It was the normal pre-dawn wake up call and departure. It was still pitch dark when we made our way by tuk tuk down to the ferry pier and down the steps. The boat has to set off at dawn in order to get to our destination before sun down. Our hotel had provided us with breakfast boxes as it was too early for breakfast at the hotel. We breakfasted on omlettes, pancakes (though a bit rubbery) and baguettes (with butter and jam provided in small plastic bags). Again, the temperature was chilly and soon after departure everyone was swaddled in blankets and fast asleep, waking for regular refreshments and for the odd photo to prove that they had done the trip. The was a brief stop at yet another Hmong village and another at a provincial boundary for a police check to check the papers for the boat. The scenery did not seem as spectacular as yesterday as the valley sides opened out more. By the time we reached Thai territory on the right bank the river was quite wide and more farming activity evident. Both days we have had an excellent lunch prepared by the"cooker", the wife of the captain. Better food than we have eaten in some restaurants. It is interesting that most of the 300km along the river on this journey, even with jungle along both banks there has been mobile phone coverage, often with signals from three providers. It beats Tasmania and most of rural Australia hands down. Arriving at the Lao Thai river border crossing of Huay Xai and Chang Khong chaos broke loose. We had to disembark from the boat and climb up the bank carrying our bags and all 11 of us from the boat plus bags crammed into one large tuk tuk for a few hundred metre ride to the Laos departure immigration. Although the border is open until 6 pm there is an "overtime" fee payable after 4 pm. I doubt that this is an official fee but it's only $1 each so no problem. Then you have to cross the river by "ferry" which is actually just a six person skinny boat, again juggling bags, back packs and person on and off the boat. Then came the scrum at Thai immigration. Unfortunately, we had arrived at about the same time as a huge number of Chinese who, in their customary fashion, barged and jostled to the head of the queue. The one that made it was then passed handfuls of passports from the back of the queue thereby ensuring that the queue didn't advance. Well, as you can imagine, Madam was not pleased, made her displeasure known to the various Chinese, thrust her face in the window and with a big smile and sawadee ka said "We're Australians" and after a quick "stamp stamp" away we went with a cheery "Kung hei fat choi" to the waiting Chinese for their forthcoming lunar new year. We had not booked a hotel as we could not be sure of crossing the border this afternoon but Cheryl had the name of two good ones in town and we tuk a tuk tuk to the first one that was both very nice and had a room available.