Having a choice of staying tonight either in Chiang Khong (Thailand) or in Huay Xai (Laos), we decide for the latter because slow-boat leaves tomorrow 10am from Laos side of Mekong river. At bus stop we catch tuk-tuk going directly to Thai immigration office and then we board narrow water taxi to cross mighty Mekong river to Laos. At small window we buy entry visa for US$30 each and basicaly this is it. We are in Laos now! Small and tidy village Huay Xai is a starting point for two-day down stream trip to Luang Prabang with a slow boat and there seem to be many other backpackers with the same idea. We stock up on few munchies and $2 lao whisky for emergencies, then to bed. Two eggs and toast for breakfast before we get transferred to river bank where we see many slow boats, not sure which one is ours. With help of locals we manage to find the right one (we hope!) and according to rule "first come-first served" we can select from many hard wooden benches. Which one is the best? Ha, ha, they're all the same. At 10am there are no signs of leaving soon as owners keep filling the boat with more passangers untill it is completely packed and many even sit on the deck. Finally at 11:30 old ex-truck diesel engine is started and we start rolling down the river. And what an amazing scenery! Lush jungle comes down from hills, water bufalos share river banks with local kids, always smiling and waving, and many large boulders scattered accross river test navigating skills of our captain. Hope he has done this before! Sunny weather, cold beer and good atmosphere on board, all blends together making our first adventure in Laos almost perfect. Perfect, untill we stay overnight at Pak Beng which is about half-way between Laos border and Luang Prabang. This small village full of guest-houses and restaurants is flooded every evening with new travelers going downstream Mekong river. Finding a room is easy, a nice lao meal even easier and at 10pm main electricity generator shuts down so whole village submerges in complete darkness. At 11pm we still sit at the guesthouse veranda by candlelight having a few shots of Lao Whisky with Craig from Canada (guy we met on the boat) before we go sleep. We make shocking discovery first thing next morning - our digital camera is gone!!! (This is another camera we lost after the first one in Honduras). We do not quite understand how this could happen but after summing up events last night things start to make sense - few teenage boys were giving us too much attention while we sat enjoying drinks and one of them must have sneaked into our room while the others distracted us. We were told by many travelers about Lao people honesty and this is complete shock to us. Sure, we cannot judge country by action of few crooks. By 9am we need to be back on slow boat and soon after departure we can overhear someone else beeing robbed last night as well, this time one guy lost camera with all pics and few hundred dollars cash from his hotel room (different hotel to ours). No pictures today and mood is again down but soon we realise insignificance of this problem and we enjoy our life again. I spot wild elefant on river bank and the boat almost tilts over as everyone moves to one side to take picture. Except me, hmmm. That's enough, stop winging. Beatifull sunset over Mekong River welcomes us at Luang Prabang at around 6pm. Soon we realise very touristy nature of this photogenic town (due to many suitcasers arriving by air), prices are higher and hotels are fuller. We spend over an hour to find reasonable room which will be our home for next few days. Buying new camera here is not an option, prices are more then double of market rates and after full day hunting we give up tired and frustrated. Luckily our new travel friends let me to copy their pics onto my flash drive, and there is no shortage of nice people. Delicious spicy food, sticky rice with coconut cream and mango in abundance, tasty Lao beer and nice river view restaurants make this place very enjoyable and relaxing, perfect for Valentine's day this saturday. On Sunday we take a trip with swiss girls Sarah and Christine (and few others) to nearby Tat Kuang Si waterfalls - multi tiered cascades tumbling over limestone creating turquoise green pools. Colours are absolutely amazing and we can not resist to jump in. Monday mobile phone alarm rings at 5:30am as we want to vitness food giving to monks by locals and tourist on early morning streets of Luang Prabang. This is apparently an old tradition where hundreds of monks dressed in orange robes march daily through streets receiving food of any kind, including fruit and water. After simple breaky we get by tuk-tuk to local bus station and at 8am we leave Luang Prabang for Vang Vieng for big fun called TUBING! For what? Tubing? What is it? Imagine yourself sitting in a large tractor tube, drifting down the river and stopping in numerous bars on the way without any presence of Big Brother. That means alcoholic and other drinks ("happy" does not mean extra cherry on a shake) can be mixed with zip lines and monkye swing flying over river without limits. The only catch is to get back to town by the dark with or without help of your friends, and we saw many who seriously struggled with this. Vang Vieng is not an ordinary town, it is a hippie town and besides tubing it is also known for video bars with patrons comfortably lying down on lounges, sipping drinks (some happy) and watching constant sctreening of Friends. So comfortable, so lazy! But hang on, we have not come here to watch Friends, visiting nearby limestone caves is much better alternative. As I am slowly recovering from diarhoea which came about two days ago, Iva gets seriously stomach sick emptieing herself from top and bottom for the whole night. Oh, this Laos has few bugs, we suspect water or ice. But she is brave girl and on Thursday morning she insists to go tubing. After all, she will be floating in water, ha? Total half a litre of Lao whisky consumed over many bars should destroy all bad bugs in my intestine, but there is no hope for Iva to enjoy any drink today. Friday I am so,so ok, Iva is still not eating anything, thoughts of any food make her sick. Today we leave Vang Vieng for capitol city Vientiene where we need to buy new camera, obtain police report about incident in Pak Beng and organise visa for Cambodia. Unfortunatelly all offices are closed on Saturday and we need to wait till Monday before we continue further south. Cheap and practical Samsung digital camera sounds good enough for time being, we hope to buy nice Panasonic Lumix TX-5 in China, so we spend A$160 and immediatelly we start to document our travel again. Monday is busy as we leave passports in Cambodian embassy, report camera theft at tourist police office, buy tickets to 4000 islands, pickup passports late afternoon and at 8pm we board an overnight sleeping bus to Don Det. The bus is very unusual in a way there are no seats, only double comfortable bunk beds, good sleep whole night. Don Det is one of many islands on Mekong River near southern Lao border with Cambodia. Scenic and relaxed with somewhat overpriced accommodation may be a quick summary of our last destination in Laos. We are appologetic to small cheating here and there, for example an old scale used to weight clothing for washing showes double weight (later we check 1.5L of water weighs 3.5kg! What?), the same story in next door shop so this is not an isolated incident. Food here is rather basic, we are probably spoiled by previous kitchens and are not willing to settle for a below average asian food. Hm, just joking. All that gets compensated with nice day bicycle trip around two islands (joined by old rail bridge) and refreshing dip in Mekong River later afternoon in a company of many backpackers and buffalos. Yes, buffalos, this is not a typo, we swim with them. Two nights here are enough and on Thursday 26 Feb we make a move accross border to Cambodia.
