LAOS
After a good night sleep we caught a bus to the border crossing and then qued to get our visas I had already downloaded from the Internet before we left we had to get a bus across the bridge which you don’t have a choice we cleared Thai immigration and arrived at laos it took about 20 minutes to get our visas which were 35 $ cash a dollar extra because it was the week-end we then got another bus into huay xai in laos were we went to the ferry jetty to get the 2 day slow boat to luang prabang we paid 75000 kip each and boarded a full boat but we had great seats near the front next to a lovely couple from cologne or Coln Germany.
The journey on the meekong river was great at a nice slow pace we saw a couple of speed boats that make the journey from huay xai to luang prabang but they looked really uncomfortable and the driver was wearing a helmet we heard from some people who have done this trip and they said it hurts their back , we played cards with the couple and had a few beers molly really enjoyed the company there was a bar on board selling beer coffee noodles etc but from what I have seen so far it is very expensive €1.50 for a coffee ,after 5 hours we reached our overnight stop at pakbeng and at the ferry landing it was full of people offering guest houses or hotels we decided to walk and find our own as they were all quite expensive after about 500 metres we found a guest house called doidevila guest house it cost us 50,000 kip but I found the rest of the village ready to just rip off the travellers everything was so expensive no bartering it was 2 dollars for a sandwich a bag of crisps 1 dollar 50 cents it became so annoying that this place has a captive audience and they just want to screw you for everything ,we had a nice indian /laos meal with the couple from the boat and a few beers but again we were stung for an expensive meal over 25 dollars .I so want to go back to Thailand where you have good service for a fair price,after our meal we went for an early night as molly gets tired from the travelling
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The next day we walked back down to the ferry port and got on the boat but our seats were taken by some very rude older people who tried to take all places for their food and stopping people from sitting or storing bags near the seats when we tried to talk to them they suddenly didn’t understand us , we met the same couple as the day before and sat together again,this was another 6 hour journey to luang prabang
Once we arrived in luang prabang I left the girls as always to eat while I found somewhere to stay but after 2 hours walking I could not find anything again it was because of chinesse new year there were so many chinesse people on holiday for weeks I tried over 100 places from guest house to hotel but to no avail I went back to tell the girls and I stopped in a hotel for the toilet and a friendly french girl receptionist ask if I had found anything I told my predicament and she said she would check all accomadation on her computer and found us a room but it was 150 dollars she called the hotel and told them our story of not much money and they reduced it to 100$ breakfast included not great but at least we had a bed ,I went to tell the girls the good news ,they were happy but worried I had taken so long
We gathered our bags and used maps me to find our hotel about 800 metres away thru the night market I grabbed a few chicken on sticks to keep me going, we found our room okay dropped our bags and went for a walk and a well earned beer
The next day we decided to move on as I tried to find more places to stay on the Internet but all still full for another 4 days, so we caught a bus back to the bus station and then another small bus to nong kwoi a village on the meekong river where we could then catch a boat further north to muong noi a homestay village after a good sleep in a cheap guest house we got breakfast at delilahs cafe this was run by a aussie guy called harps very friendly and helpfull he told us how not to pay what the boat people ask and he also told us about the land crossing to vietnam where we were heading he also said that from febuary the 1st vietnam had opened evisa for certain countries but guess what not for lithuanian so we used him to get our visas and he would deliver them to us 3 days later by the boat that would take us north to muong kwoi later
that morning we caught our boat up river for 25000kip each it was a lovely trip only 20 people on board and a hour and half we arrived to this village
Our nice hut with veiw from our balcony
We arrived to a big welcome of people offering rooms we chose a nice little girl who was cheap 60000kip and stayed in nicks as place we had a big bed mosquito net we found out the next 3 days were going to be a festival for the new temple, the novice monks becoming monks and also the day of getting rid of bad evil spirits and welcoming the good luck
The next day we rented a small boat with a driver and we visited a nice waterfall by hiking 2 km molly really loved the adventure as we went up some steep rocks and thru rivers and then when we reach the waterfall me and molly went in for a swim ohhh it was cold
After our walk back and boat trip we had a great meal in gecko bar on the main street and got talking to a Swiss man who comes here every year and told us that we tourist are just a target to make money as they all think we are rich if only they could see that most people who go to these remote places are budget back packers I think they could shoot themselves es in the foot as word soon gets around
Last day in Muong noi and while we are waiting for our passports and boat to arrive we get chatting to some people and realise we had all been conned in to buying tickets for just ourselves on the boat but actually we were all on same boat it wasn’t the people who sold the tickets to us but the driver of the boat trying to make money from not using 2 boat eventually after much arguing and name calling at us they agreed to the deal as we had bought and provided another boat ,it wasn’t that we wanted our own boat it was the principal of you get what you pay for and the driver did not want to return any money that we had paid
Molly swimming in the meekong river with dad
after all that we got our passports with our visas it’s funny I don’t seem to worry about handing visas forms etc and passport over to agents so we are now travelling north to the Vietnam border and on to Hanoi
Muang khua village another transit town we arrived by boat after a 5 hour trip the town is very quite and just a transit town for people continuing to vietnam border I didn’t like it hear rude people and again just trying to rip people off it also closed down about 8km so if you want to eat do it early we bought tickets for our bus below in photo that night to make sure we got a place
the river north gets a lot narrower and again we saw a lot of Chinese construction going on for new hydro power stations along the Mekong how long before they control Laos power?
We caught this bus to dein bien phn it was a 23 seater but when we arrive at border there was 46 people sat in the aisles on the door step and over engine compartment but it was fun
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