After much deliberation we decided to take the slow boat to cross the border from Thailand into Laos instead of the plane. The only problem with the slow boat was that it took two days whilst a flight would have taken a matter of minutes.

Our last night in Chiang Mai was last Saturday so we hopped onto a small minibus that took us to the Thai / Lao border. The bus was very cramped and we were stuck on the minibus for 6 hours. However despite this it wasn't that uncomfortable. We got talking to a couple of lads on the bus, one a South African from London called Dan, and the other an English lad from Kent called Matt and then eventually an Italian called Thomas, who reminded us a bit like Paulo from Friends. After talking to them i found out Dan, the South African actually use to work for my ex company, IPC Media, what a small world.

Our first stop off once we got to the border was a place called Chang Khong. The football was coming on that night, so we decided to watch the match and play a bit of pool and ofcourse drink some Beer Lao with our new gang. The night got messy but we managed to wake up early the next day and catch the first leg of our slow boat.

The seats were really uncomfortable and the boat was cramped and was a good experience to start off with, but then after a while the novelty wore off and we all got bored, so Dan decided to start on the Beer Lao, as you can imagine we all followed suit. Before you know it our gang of 6 and 4 kiwi girls started drinking like there was no tomorrow and the 7 hour boat journey felt like 2.

We stopped off at Pakbeng in Lao, along the river Mekong as a little pit stop. We got there at night when all the electricity switched off, but we still managed to find accomo for 2 pound for one night, perfect! So being in a small town with no electricty the 10 of us lit some candles, sat on the balcony and had more Beer Lao. The girls eventually and wisely petered off and went to sleep, but us like Morans continued to drink. We ended up having 5 hours sleep and ended up being the last people on the boat.

We eventually got back onto the boat and dropped our bags in the storage area which was behind the engine. Being so late, most of the seats had been taken, so we just slummed it and sat on all the luggage at the back. As it happaned it turned out to be the perfect seats. We were all hungover, so we all just lay on everyone else baggage and fell asleep. I was positioned lying down so that my feet was hanging off the boat with a picture postcard perfect view of the river and rainforest right beside me. While everyone else was uncomfortable and cramped we had a VIP shack right at the back.

Before you know it we had become the most popular group on the boat and everyone kept coming to the back of the boat to take pictures of us and talk to us. It was a swell ride and i am so glad we did it. We eventually landed in Luang Prabang on Monday.