Lounging in Laos

 We left Chiang Mai, Thailand on a 2nd class bus which took 5 hours to get to Chiang Rai. We had to catch the last bus in Chiang Rai leaving to the border town Chiang Khong at 5 pm. The 2nd class bus got us to the bus station at 4:45pm, and when Keels went to buy a ticket to Chiang Khong, they told him that was at another bus station across town. If we missed this bus it was going to put us back another day, so we hustled, caught a truck, and made it to the other bus station at 5:10...luckily the buses never leave on time and we got on just before it left. The 3rd class bus ride was slow but went through beautiful countryside. When we got to Chiang Khong, we caught a Tuk Tuk... and had him take us to Bamboo Guesthouse...which was recommended in the Lonely Planet book. When we got there, the place seemed semi-shady...but the room looked clean (although it was made of thatch and looked like it would fall down if I sneezed to hard), so we trusted Lonely Planet and took it. This is where our interesting night started...(more to come on this later)

The slow boat to Luang Prabang Laos down the Mekong River was pretty cool. The oriental style polished teak boat was great to see, and even better to be going down the river on. Although the boat was slow and moderately uncomfortable, the scenery was beautiful.  But back to the uncomfortable... the boat had two options for seating... the floor which was preferred or VIP seating or wooden bench seats. (Mind you that the boat ride consisted of (2) 8hr days). As we started down the river, Keels and I started scoping out where we could hang our hammocks from. We found some good ceiling joists and got them situated so we were partially hanging out over the side of the boat above the water... this was not only a great view but also had a nice breeze.

Despite the looks of pure jealousy from the other passengers, we bought a couple Big BeerLao's, read books, napped, and had a rather relaxing first day.  Day # 2, the rug was pulled out from beneath both of us... for some reason we changed boats. The new boats didnt have joists that we could hang the hammocks from and we were forced out of the super VIP hammock section into the wooden seats with the masses. Day 2 was a backbreaker, however we met two cool Canadians (Dave and Jan) that helped pass the time.

The Mekong River had little signs of civilization, other than a few small river villages. The boat must a doubled as a supply boat, because it carried bags of rice, chicken cages, and other supplies on the roof which we dropped off at the small river towns. Most didnt have power lines or any signs of roads leading to them, so I assumed they were pretty isolated. We we arrived at our destination Luang Prabang, it was more of a town than a large city.  So far it is a really cool town that seems to have a lot of French influence (used to be a French colony).  Dave, Jan, Keels, and I walked into town and found a nice guest house with a large balcony and a river view. Guesthouse was a whopping 60,000 kip ($7.50) for our single room and was completely trimmed out in varnished teak. So far, Luang Prabang seems like a cool place to spent a couple days...we will figure out more and continue on.