had to wait around three days because it was a weekend and the embassy was closed. The Swedes were there for a couple of days but when they left I was sat outside my hostel having abeer and 2 couples I
met on the trek walked by. It turned out the Ozys were on the same flight as me to Hanoi which was really cool.
Basicaly I didn't have a great time in Laos. Everyone I've met seems to love the place but to me there was not alot going on and it takes AGES to travel anywhere!!
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Lloydy
non-member comment
Very trusting
Hmmmm...the woman who was making you food was laughing hysterically...? God damnit Jonny, you'll eat anything won't you.