Along the Mekong

We have been on the road quite a bit in the last two weeks. After our China trip, we spent four days in Singapore and met up with one of Benoit's friends who works and lives there. Then we flew to Bangkok, where we stayed two days, visiting all its shiny temples and trying to score some cheap clothes and (travel) books. Without result, Thailand isn't that cheap anymore. But the main reason for flying to Thailand was our trip to Laos. Most people enter this former French colony by its neighboring countries Vietnam or Thailand because flying into Laos is complicated and rather expensive. 

From Bangkok, we continued to Chiang Kong, the north of the country by night bus. When we arrived there early in the morning, we hopped into a little boat that crossed the Mekong river and dropped us off, only three minutes later in Huay Xai, Laos.

We had our visas arranged at the immigration post and I was a little annoyed that I, being a Belgian citizen had to pay more for that than Benoit, who's French. Only five dollars, but still...

After the visa stop,it went on to the port of Huay Xai, where we embarked on a slow boat to Luang Prabang. A very slow boat. We would be on it for two entire days before setting foot in Luang Prabang. The night would be spent in a guest house in the tiny village of Pak Being, just halfway.

When entering the port, our hearts sank. This Mekong 'cruise' was not going to be as romantic as we'd hoped for when we saw the wooden, wobbly, pimped out bamboo raft, equipped with car seats! When we were joined by 83 fellow travelers (capacity said:70) we really regretted not having bought a simple bus ticket.

But: pessimists are always wrong and surprisingly enough, we kind of enjoyed these two days of slow travel! We caught up on sleep -yes we managed to sleep on those funny car seats- we listened to music, watched some series on the iPad, read, prepared the next leg of our trip and made new friends. All while enjoying very green and unspoiled views of Laos along the Mekong.

  

Our first friend in Laos! He's the 2-year old son of the guest house owner in Pak Beng. Such a happy little man! He joined us for some beers and a game of Angry Birds...