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Published: March 3rd 2009
So, after the late late night in Chiang Rai, we caught a bus to Chang Kong on the Mekong. Loved the bus journey, i think because i was still a little merry. Proper old bus on extremely bumpy roads, was flying all over the show havin a great time... Got to Chang Kong and had to get some cash to pay for the Laos Visa, and the only cash point was a fair distance away.. Crossed the Mekong on a longtail boat, only took 2 minutes so it was strange to be in a new country. Passed immigration with no worries, £30 lighter, but with a nice new stamp in my passport. Found a cracking hotel, and had a look around. Huay Xai is a very small place, so didn't take long, we did go down to the pier and book ourselves onto the Slow boat down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, it's a 2 day pootle down the river stopping for the night half way in Pak Beng.
Anyway, we ate some good food, still using our Thai money, i wasn't quite ready to use the ridiculous Laos Kip just yet (12,000 kip to the pound). Laos have an
11.30 pm curfew, so no chance of a big night......hmmmmmm. 11.30 approached, and we got talking to a dutch girl, english girl & a Finnish guy. He bought us all a round of Lao Lao Rice whiskey (a mixture between whiskey & unicum, pretty nasty), anyway, they served on and we all had a great time. We found out that Jari was booked onto the Gibbon Experience, on the dates we tried to get, lucky sod. We were messed around a bit and in the end decided not to go, pretty gutted as it looks amazing. But its very expensive, so i've decided to use the money saved to do something big in Aus... Great White diving or big game fishing.......
We caught the slow boat in the morning, and pootled along for 7 hours. Amazing trip, aided by a few large Beer Laos. The scenery was great, and there are parts of the Mekong which are grade 2 rapids, so that was pretty fun. Stopped over in Pak Beng and found a guest house, and that really does have a curfew, they turn the generator off around 11pm, and it turns a kind of dark i've never seen
before, the pitchest of pitch black.
Up again & onto the boat for a longer journey into Luang Prabang, again a great journey with flowing Beer Laos & stunning scenery.
Been here a few days now, but i'll write more about it next time, all i'll say is make sure you visit Luang Prabang, my kind of place, chilled out beyond belief and a world heritage sight, and the best beer in the world...
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Vic
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Hi there!!!
Hi Ed, Looks amazing where you are! Was just showing Les bez the pictures and we reckon you are looking a little skinny, think you need to get some stodge down your neck otherwise you will lose that ass and look like a spider!!! We were wondering whether you are trying to slim down so you can strap more drugs round your waist when you travel from Columbia? Just remember Ed that foreign prisons are no picnic, dont drop the soap!!!