SLOW MEKONG BOAT

I left Chang Mai in Northern Thailand and headed for Loas. First I had to take an eight hour bus journey to Huay Xai on the border of Thailand and Loas. It was very cramped but at least it was a fairly new bus. I got chatting to a few people including a lovely couple from Perth called Penny and Tony, so the journey passed quickly.


We were booked into a guesthouse overlooking the Mekong river. I was blown away by the view and it was nothing compared to the scenery I was going to experience along the slow boat journey over the next two days. They took our passports and said that they would sort the visas. No one really understood what was going on but we all just handed over the forms and passports.
Then we were given a meal and room for the night. Next day after breakfast we were given our packed lunches (spring rolls) then taken on buses to the riverside. Where we waited for ages to get our passports handed back with a Thai stamp. We then went onto longboats to be taken across the river.


Where we again had to fill in lots of forms and wait for ages to get our passports stamped by the Laos authorities and hand over thirty five dollars for the visa. They took small groups of us by taxi trucks to another cafe to hang around for another hour until everyone had been sorted. It was organised chaos.But it seemed to work. You just have to have faith that they do this everyday with lots of tourists and it works. I stocked up on plenty of water and of course a cushion! I had been told that you sit on hard wooden benches for eight hours.
It was a mad scramble to get a place on the boat and we were really packed in like sardines.But everyone was good natured so it was ok.
I sat near Penny and Tony from Perth and Dom and Norma from Canada sat further back.

I was lucky enough to get a bench to myself so I could sit lengthways which was a bonus!


Just before we set off we were given a pep talk by a local guy telling us when we get to the night stop the locals just make a grab for our rucksacks and bags and some go missing so we must take care!!! We thought it was funny.
Along the way we stopped at the rivers edge and lots of little children jumped onto the boat to sell us food and water. They seemed oblivious to the dangers of clambering down over the rocks. And they were very good persisstant sales people when they got on the boat.