Millionaires on Mekong.

The last days of Thailand took me to the border town of Chiang Khong. Little, authentic feeling town with lots of guesthouses for people headed to Laos. I met a bunch of lovely Europeans at a lovely guesthouse with river views, and I've been travelling with them for a few days now. It's great to have company!

On Sunday we crossed the Mekong river to Laos, to the town of Huai Xei where we started a two-day journey down the Mekong on slow boat. The slow boats are long boats, taking roughly 50 people and had rows of seats taken from old cars. First day we had a pleasure of sitting on plastic chairs as the main seats were all taken. The river views were stunning - jungle-covered tall mountains all around the river and no signs of civilization!

We spent the night in the small town of Pak Beng, where the service providers were accustomed to cheating the tourists with the exchange rates. I had the first taste of Lao food, and the chicken lap (minced chicken, bean sprouts, lemon and chili) was delicious! The local Lao lager was good, and the happy hour shots of Lao whiskey made us giddy. Good evening all in all! In the morning we saw a small brawl - a tourist was unhappy with the service and paying for something she never ordered or obtained, and threw the money at the waiter, which lead to the chef waving her knife around aggressively and people shouting curses at her. Apparently throwing money is a big no-no!

The second day on the boat was longer, seven hours, and we didn't get seats at all. We had learned from the previous day that back of the boat has a loud engine, so we camped at the front and sat on our rucksacks. It turned out a lot more comfortable way to travel, and I was first time happy to have so much stuff with me as it made a nicer seat! I even managed to sleep for a while, and the journey had a nice camping feel to it.

Finally in Luang Prabang we first headed to a cash point (to stop the losses when paying in Thai baht) and we become millionaires, as one euro is about 11,000 Lao kip! As their biggest note is 50,000 kip (less than 5 euros), we had pockets full of money and we found a lovely guest house with cheapish rooms and lovely garden area. For dinner I had lap again, this time with fish (and mint instead of beansprouts) and it was even better! It's weird how sitting on a boat can wear you out, so this morning has been slow one. Soon we'll go to see some temples and museums, but the first impression from Luang Prabang is fairly touristy, very influenced by French (you can buy wine here! and there are bakeries! croissant for breakfast!), but it is very colourful and beautiful little town.