The Journey

After 3 days, a bus, a boat and over 24 hours of solid moving on transport we have finally made it to Luang Prabang in Laos. I guess this is what 'travelling' is all about?

THE BUS
Our first day we arrived at the bus station in Chiang Mai to find there was a 1st class bus directly to Chiang Kong (the border) in 20 mins. Perfect. Unfortunately by the time we got to the front of the ticket queue there were 2 minutes till the bus left and it was full. It was quite a heart wrenching vision to see the bus leave without us! 5 hours later we were squashed onto a 2nd class bus with minimal air conditioning and 5 seats to a row (I didn't even fit on one seat so spent the journey with one butt cheek off the seat) and an extra 2 hours to get to where we wanted to go. A test of endurance to say the least! Lonely Planet seem to think that the 'only' way to travel is to take public buses and you're not a proper traveller unless you do. If I ever meet the editor I'm going to slap him.
Finally 7 1/2 hours later we arrived at the border town and were nearly killed on a tuk tuk to a guesthouse as the driver was actually insane. We were both rather hysterical by this point! The guesthouse was set in beautiful gardens with cool bamboo huts but unfortunately had the most irritating owner in the world who drove us both mental and didn't give us any useful information whatsoever!

THE BORDER
The next early early morning we made it across the border, having to pay 5 baht for 'overtime' to get our passports stamped as apparently it was a Thai holiday. We then hopped into a long tail boat over the Mekong to Laos, paid our $35 for visas and were officially not aliens any more!

THE BOAT
We were convinced that we would be able to get a bus from the Laos border to Luang Prabang despite being told in Chiang Mai by about 6 different tourist agencies it wasn't possible. At the border we found out yes there was a bus but it was 16 hours without air con. The memory of the bus the day before decided it; the boat it would be. Not the 6 hour fast speed boat that you had to wear motorcycle helmets and had a strong possibility of dying on but the gentle 2 day meander down the Mekong with a stop in a village along the way.

The plus point about the boat was that it was shady. The downside was that it was entirely filled with westerners (we were surrounded by some of the most obnoxious people I've met on my trip (see the next post)) and our 'seats' were wooden benches very close together. Luckily I'd invested in some cushions for us or our bums might have fallen off! As we set off a rather nice river breeze ruffled our hair and we thought, hey, maybe it might not be so bad!


The boat ride itself would have been lovely if it had been a mere day. Meandering down the Mekong we passed hills and mountains, children swimming and waving, women washing clothes and little wooden huts for villages. The sad part was when we stopped and our boat was swamped by kids selling beer. But I guess it gives them some money that they wouldn't receive otherwise. In the evening we stayed in quite a charmless village with limited electricity; we were so exhausted by this point we would have slept anywhere though!

The next day we arrived at the boat very early to find we'd been upgraded overnight and almost half the seats were now padded (car seat like). We managed to get 2 of the last few nice seats remaining and sat feeling smug as everyone that turned up later was forced to sit back on the wooden benches. Unfortunately our favourite smoking Americans turned up almost last of all and ended up sitting right by us on the wooden benches! Sod's law!

When we finally arrived in Luang Prabang 9 1/2 hours later I felt like we hadn't been on dry land for a week. It was just such a relief! And then we got lucky, almost making up for the nigthmare boat trip. We were walking down the road looking for a cheap guesthouse when a guy from a very posh place offers us a place to stay. After laughing because it was way too expensive he asks us how much and now for $20 a night we are ensconsed in the most beautiful teak room with 2 enormous beds, a TV, air con AND a fan, and the piece de resistance, a shower curtain! Maybe that was worth the journey?!