Farewell to Laos...

Well what a trip that was. We got up in the 6's on Tuesday and headed to the pier for our boat to Pak Beng. We walked the 2km out of protest as the tuk tuks were charging far too much! We got to what we thought was the boat landing and we kept getting ushered to the right, in the end we were nowhere near where we'd started! Anyway, we got on our steed at half 8 and we were on our way shortly after.

The boat was basic but it had character. There were a selection of grand looking carved chairs and comfy looking car seats, all were taken so we sat the next 9 hours on a wooden bench with a equally hard cushion! The scenery was amazing and it didn't actually feel like a 9 hour journey as we were able to get up and walk around, far better than a bus!

We arrived in Pak Beng about 6pm and managed to get a guest house just as it turned dark. We went straight out for an Indian meal as we had only eaten one and a half baguettes each all day (Sion reminded Phil of this minutely throughout the journey). The only problem with the meal was that we had to sit on wooden chairs, normally not a problem but after 9 hours of it already it bloody hurt! We got a very early night, partly due to being shattered from doing nothing all day and partly because electricity was on a generator and we were left in darkness after 10pm.

Day two of our boat journey started at the same time as the previous day. We ordered big fat pancakes to try an fill us up for breakfast but they took ages to appear and so we were left running down the hill at half 8 to catch the boat we hadn't yet booked. All was fine and we managed to get our trusty wooden bench once more. Again it passed quite quickly and again the scenery was absolutely stunning. It's not something either of us would particularly like to do again but we're glad we did it.

We had an absolutely gorgeous meal tonight in Huay Xai, the Laos part of the Thai/Laos border. It was whole Mekong fish done beautifully in chillies and lemon, mmm mmmm! We also had our last Beer Laos in Laos!

So what did we think of Laos? Well, what a lovely place to be for two and half weeks. The people are so so friendly and the kids are heart melting; they stare at you like you a new species they've never seen before and as soon as you smile and say ‘Sabaydee' (hello) they burst into a fit of giggles and can't stop waving! We've been following the Mekong since Vietnam now and it's been very similar with subtle differences. Today on the boat trip it was awesome watching people throwing bamboo and net contraptions into the water to catch fish. The people aren't the only beautiful aspect, the landscape's amazing too. Laos is a little bigger than Great Britain and is 70% mountains and plateaus.  Laos has been such a peaceful place to be (even in the markets!) and it's been so easy to travel around, although vomit inducing in places! Unfortunately it's time to leave, so tomorrow it's off to Thailand for us. Country number eleven, here we come!