Boating Into Laos

Apparently Laos is the most bombed country in the world, being bombed by the USA years ago. I haven't seen any signs of the bombing yet but apparently in some towns there are bits of bombs being used as chairs and tables in bars and restaurants.

After trekking in Chiang Mai, Lucy, Brig, Amy and I caught buses to the Laos boarder where we stayed for the night in a pleasant little town. I ventured out for a few beers with some guys from Holland and a few girls from Ireland, it was a low key evening as we were all bracing ourselves for a long 8 hour boat journey in Laos the following day.

The Laos border was a simple affair as we handed over our passports and got onto a boat to cross the river into Laos before boarding another boat to head deeper into the country.

The boat was pretty cramped and I had to keep standing up to get rid of the stiffness caused by sitting for so long. It took two days (6-8 hours a day) to get down the river into Laos and to finally arrive at Luang Prabang. We had to stay over in a small one horse town on the river for one night. The only problem being that the town's prices were inflated as we had no where else to eat out or buy water from etc.

Luang Prabang was a pleasant surprise for me and I immediately liked the place. It's a small place with quite a few backpackers but not too many to make it anything like Bangkok. Laos in general seems a lot less spoilt by too many travellers and has a great laid back feel to it.