the mighty mekong

So sitting on a boat on a tiny wooden bench for two days is not the most comfortable way to spend your time, just in case you were wondering.

I am now in Luang Prabang, Laos, after three long days of traveling.

We left Chiang Mai on Friday and rode to the Laos border in a minibus, where we applied for and received our Laos visas while enjoying a bottle of Coca Cola and listening to Jack Johnson. It was definitely the most relaxed immigration office I've ever been to, especially considering we were entering a Communist country. We crossed the Mekong river into Laos, where we stayed for the night before setting off the next day. Although the first day was long, it was a treat compared to the next two.

Being slightly cheap, Amy and I chose the slow boat to Luang Prabang, and when they say slow, we learned, they really aren't joking. After being told our boat would leave at 9:30 am, we finally left at 11:30, with passengers sitting in the aisles and crammed in the back behind the engine. Luckily, since we had arrived at 9:30, Amy and I had a narrow wooden bench to ourselves for the eight-hour trip downstream. Along the way we chatted with our fellow passengers, some Canadians, Brits and Scots, all of whom had been traveling for at least a year. Even though the day was long, we enjoyed the company and conversation.

As the boat floated slowly along, we passed villages perched above the sandy beaches, half hidden in the greenery. Laos children ran down the hillsides to wave at the boat while men pulled in fishing lines and women did the washing in the sheltered water near the rocks. They were the kind of scenes you see in old movies, a nice change from the hectic, tourist-filled cities of Thailand.

We spend the night in a village half way to our destination, where the power turned off at 10 p.m. and everyone slept under mosquito nets. Our beds were certainly not luxurious, but they felt heavenly after the benches on the boat.

So this morning we departed on the boat once again, this time ready for the crammed conditions and armed with lunch and extra water. After another very long day of sandy scenery we arrived here in Luang Prabang, which we really haven't seen much of yet. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site, so I'm sure it's lovely; we'll just wait until tomorrow to find out.