Laos Border

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Felt a bit tender in the morning, not too bad though considering the amount of whiskey we drank. However, the thought of 7 hours on the slow boat down the mekong river wasn't filling me with much joy. We got to the border crossing at 9.30am, it cost 40 baht (just under a quid) each to leave Thailand on a little boat over the river to Laos. 5 minutes later we were in Laos. We didn't have a visa, but it was pretty painless considering some of the stories we had heard in Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It cost 1500 baht each and we were done within 10 minutes, thankfully we had printed off copies of our passport photos as 2 were required by passport control.
We were still undecided whether to get the slowboat, we had heard that although the scenery was beautiful, it really was slow, 7 hours the first day stopping off in Pak Beng for the evening and then another 7 hours the following day to Luang Prabang. After a little bit of , you decide no you decide, we both decided to opt for the bus. A woman had informed us it woud take 12 hours but after arriving at the bus station by touk touk we were told 10 hours and the bus leaves at 1pm. Sound, get to Luang Prabang a day early!
First impression of Laos...poor, particularly compared to Thailand, but as soon as we set off on our bus journey, I got my second impression...beautiful! The scenery is stunning, like nothing i've ever seen before, I couldn't stop taking photos.
Laos is so far behind the times, it's really humbling to see how they live, in huts at the side of the road, working in the fields - all the kids seemed so happy though running to the side of the road to wave at us, they're all soooo cute! That was the good part of the trip, the bad was that the roads are abysmal, really windy, uphill then downhill and in really bad condition, seeing evidence of landslide when you're driving by mountains with no barriers is not a good feeling, plus the bus was old, it got a flat tyre at about
am and then the young lad who was driving passed the responsibility over to another lad who managed to ditch the bus, fortunately it was just the left rear wheel so rocks were put behind the other wheels to get us out....it worked! Reached Luang Prabang at everyone got off 5.30am, 16 hour bus journey....not good!

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