Life in Laos is so expensive (compared to Thailand that is) and thats why I have been so slack with my blog.
Arrived in Laos 12 March 2009 via the slow boat.
Life in Laos has been wonderful. It started by taking the slow boat from Chiang Kong on the Thailand/ Laos border for two days, heading down the Mekong River in the direction of Luang Prabang. It was a wonderful experience. I had never given much thought to what I thought the mekong river would look like but in anycase it was amazing. Probably not as wide as I'd imagined but it is the dry season here and you could see that the river was at about 3 metres below the water mark on the rocks. The country side was a scene of beautiful mountain ranges like nothing I'd seen before. Jungle covered the hillsides and swept down onto the sandy banks of the Mekong. Water buffalow drank at the waters edge and children swam in the (not so clean) water. Villages were randomly sccattered along the riverside with bamboo shacks being the only form of dwellings. Simple crops were often planted on the sandy shore and were fenced in by makeshift bamboo fences. It was all very beautiful and tranquil as the boat meandered through the journey and time slow passed us by.
Now for the social scene on the Mekong River. And thank goodness for the social scene because 7 hours the first day and 9 hours the next day makes for a very long and squashy boat trip. I was travelling with 2 German girls Julia and Marie, who I had met at Pai prior to departing. As we got on the boat we saw that it was very squashy, one small wooden bench for two people to share and the boat was quite full already with only half the people already on the boat. So we split up and managed to get seats all behind each other but next to new faces. And this is where we met Sam and Gabriel from Austria and Vi from france. Not much drinking happened during the trip as it was way too expensive but it nice just to chat read and watch the scenery. So as you can see not really much of a high class social scene but it was nice.
That night we had to stay overnight at a small town called Pak Beng. Thankfully we didn't get conned into the scam that "rooms are not less than 400 baht and fill up very quick". So we took a chance and were able to easily find a guesthouse for 200baht for 3 people. Actually the guesthouse found us as we stepped of the boat and were swamped by local guesthouse workers trying to fill there rooms. But I think even we lucked out. sam and gabriel found a really nice room for same price and they didn't have a rat visit in the middle of the night!
Yes a rat! I woke up to a scratching in the middle of the nightcoming from near Marie's bed. I called out no reply from her and the noise stopped. I woke again this time Julia woke and ashored me it couldn't be a rat , go back to sleep. Then sure enough in the morning Julia's handbag had been eaten through and her unopenned biscuits had become rat snacks.
The second day on the boat we met Giedine AKA Dina (pronounced Hedine using a sound like hacking up some flem in your throat to make the G say H, when will people learn to have normal names, Funny though 'Anna' stumped a few Thai people) Dina is from Holand and has been travelling since Novemeber. Again a day of chatting and watching the view go by.
As we all got into Luang Prabang we decided to see if we could all get guesthouses close by each other to keep the friendships going. And here started our travelling group of 9 people through Laos.
