Leaving behind the beautiful Chiang Mai we decided to head into the country of Laos (which is east of Thailand) by way of the slow boat on the Mekong river. Now don't let the term "slow" deter you from traveling this way because it is well worth the 6 hours the first day and 8 hours the following day. Well we may be a little biased because we met some great aussie and kiwis on the way over that turned the ride into a great time!
On the eve of our slow boat trip we stayed right at the Thai border, Huay Xai and the guesthouse was adorable with wooden rooms that had individual mosquito nets that added an air of ambiance to the little rooms. Morning came early as we headed to the border and had our first experience of getting a visa in Laos. Let me tell you that this was the most frustrating, unorganized system of receiving a visa I have ever experienced!!!! We just got in behind a mass of people and there was no lines, no information or signs in english. We tried to get information of where to hand in our passports but from one person to the next we got told different things, shoved in different directions and just really had no idea what to do. Minutes turned into a couple hours and I won't go into the dreadful details but the process went something like this. finally hand in your passport to the office with a couple forms filled out, wait in the mass lineup as the officers randomly chose which passport and visa to do next (no order, no reason, just randomness). Ok so the process of getting your passport is they hold your picture up on the window and you have to see it and other tourists yell out the names. So you wait and wait in the group of sweating, anxiously awaiting tourists for the blue Canadian passport to show up! Two hours later it happened, with Grant's red passport and we were on our way to the slow boat.
Now this slowboat is an old rickety contraption that looks to be about on its last life. There is hard wooden seats; you can buy pillows for the trip which we did to sit on that made it much more duable. But I personally would recommend stealing the front and sitting on the floor with your pillows so you can stretch out! Also I vital aspect of really enjoying the trip and I know this isn't easy but get on the boat with the good looking Australians and the hours will fly by!!! Our first day was filled with meeting new people, kiwis, aussies, british and the sweetest french girl there is and getting to know them. We were amazed at how beautiful the ride was and to see the little villages huts and people on the banks of the river fishing and making a life was like being front row in a documentary! We stopped at a little village to stay our first night and had Dan and I had quite the scare episode in our room. There was a sweet little gecko climbing on the walls of probably our sketchiest guesthouse stay to date. Being girls we were thinking of sleeping and that gecko crawling on Dan at night so I was determined to squish it with my sandle. It was 1 in the morning and the moment I lightly tapped it we screamed bloody murder and ran to the farthest side of the room. The body of the gecko was no where to be found and we slept with one eye open thinking the gecko was out for revenge!
The second day we got plenty of sandwiches for the 8 hour ride and claimed the front of the boat. The back is where the engine is and it is soooo loud that it is worse than four tractors I swear! So we got far away from the noise as possible! We literally spent 7 out of the 8 hours playing Wizard...if you don't own this game go right now to a games store and buy it because it will provide endless hours of fun! It was soooo much fun and made the hours flow by easy enough that we found our slow boat had arrived on the shores of Luang Probang just as the sun was setting. It was perfect!
So recap for the slow boat....pillows check, super fun hot boys check, wizard cards check, food and beer check, rice bags to lean on check, camera to remember the moments check.
Now you can enjoy the stunning scenery, new friends and arrive in Luang Probang with great reviews of the slow boat! More to come of our crazy adventures in SE Asia Love always B
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