To get from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Laung Prabang, Laos you take a bus to the border where you stay for the night and then cross the border and take a boat all day, stay in a small town and then take a boat all day for the next day, finally arriving in Luang Prabang after 3 days and 2 nights of travel.
Despite feeling awful we headed out to as scheduled. (Mostly because I couldn't change our reservation without paying a substansial amount.) The bus was supposed to pick us up around 9am but didn't actually get there until 10:30. We headed out on our 6 hour bus ride where I sat there cconcentrating on not pooping myself the entire time. Luckily after an hour and a half the bus stopped for lunch and I was able to relax my grip. After another hour and a half we stopped at the White Temple, which was amazing and something out of Predator meets Aliens meets Starwars meets Buddhist monks.
The last bit of the bus ride was 2 hours and I honestly didn't think I could make it. When the bus stopped I made a run for it.
The room that was included with our transfer package had 3 single beds, with no windows and a toilet and shower outside across the complex. With my stomach the way it was, there was no way I was going to make it across any courtyard to get to a toilet in the middle of a rainy night. For an extra $1.50 each we were able to get a room with a TV and ensuite toilet and shower. Janelle reckons that it is one of the nicest rooms we have had during our time in Thailand.
In the morning we loaded into a bus to the Thailand border where we stamped out of Thailand a day before our visa's were set to expire. It is with great regret that after 29 days we are leaving Thailand and heading to Laos. Despite being sick for the last couple of days Thailand has been amazing! We then boarded a small boat across the Mekong river to the Laos side.
We had to submit paperwork and a passport photo along with US Dollars to get a Laos visa, which was processed and returned to us promptly. We then got a tuk tuk to the boat ramp and boarded our boat.
We had seat assignments but most people weren't honoring them so we sat elsewhere. We got to the boat 30 minutes early as I heard it fills up and all of the seats are taken. By 11pm (the scheduled departure time) the boat was overflowing with people, sitting in the engine room and crammed on the floor. The boat operators opened another boat and everyone on my boat who didn't have a seat or had a poor seat switched boats. As we contuinued to wait for people to board the boat time kept ticking away (as it does). Both boats again filled to capacity with people sitting on the floor and in the engine compartment. Shortly after 1pm, two hours after the boat was scheduled to leave, we departed and headed towards Pakbeng, the destination for the night.
The views out of the boat were really beautiful, countryside, mountains, small villages accessible only by water, fisherman checking their lines and kids playing in the water.
The boat arrived in Pakbeng around 7pm. We had been told by both the hotel and several touts at the border that booking accomidation ahead of time for Pakbeng was essential as everything would fill up that was cheap and only the $40+ a night rooms would be left. I had read otherwise and we chanced it arriving in Pakbeng without any accomadation. At the boat dock were a dozen women with cards showing their respective guest houses. We found one in the center of town that looked nice and was less than $7 a night. They drove us to the guesthouse and everything checked out, it was really nice and a heck of a bargain at that price.
The next morning we went back to the dock and there were two boats to choose from. We had arrived early again anticipating people to fight over seats but 30 minutes was plenty of time to choose seats. As I was still feeling awful I immedietly checked the bathroom of the boat we were on and decided that we should stay on that boat as the bathroom was immaculate, tall enough for me to stand in it, toilet paper and a sink to wash my hands with soap. The boat was supposed to leave by 9am but people were still showing up at 9:30 and we didn't end up leaving until 10am. The trip was again filled with breathtaking views and interesting things to see. We arrived in Laung Prabang at 4pm and headed towards our hotel.
We knew that our hotel was only 5-10 minutes walk from the pier but we weren't sure where exactly. We kept asking people who were telling us to head south along the water. A travel agent told us to head up three streets and turn left. As we got to the third street there wasn't a sign for the hotel but Janelle headed up the street to look for our accommodation. I waited at the bottom of the street and asked a guy who was trying to sell me on his accommodation, which I didn't want and then he told me to keep heading south. I yelled up to Janelle to come back and we headed two more streets further south. When we still couldn't find it we went up to the main street and started to back track. We kept asking people who told us to go further north. When we got to the street Janelle had started to search I went down it from the top to where I thought Janelle had come from the other side but couldn't see the hotel. We searched two more streets without any luck until I found a man who told me to walk down an alley straight ahead and I would find it. We followed his instructions and the alley dead ended at the street both Janelle and I had searched yet not managed to find our hotel. Janelle and I had both missed the hotel by mere meters. I'm really looking forward to resting for a few days and havinng clean and readily accessible toilets.
Despite spending the whole day in the shade, I got a sunburn from the reflection off the water!
Check out the slide show to see all of the rest of our pictures
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