3 days to Luang Prabang

Day 1: 12 March 2005

It was slow checking out of our guesthouse this morning as Kel had been violently ill all night. We hung out at the guesthouse waiting for our 12:00 bus to Chiang Khong on the Laos border. It was a long 5.5 hour minivan ride for Kel, but not too bad for Nigel (the valium he took probably helped out as well). Our driver was a bit loco, passing on the curve and over hills, and dodging potholes at 80+ kph.

We arrived at our hotel in Chiang Khong and had some dinner. We were given vouchers as meals were included in the bus price, so Nige was quite happy to eat 2 meals, while Kel managed to get some plain rice down. We walked down the one street in Chiang Khong, which is a small, cute border town, and had an hour long foot/leg massage before going to bed.

Day 2: 13 March 2005

This morning we drove to the border checkpoint in Chiang Khong, got stamped out of Thailand, crossed the river, and got stamped into Laos. We were quite surprised at how easy this land-border crossing was, as they have not run too smoothly in the past. We did have to pay 15 baht each to the Laos immigration guys because it was Sunday. Because Sundays have so much significance in a Buddhist country.

We boarded our small boat and tried to get comfortable on the tiny wooden benches for the 6 hours to our next stop: Pakbeng, Laos. While waiting for the boat to leave, we watched the Beer Lao boys hard at work. There was a truck FULL of crates of empty beer bottles, which they unloaded onto a boat (which already was 3/4 full, a sure sign they had been working since the wee hours of the morning). It was amazing to watch them grip 2 crates in each hand and walk quickly along a plank of wood onto the boat, balancing perfectly and never falling into the river. Once the truck was empty, they proceeded to unload a boat FULL of crates of full beer bottles onto the truck. It was like watching an army of beer ants. We tried to smuggle ourselves onto the boat of full beer, but weren't sure it was going to Luang Prabang.

The boat ride was slow but passed through some stunning scenery along the Mekong River. We weren't too uncomfortable as we had the front bench and could spread out a bit onto the platform with our bags stacked on it. The boat docked in Pakbeng around 6:00 pm, we checked into our hotel for the night and sat down for a cold beer. We shared a late Indian dinner, which turned out to be a big mistake as it was Nigel's turn to be sick all night.

Day 3: 14 March 2005

It was another slow morning since Nigel was still quite ill, but we managed to get ourselves and our gear down to the boat around 8:00a.m. It was a bigger boat for day two, but still tiny wooden benches. To make a long story short, it was a miserable day for Nigel, the boat was packed full, and he was so achy and weak that it took all of his energy just to sit. He finally managed to find some space in the engine room where he fell into a carbon monoxide induced sleep, and managed not to fall out of the open window/door into the river. I went back to check on him at one stage, and was happy he'd finally fallen asleep, but shocked that he could sleep smelling oil and with the engine deafening him. One of the crewmen curled up next to him for a short nap at one stage, practically with his head on Nigel's shoulder. But the scenery was still spectacular, beautiful forested mountains and slate rock formations jutting out of the river. We could have been in Oregon or even back on the Yangze at times. We got to Luang Prabang around 4:30, found a clean, quiet hotel room (with cable TV), had a quick dinner (plain rice for Nige) and collapsed into a 12 hour coma.