After 54 hours of travelling we finally made if from Luang Prabang to Chaing Mai, Thailand. Currently sat by a pool (in someone else's hotel) waiting to get kicked out but will see how it goes!
So the slow boat was quite an experience, if you want the full report it will be on my website soon, I completely understand why they call it the slow boat now. 10 hours on the river day one followed by another 11 hours on day two. We arrived in Huay Xay, the border town in Laos at 7pm, sadly too late to catch a crossing as the border closes at 6pm. Just up from the arrival point we found a dodgy little guest house to stay in which was cheap, we figured we'd have some nice accommodation soon so we can rough it for one more night. That night I am happy to report that we had our first submission to a round of food poisoning and it wasn't me. Poor Kinga spent more time in our dodgy guesthouse bathroom wishing her surroundings were slightly nicer than she did in the bedroom. I was, very supportively, staying out of the way, in bed, sleeping. She must have been up about 5 or 6 times, got to love South East Asia.
The next morning, although slightly tired, she was showing no knock on effects, she's a warrior and we were off to Thailand. We crossed the border easily and went to get the bus to Chaing Mai only to be told it was full...shit. It was easy to get from the boat to the bus station, when you get stamped in at the immigration office there are pick up trucks waiting for you. When you ask how much they point to a board which has two prices, 30 baht to the bus station or 50 baht to the hospital, they are the only two options! I guess they don't have much faith in the crappy little boats that take you across the river. Fortunately at the bus station we weren't the only people in this situation and between 11 of us we managed to charter a private mini bus for only a couple of dollars more than we would have paid on the big bus. Not only was it more comfortable but we arrived into Chaing Mai in half the time. It was good for something to finally work out for the better.
While Chaing Mai has been nice it feels a bit weird as we have suddenly reached the point where we don't know what we are doing. All of our planning so far had been around being in Luang Prabang for the festival, that has now past so we are kind of lost. We hired mopeds one day and went out to an amazing place called Tiger Kingdom where we got to pose with big tigers and play with baby ones, that was great, probably wouldn't want to do it the other way round though. Aside from that it's been a really lazy few days. We found a large night market and I bought some pants, Kinga has been seeing her fist lady boys dotted around and seems unsure what to make of them, we have eaten a lot of food and now we are relaxing and planning our next adventures. Tomorrow we will be hiring a moped again to ride through the mountains and hopefully visit some hill tribes, maybe ride an elephant. To rent it we will probably go to the same place as I did get a rather nice pink helmet to wear for my safety...and their amusement. After that who knows........I think I am going to go have a massage now. Take care.
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