As they end of my time in Laos drew nearer, I had a choice to make! My plan was vaguely to end up somewhere in Thailand within the next few days! For these longer journeys, both in South America and more recently in Asia, I’d become used to just looking up the bus schedules and jumping on the one that got me to my jumping off point at the least weird time possible (which if you’ve been following this blog since Vietnam is sometimes still about 3.30am)! However, I’d heard whispers of a slow boat that’ll take you to the Thai Border… wait as in a boat… on the water… with no traffic… and no potholes to wake me up every 30 seconds? SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!

I did a little online research on the cost, and the hostels price was in keeping with what most were paying, plus they included the transfer to the docks! Early start the next day and I was off!

Quick note – always compare prices! Especially when:

1) Hostels quote you prices – they’re usually more expensive

2) You’re booking something expensive – £10-20 will get you further than you think in this part of the world

All aboard…

Not sure quite what to write in this blog post because I spent so much time on that boat clawing back some much needed sleep (are pretty pictures a good enough substitute for decent writing? I think so!) – a proper sleep schedule had all but died for me by this point in the trip! In the bottom right you can even see the makeshift bed I built moving empty seats around which to be honest wasn’t the worst bed I’ve experienced in my life:

Time zones become public enemy no.1 when you’re trying to balance keeping up with people, and staying awake enough to remember where you are 😛

When I wasn’t sleeping, I did treat myself to a little lunch time snack of noodles and plain crisps – exciting, I KNOW!

I enjoyed a slow afternoon switching between napping and chatting to some of my fellow passengers as we meandered through the Mekong, and as evening broke we made it to our halfway point. A small riverside town named Pak Beng where I’d be spending the night.

After fighting through the hordes of locals trying to sell rooms in their guesthouses – LITERALLY an uphill battle – I made the short walk into the town to find the closest place to the dock ready for another early start!

Nothing fancy, but it had clean sheets, air con & a double bed. Sorted! Had a surprisingly lively night in the town including a curry with some of others at the guesthouse, and a bar where some Brits had hijacked the sound system with UK club classics 😛 a night kept pretty sober with these kinds of drinks offers floating about:

After staying up way too late chatting to Jamie in Australia and then a few of the home crowd (like I said, timezones…), I woke up to realise the boat was leaving in 12 MINUTES! Next thing I knew I was running down a hill, guitar in one hand, rucksack in the other, hoping to god I wasn’t going to be stranded in this veryyy quiet town for a day waiting for the next boat to pass through! Luckily, I made it!

As it was my final day in Laos, I made sure to stay awake for a little more of it so I could take in the scenery before moving on to Thailand. Traveling by boat is by far a nicer experience if you have the time to do it! You have space to move around and stretch your legs whenever you want to, much more time to enjoy the views, and the cool breeze against the warm Southeast Asian climate is pretty lovely when you’ve become used to sweating approx. 100% of the time you spend outside 😛 for any readers actually looking into this journey – you can go both ways (oi oi), meaning you can also book this in Chiang Rai or Chiang Khong in Thailand to head to Luang Prabang 🙂

Just about time for one more Laos sunset! I truly couldn’t say enough great things about this country – the people are wonderful, the scenery is spectacular, and there’s a lot of fun to be had where you least expect it. Great memories had and to be had here, and I really hope someone reading this follows in my footsteps!