We woke up early in the morning on Thursday 5 July after hardly any sleep the night before - there had been a storm and it had poured for most of the night onto our tin roof. We were given a small packed lunch and, after a quick breakfast, were dropped at the Thai/Loas border. We crossed the river of a small boat and then headed towards Loas's border control. After filling out a form and handing over some dollars we were granted a 30 day tourist visa.

We then waited for the other members of our group before walking to one of the tour company's office. By now we were already confused of who exactly was our tour company - we bought a package in Chiang Mai and it felt like there were quite a few people getting "pieces of the pie." We were given a quick briefing before hopping in a pink truck and driven to the slow boat dock. But, of course, not before stopping at someone's mothers/cousin's shop to buy lunch (like I said, everyone gets a piece of the pie.)

Finally we boarded the slow boat and were pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. There were wooden benches with cushions and then quite a few (almost out of place) padded seats (similar to an airoplane seat) we settled into 2 of those and got chatting to some people.

The journey is rather slow but it allows you to relax and get into the laid-back Loas rhythm. Occasionally we would pull to the side of the river and people would get off and on, bringing with them all sorts of things. A few hours into the journey the sky darkened and it started pouring with rain. Everyone pulled the curtain across to shield themselves but it was still very wet. Luckily the air was really warm so it wasn't too cold.

The rain finally stopped and the curtains were pulled back. We passed many more beautiful green hills dotted with hidden huts and finally arrived in Pakbeng at around 18:00. Our package included a nights stay in a hostel so after a short walk, we arrived. The room was very basic but had a hot shower which was much appreciated after a long day. Kevin came to the rescue and removed a giant insect that was in our room.

We then walked up the single road that comprises the village of Pakbeng and found a place to have dinner. I made the rookie error of ordering the BBQ'd fish which arrived with everything intact and landed up being full of tiny bones. After dinner we wandered back to our hostel where we got chatting to an Irish couple who were holidaying in Loas before flying to Aus for good.

The nest day we somehow managed to get our times mixed up and got up an hour earlier that we needed to. We packed our bags and found a restaurant to eat at. We then headed down to the slow boat for day 2 of our journey. We landed up being on a different boat to the day before and this one had more tables with 2 benches facing each other. We settled in and were then joined by a bunch of Brits who were also holidaying before moving to Aus.

The journey was much the same as the day before and we arrived in Luang Prabang in the late afternoon. After grabbing our bags and saying goodbye to the people we met, we headed up the hill in search of a place to stay...