The Crossing

Hey everyone

So, I have just spent the past 3 days travelling by bus and boat, and although the scenery was amazing..ther novelty wears off after about 1 day of it!

Anyway, here's how the last 3 days panned out...

I was up really early to be picked up by the shuttle bus that would take us to the Thai border. The bus (which was supposed to come at 8am) finally turned up at 10am. It was one of those little minibuses with no aircon and no radio..oh, and it was full to maximum capacity. There we were, 9 of us, crammed in like sardines, absolutely sweltering and stuck on this bus until 6pm. Great. Actually, it was fine because the people were a good laugh and we did a couple of stops at some random markets where the bus driver gets commission if we buy anything. We had a little fight with the driver cause he kept stopping at travel agents trying to get us to buy Laos visas off them for more than the price at the border, because then he gets commission. When we refused, he took a strop and started driving really erratically from then on.

We arrived into Chiang Khong at around 6pm and went straight to the guesthouse which was basic but perfectly fine. Once again we were tried to buy a visa but we were having none of it. We all went to bed early anticipating the boat trip to follow.

We were all up early again to go to the border crossing and this went smoothly and was much cheaper than at any travel agent. Needless to say we were very pleased with ourselves for standing our ground. After being stamped out of Thailand, we got a short boat ride over to Laos where we got stamped in. The we boarded a long boat that would be home for the next 2days. This boat can fit about 150 people sitting, and i reckon there were about 200 people on the boat. The seats are wooden and lined up so that there is pretty much no leg room and they are probably the most uncomfortable woodenbenches you have ever sat on. So, teh 2 days passed relatively slowely as we all tried to find a position that didnt kill our backs.

Halfway through the trip we stopped at a place called Pak Beng for the night. It was adequate (but for 100baht a night you can't really complain!) and a group of us went out for a nice dinner. What wasn;t so great was the electrical storm later on that shut off all power! It was an experience.

Day 2 on the boat was pretty much the same as day 1 and we arrived into Luang Prabang at 6pm. Luang Prabang is such a lovely quaint town and i'm going to spend a few days here to chill out. The main street is lined with lovely antique shops and smart restaurants that only cost about 3 pounds for a meal. The guesthouse that i am staying at only have 4 rooms, so a group of us are all staying there which is nice.

Hope all is good at home

love Danielle xxx