Laos

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In the morning we received our passports back with our visas for Laos, before changing our Thai baht for Lao kip. 1 USD = 9700 Kip, so a few people in our group became Lao millionaires.

This is the 145th richest country in the world, out of 195 countries for which information is available. The average GDP per capita is only $2,124. The difference is marked in comparison with Thailand when you simply cross the river to get to immigration.

We spend about 7 hours traveling down to the small town of Pak Beng, where we dock early in the evening. Most of this town isn't connected to the power grid, so the electricity comes on at 6pm and goes off again at 10.30pm as it is all generated locally.

While it is still light our Lao guide takes us to the local temple, where we watch the sun go down over the Mekong River. Even here, satellite dishes can be seen everywhere - we see a few monks watching TV!

We head back into town and end up at a very good Indian restaurant, before heading back to our accommodation.

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Photos

Mekong river views
Views from the riverboat