The Mekong River, Laos

After the excitement (and strenuous uphill) of the Gibbon Experience, the trio totally shifted gears for two days to take a slow boat (emphasis on the slow) down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. It's a full two day venture with one night spent at Pak Beng, a small town that seemed entirely comprised of guesthouses and restaurants to serve the constant stream of tourists coming down the river. 

The docks in Houyxay. The slow boats lined up. 

Our boat

We were some of the first arrivals at the docks and boarded our boat around 9:30am. The boat quickly filled up and it seemed departure was eminent. Unfortunately, we accidentally managed to get ourselves aboard the slowest of the slow boats. We enviously watched other boats that were loaded after us depart before us. At about 12:30 we finally departed. We were antsy but glad we hadn't chosen to take a speed boat which the guide book described as "hitting rocks with alarming frequency." We saw a few speed boaters passing us. They weren't wearing life jackets, but they were wearing helmets. Perhaps Laos is at the cutting edge of water safety...

The seats themselves were quite comfortable. They all seemed to be scavanged from old vans, but they were only tentatively connected to the boat. Any sudden movement could send one or more of the passengers sprawling. Also, I'm pretty convinced the seat numbers were written in blood.  

Jasmine originally had the window seat in the row in front of Anna and I, until she was tricked out of her seat by this man:

Poor girl was stuck in the middle for the whole journey. Good thing she was reading a fantastic novel. We kept running into this fellow in Pak Beng and he would just start laughing (I assume at our expense).

Despite all my complaints, we were spoiled by the beautiful scenery. It was a very peaceful journey. Plus we only had to endure one drunk Canadian yelling about rob ford. None of my photos capture the view at all well. It's very jagged and mountainous and the trees looked like something out of a Dr Seuss book.