Passing into IndoChina

Before anything else we would like to wish everyone a very merry christmas! Our christmas has been somewhat... different. There are some father christmas statues around, and there is plenty on offer. But being here in Laos, doesnt quite meet the normal christmas feel. However, it has been one to remember and with the newly aquired gang (Daniel, Nora, Katelyn and Kerry from the Chiang Mai trek, and Eva from Rotterdam) we were far from lonely. We decided to have a christmas dionner of our own, so picked ourselves a little quaint restaurant... the food however, lets just say, didnt land well for the majority. The main reason was the excessive quantities of chilles. The local red wine was also a little different, but on the whole it was a christmas to remember. On christmas day, we went to the renowned waterfalls, which was a visit well worth it! The pools were so blue that they seemed somewhat surreal, and the overall feel of the place was awesopme. The afternoon was ended off with a lazy ly down on the grass in the sun.

But that is christmas, I hope that everyone had an excellent time! Now let me tell you about how we got here. So the last logged account was when we had gotten to the small, somewhat hippie town of Pai. From there we made our way to the North Eastern Border, the border taking us to Laos! The adventure started, for some reason the passing through of borders gets me really excited! All the excitement though allowed me to let my guard down, which resulted in me not doing my pre tasting of food duty properly... so Iaki almost died from little evil shrimps! But luckily before any serious damage was done I realised, provided an allergex, and ate the evil meal. Sorry Iaki, it wont happen again! Iaki survived, but did get a nausea attack, the same possible food poisoning that the israelis had, appartently due to Pai Pork. So finally the general antibiotic came in useful, and iaki's medi kit is being well utilised. Now back in full health!

The indo-China Gateway

So back to the crossing, we crossed the border at Chinag Khong, into Huay Xai, the border from where we caught the two day slow boat down the Mekong. How this works is that Touts will try and scare you by telling you there is only one boat to sell you overpriced tickets. However, we are proud to say that we are now streetwise, and bought our ticlets at the same office as the touts, for the actual price. This whole endevour saved us some cash, a merry christmas meal if you will. So now I guess the score is one to us and one to Thai Tuk Tuk drivers. At this rate we will get our street wise cred back in no time.

The crossing of the border was excellent, it was misty, there were loads of little boats and the visa process was smooth. The only negative thing was that Iaki was sick, and feeling horrid. But Im proud of him, he pulled through and pushed on. Once we got our seats on the back of the slow boat, together with the other 90 or so travellers, and boat two was being loaded up, we realised how slow they were.

Iaki and Daniel feeling under the weather

Our cozy vessel

The evening was started with arrival in the spend the night guest house conglomerate known as Pak Beng. All 90 of us got off and strated the trek up the steep dune, at the same time a mob of about 40 touts made their way down intercepting us with laminated guest house adverts like some epic battle. We made it through alive though and after just a 4 minute walk we climbed into a room and dumped the bags. A bargain at EUR1 each. The most classic sales pitch was...

Me: Is there a fan?
Tout: Yes
Me: 2 beds?
Tout: Yes
Me: Hot shower
Tout: Sure, sure whatever you want
Me: and you say 100 Baht total?
Tout: Yes
So we took it,

Iaki was pretty dissapointed when he had to endure the icy shower so unexpectedly. But it turned out the whole town only had electricity until 22:30 and except for the $75 per night hotel, not one guest house had hot water.

Pak beng and the boats

So after a fresh start to the day, we got back to the trusty slog by 8:00, to find that today all 120 of us would be on one boat. That was just the way it was, to the dismay of many passengers. The reason was that a swiss couple didnt quite enjoy themselves the day before in the cramped conditions. So they had put down 600 US dollars to buy out the whole boat, a private charter if you will. Pretty awesome for them, but it made our ride a whole lot slower and off course even more cozy. Good times

We arrived at the Luang Prabang docks and started the hostel hunt together with all 120 others. Daniel and I were succesful within 30 minutes, finding ourselves keeper places. So, christmas has been good, and the travelling even better. I would not want to be anywhere else but here right now, Im loving life!

Arrival at Luang Prabang

Monk crossing bamboo bridge

To end the day off, and hopefully just the day the infamous deadly looking man's drink... Lao lao whiskey!

The infamous snake whiskey of Luang Prabang is on the cards for later