did what it said on the tin

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Hmmmm. my perception of speed boat differed slightly from the Laos literal definition. we needed to get to a small border town near to the Thai border called Houey Xai (wheee sigh) for a trip we had booked and needed to do it quickly. the old lonely planet guide failed again in insisting you could fly ( no surprises there as we have come to expect from the good book) and we were left with 3 options

1) 18h public bus journey ( literal no frills Asian affair for a long time)

2) 2 - 2.5 day boat trip ( seats no sleeping)

3) 7 hour speed boat

we went with the last one due to time constraints ( honestly) and turned up at the pier at 0800 sharp fpr the journey. typical to Asian time the boat turned up 45 mins later and we gingerly edged our way down a mud slope with full backpacks and day packs until we got to our 'speed boat'. hopefully you can see from the photo's it was a 10 foot wooden triangle with a huge 16v Toyota car engine and exhaust system bolted to the back. the drive shaft connected to a small long tail prop!!!!!

at it's widest point, where we sat, it was 3.5 foot wide. when i say we i mean Suzie and I crammed into the 3.5 x 2 foot dug-out.

next we were given crash helmets and life vests and were off a break neck speeds down the Mekong river!!!

we went so fast you couldn't her the person next to you speak and more then a bit scary as you rely on the river guide to know where the rocks are. still lots of beautiful scenery when we had our eyes open and a few villages that were only accessible via the river.

afterwards we found out that it was not the most reliable method of travel due to frequent break downs and those dreaded rocks. but we arrived in one piece and another adventure to the good.

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Photos

Speed boat
made of wood, not very big, even smaller seats and an 8 hour journey time

max powers boat edition is sure to feater this suped up beauty
16v and marque you can trust. not to mention 0-60 before you can say 'watch out for that rock'

Comments

[anonymous]

i well wish i had done that. did you really write this on the 7th? cos i just got the email on the 18th... x

[karen]

that was me btw! x