The Slow Boat to LP Bang

Well, since we last wrote, we have logged a lot of hours travelling. Unfortunately, we did not leave Chiang Mai without saying goodbye to our friend at the guesthouse. At least we won't have to see him again.

Our minibus from Chiang Mai was full of English people. (A minibus is really a minivan with an extra seat.) They were all English except us. There was a guy who had found a decapitated wooden duck on Ko Toa. He stuck the head back on and carried it around with him. His buddy had a laptop and they all listened to Shakirah and Christina Aguilera and other inane music. They were nice people, but definitely had different tastes than us. Most of the people we've met are from the UK and they seem to enjoy sitting around talking about BBC television shows we've never heard of. The drive took us through a mountainous national park, past Chiang Rai and to the plains of the north where the fields are surrounded by mountains. Little old woman toiled in the sun wearing big brimmed hats.

We arrived in Chiang Khong as the sun was setting and caught our first glimpse of the sleepy Mekong river and the banks of Laos on the other side. We scored a room for 80 baht. The room felt like we were camping at a cheap cabin somewhere. There is no night life in this town except for a few bars catering to foreign tourists. In these establishments, the nightlife consists of showing pirated movies. We watched Constantine (weird, didn't like it) and Million Dollar Baby (didn't like the ending). I definitely got my fill of movies for a while. It was nice in the grass roofed bar, sitting on a bench as the rain beat down outside. We heard the loudest crack of thunder ever.

Once in Chiang Khong, we had to make an important decision: which boat to take to Luang Prabang. The fast boat is a little costlier, lasting about six hours in a kamikaze long boat with an oversized motor. Crash helmets are provided, but you need your own ear plugs for the deafening roar and a ton of sunscreen because there's no shade. Reports say it's unsafe. The other option is the slow boat, a mind numbing two day venture with an overnight in a tiny town. The seats are not too comfortable and at every village they stop to add more people, and add more plastic chairs if needed. But it is covered and fairly safe. Both sound rather hellish.

After being ferried across the river to Laos customs and immigration, we took the slow boat. Gregg and I shared a rickety wooden seat only big enough for one western bum. Throughout the first cramped and uncomfortable day, we met some interesting people.First, there was drunk lady. She had drunk a few vodka and orange juices before we took off. We watched her lapse into alcoholic coma. I'm sure the trip seemed fast for her.Then there was Wolverine. He looked like a Scandinavian X-Men character with chops, facial piercings, and long blond hair. His girlfriend looked Israeli and they were quite nice.Gregg made friends with a Swedish guy fresh out of the army. They were both tired though and didn't have too much to say. We met our first Canadian of the trip, a girl named Laura from Edmonton. And once again, there were tons of English. And an overly talkative Kiwi couple.

But of the sixty people aboard, our favorites were the Austrians. There was "Sonny" - the dreadlock guy with the Chinese girlfriend and "Weed Wacker" a guy with huge sunglasses who looked like a weed wacker styled his hair. They had Thai and Laos beer, a couple coolers of ice and packs of big cigarettes. They rolled a few joints as well. They were unaffected by the alcohol and proved to be quite entertaining through the whole ordeal.

We stayed overnight in Pakbeng, which Gregg calls "Nowhere, Laos". It's only accessible by boat and I think tourism is the main source of their income. One dollar US is 10 000 kip so we paid about 30 000 for a meal. I have a huge stack of bills and it's only worth about fifty bucks.

Today, we had a better boat. We had seats instead of benches and I didn't feel like they were going to collapse under us. When we got to our seats at 8 AM, not too many people were there yet. Heinrich was sitting there doing Calculus and writing stuff about matrices. He didn't say anything all day long.

The scenery was gorgeous. Green green hills and crazy rock formations by the muddy water. There were little villages and huts at the river's edge and children playing in the water would dance and wave at us. Cows would continue their grazing and fishermen would labor with their nets affixed to bamboo poles. The landscape got more rugged today with sheer rock cliffs and jagged peaks rising into the blue sky. This country definitely is beautiful. We saw an elephant hauling logs off of a boat by the river.

And now we are in Luang Prabang - quite thankful to be off that little boat. Laos used to be a French colony and some of the feel has survived here. I look forward to exploring it tomorrow.