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Published: February 2nd 2013
So i had a great start to the journey i slipped on the slipway but i had my rucksack on and that saved me from any major injuries, on the boat it was the height of luxury....lol, the were some old car seats and some woden benches and i doubt enough life vests to go round. As we were going upstream it would take longer and the were less travelers on the boat as appose to the boat coming down from Thailand.
So eventually the boat got going and i had the misfortune to have a seat which seemed to be the main road for the locals and so i kept having to move my legs round and well i wasnt at all comfortable and i read and partially slept and well the countryside was pretty at first and then it was the same around every corner and no wildlife and i chatted to a few of the travelers on board, the were a few dutch couples, two irish guys, an irish girl and french guy, an aussie family and a german couple, 10 hours later and we got to the zombie town of Pakbeng which i wouldnt recommend to my worst enemy, its a horrible little spot on the river as id neither call it a town or a village. i Managed to get a room in a not so wonderful place and i hung out with an irish guy from the baot dylan and a dutch couple sonny and pai and we had a few beers and some food and it was cool. next day the boat did not leave on time and i had to getan onward ticket from pakbeng as the ticket i was sold was only to pakbeng.
I managed to finish all the books i had with me and so i played cards with the aussie familys kids and i chatted to various folk and we got to the the border town of hou saxi too late to cross the thai border and so me and dylan grabbed a room together to share the costs and then we met up with soony and pai and went and grabbed a very bad meal as it was cold, slow service and expensive for lao prices, sonny and pai were going to stay in laos a few more days to do a thing called the gibbon experince which was like 150 pounds each for three days and to be honest im not fussed at missing out on it as id rather save money to do my padi and ive done trekking and swings etc etc eleswhere and could always do it another time when in asia and so we headed back to the guesthouse and hung out with dennis an irish fella from oz who was on our boat and we chatted and drank lao whisky.
anyway an early start the next day and me and dylan finally crossed the border 3 days later and we met some others from our boat and got a minivan up to chang mai and got here for 4pm and it took me 40 mins to find a cheapish room and to decide what do while im here and then when to go to Bangkok to get my india visa and also see if i still have enough for my diving, i met a cool irish fella and english guy earlier and just chatted and had a quick browse of chang mai and it seems ok. Im still dying to get home though.
Today met a cool canadian girl and she suggested a good place for treks and so im booking a two day and one night trek there later today and we chatted and she showed me a good bookstore so i have a fresh book and then i had a look round some temples and to be honest im templed out now.
Will grab a bite to eat and see about booking an elphant trainer day aswell and then the train down to Bangkok as the bus does not sound so much fun.
grabbed some food and booked my trek and it turned out the elephant trainer day is 4200 baht and i just couldnt justify that outlay especially as i still have india to go, my diving hopefully and my move to Denmark, so i booked a train to Bangkok for monday afternoon and then i bumped into dylan and had a brief chat and then my ipod froze so i had to find an internet cafe so i could look up the reset instructions and so at the same time i fired my pictures on to my picasa site.
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