The boat journey to Luang Prabang turned into one of our highlights of our around the world trip so far. The boat was not too crowded on the first day and we had managed to
bag ourselves very good and comfortable seats. There was a basic toilet on board, a noisy engine and a small bar for light refreshment. On the journey we were able to watch
local people fishing, panning for gold and children / adolescents just generally playing as it was a weekend which had enabled us to see so much. At the end of the first day
we arrived at Pak Beng which is a nice small town whose sole existence is because of boats needing to stop overnight half way between Houay Xai and Luang Prabang. Nonetheless
the place was very nice and the people very very friendly.
The next morning we had an early start in order to get good seats on our boat. This was necessary since we had heard
that on the second day there was almost twice as many people on the same size, if not smaller boat. This turned out to be the case and many people were penalised for not turning
up in advance. Some people were even given plastic seats for the much longer day of travelling. We saw locals walking with elephants on the banks of the Mekong and some other
great scenery but not as much as the day before since it was now a Monday. After another long day of travelling we arrived in Luang Prabang.
Luang Prabang was a welcome sight after having being on a boat and remote village overnight. Western food was available everywhere as was good quality, cheap accomodation. We enjoyed our time here strolling through the enormous night market and river front. We also headed out to the waterfall where we met some Irish people in the Tuk Tuk. On the way there the weather made a turn for the worse and there was a sudden heavy downpour, we had read the weather in advance and hadn't expected rain until the evening, but thankfully it passed quickly and we went on to enjoy our day here. We started off by jumping into the bottom pool at the falls before making our way up to see each of the higher tiered pools before eventually climbing up to the very top of the falls. This involved a very step ascent and descent and provided only a mediocre view of the falls and surrounding forest while having only questionable safety.
Next we headed via ATR-72 (light aircraft) into Ha Noi (Vietnam). This was to be our 6th country so far.
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