Adventures in Laos (Part One aka Journey from Hell)

So, Laos was great! I've never seen scenery like it in my life, it was really breathtaking (again, no photos yet.)

We started out the trip by crossing the Mekong River from Chiang Khong in Thailand to Husai (spelling?) in Laos which took about 5 minutes in a dinky boat. We got our passports stamped and exchanged money - I did about $200 and the stack of money I recieved in return made me look like a millionaire (well, I technically was because I had over 13 million kip.) We took a minibus about 5 minutes to the main boat area which was my first encounter with Laos being a really random country - the driver was blasting 'Short Dick Man'!!! As we had nearly shat our pants after seeing the speedboat we were all peopared to take the slow boat. Well...not really.

We got on this boat (via a narrow wooden blank we had to cross with our huge rucksacks) that I think was supposed to hold about 40 people, but they managed to cram at least 80 in!!! There were two rows of hard wooden benches upon which mine and Laura's asses barely fit, meanwhile all the seats in front of us were tripled up. (I have great photos of this soon to come.) I was next to the window, I mean open air, and the bottom side of the boat was slanted so I sat for the next 6 hours with my legs squished with a bolt jamming into my ass. It was tre uncomfortable. About an hour into the journey we pulled over and there was a hut of kids selling snacks that walked through the boat with their merch. We stopped a few more times to pick up some random Laotians (?) and their gear and finally made it to Pak Bang where as soon as we got off the boat we were herded with people trying to take us to buy 'happy shakes.' We headed to a guesthouse in this tiny town with Ashley and Becky (from Kanchanaburi) and their new travelling mates British Steven and Irish Pauline and Natalie. I'm slightly offended that the guesthouse owner knocked on their doors to offer them pot, opium, and heroin and didn't offer us, though he did ask us if we were married (and then told Steven that all these Western girls say they are married but they always sleep with him anyway - GROSS!) We all went to dinner where I spotted a rat running across the wall (2+ years of living with mice will train you to spot rodents easily) sending everyone into a squirmish. The entire town shut off their electricity at 10:00 pm so it was lights out for us early.

The next morning we woke up and I had my first banana pancakes in Laos and they were absolutely amazing!! We all headed for the boat and this time Laura and I were more sociable by sitting in the back with everyone. I read an entire book (it was a 7 hour trip after all) and we layed on the dried muddy floor attempting to take naps. We finally made it to Luang Prabang in the early evening, and after surviving walking the tiny plank were off in a tuk tuk to a guesthouse.

There's a queue here for the computer so I'll write more this week. Just you wait until my Hanoi entry cause it's J-U-I-C-Y!!!