The slow boat

We managed to get to the slow boat with no problems. From chiang mai we were planning to take a bus to chiang khong where the Laos immigration is but we missed it so we had to go to chiang rai, spend the night there and get a 6am bus to chiang khong in the morning. Chiang khong ended up being a pleasant surprise! We found a huge night food market with live music. We got a hot pot that was boiled in a clay pot with charcoal and then a big basket with vegetables and some prawns- then we made our own little soup! The boys tried maggots - I did not. They said it tasted like feet and had the consistency of sand. The morning bus to chiang khong was funny- it was a legit Asian bus not a tourist one. There were 2 other people from France- one of them who hit his head really hard getting onto the bus- great way to start his day I'm sure. I've been hitting my head a lot too- everything is 2 feet shorter here because thai/Laos people are so short. We got to chiang khong, got our Laos visa on arrival and got to the slow pat which we were told let at 1030am. Noon rolled around and we finally were on our way. The boat was pretty hilarious. We had seat numbers but of course no one follows them so we had the last row- right beside the engine. I wore earplugs the whole time and conversation was out of the question. The first day was about 7 hours. We stopped for the night in Pakbeng which was a little town really only for these boats. It was a little dodgy- before we even got off the boat we had 2 guys asking if we wanted a guest room... Or some opium! Haha. Opium is pretty big around here because there used to be a piece of land in the golden triangle called "no mans land" where the river connects Laos, Thailand and the old Burma. Since no one owned it opium trading was legal. Its not anymore but still floats around. A little history fact I learned on my tour! The second day was 8 hours, we got into Luang Prabang around 8pm. We were much smarter the 2nd day and we got seats at the front. We met some great guys from Holland, and american and a handful of others. We were turned away from about 10 guesthouses that were full before we found one. We went to the night market and had a huge dinner- I got a whole fish that I ate with chopsticks. It was so delicious!! I htink that's my favourite thing to eat so far. <3