Down the River Mekong

Left Chiang Mai in a Minibus on (I think is was) Thursday to go to the Thai/ Laos border of Chiang Khong. The journey was fine and we stopped off at the White Temple on the way which looked like it was out of a Disney film - even the fish in the pond around it were white.

There was a Buddhist Monk meditating in the temple inside who was so still I asked someone if it was a wax model. You literally couldn't see him breathing or blinking. Chiang Khong ison the bank of the River Mekong. You can look out across the river and see Laos on the other side. I shared a room with a guy from Australia and one from Turkey. We found a Yoga teacher there by following some signs on the walk along the river and booked in for a class in the evening. The boys ended up  chickening out though so I went along by myself. The class was taught by an Australian lady who lived in a gorgeous wooden house there.

The next day we got up at 7am and went up the road to the border and got a boat across the river Mekong into Laos. Immigration was a bit of a shambles but not too bad. Learnt how to say 'Hello' and 'Thank you' in Laos while I was waiting; very handy. The Slow Boats down the river Mekong take just over 100 passengers. The boat I got was mostly full of tourists but I made some friends and we all sprawled out on the floor at the back of the boat. This was the noisiest part of the boat because it's right next to a massive engine but if you can put up with that it's better because the floor was much comfier than the wooden benches looked. The views down the Mekong are stunning - totally recommend it!

We stayed the first night in a small village called Pak Ben. I shared a room with two sisters from Wales. The room was okay enough except there was two massive cockroaches on the wall. We managed to sort this out though - Lisa grabbed a massive stick and flicked them off the wall while Dennis (the guy from Turkey) caught them in a waste paper bin. Job done. We all went out for tea together and met up with some other people from the boat. I had the nicest curry I've ever tasted - Laos curry with water buffalo (which you can see along the edges of the Mekong), we also had Mekong seaweed for starters - yum.

Day two on the boat was also good, again the views were really impressive. We arrived into Luang Prabang, our destination, at about 5pm and found ourselves a not too expensive guest house. A group of eight of us who were all on the boat together went out for dinner. Yum.

Today we went around on a mission looking for a cheaper guest house. Managed to find one for about two pounds a night each (twin rooms) so we're sorted for tonight and will probably stay here tomorrow two. After that we hired push bikes and cycled around Luang Prabang. It's a really nice, very small town and the people are lovely. We checked out a few temples  and climbed to the temple up a hill at the centre of town and watched the sunset.

Tomorrow we're going to some temples nearby and the day after catching the bus to Viang Veng which will take about five hours - a walk in the park now! There's some caves in Viang Veng but the main tourist attraction is floating down the river on a giant tracktor tyre, aka tubing. There is a group of eight of us now who are going to do it together so it should be more fun and safer. After that I'm going to check out the organic farm nearby.