Slow Boat

So I had decided to leave Thailand and head to Laos, a country I was extremely excited about for many reasons that I wont go into.Now there are many forms of transport that can be used to get into Laos, you could go by coach, fly if you want to or you can take the main route chosen by travelers, the slow boat.Im not sure how this method of travel became so popular as many of the stories I have heard say how rubbish the whole trip is, 2 days spent on an uncomfortable and cramped wooden boat sweating your arse off with nothing to entertain you - luckily this was far from the amazing experience I had!!

So I left Thailand by mini bus which picked me up from my hostel, I was gutted because Kara had booked with a different company and it quickly became apparent that she would be going on a different mini bus and therefore a different boat L I was gutted to begin with but I sucked it up and remembered I would see her in 3 days when I eventually arrived in Luang Probang, Laos.The mini bus was boring but fine and as soon as the 8 hours were over and I had arrived to my hostel at the boarder between Thailand and Laos I realized I was probably not going to have the crap experience that others had.My hostel was full of lovely people who entertained me over dinner on the hostel balcony which had picturesque views of the river by relaying stories of travels and experiences had so far.

The following morning and it was border crossing time which is never ever a pleasant situation to be in, it's always chaos and never without some form of stress, especially when there is OAP tour groups attempting to cross at the same time as you.After 2 hours of queuing here, then queuing over there and my pass port going missing in the office and then to my hearts relief being found again I was officially and legally in Laos with my sanity intact and a visa in my passport.Due to my passport issues when I made it up the hill to my ticket office I arrived to find a lovely girl named Ingri holding a beer out to me sympathetically and telling me I handled the whole possibility of being stuck in no man's land in between two countries with no passport extremely well.So 10 am and I was already on my first beer of the day and due to the company I would later find myself in on the boat it was the first beer of many.

The slow boat itself I think is usually called a rice boat? Maybe it's a larger version but basically it's a wooden boat with a roof but no windows that has rows of seats inside, a little bar in the middle, a toilet and an engine room.I think it probably had seats for 50 people - they but maybe 70 on the boat or more, I was one of the unlucky without a seat, which turned out not to be unlucky at all as it meant I was sat with a tone of cool people.I had already made friends with the lovely Hannah in the hostel on the night before and so when we got our selves comfy on our pillows we were glad we had bought earlier we decided to play some cards to make the 8 hours go a little faster, it turns out that cards are the best way to meet other people because before we had finished our first hand some irish lads who were on the seats at the back asked if they could join in, before we finished the second hand some French boys also joined the crew, before the end of the day we had some Canadians, English and Germans in there too.I officially had a slow boat crew, we all played s*** head, drank beers and had a laugh the day couldn't have gone any quicker and the people couldn't have been any nicer.That night we got off the boat and all found hostels, by coincidence most of us ended up in the same restaurant for dinner and then drinks after wards, the whole 25 person crew all met up at one point and drank together but only 15 of us went on into the wee hours drinking and dancing at the local 'club' which was basically the downstairs of a house with a strobe light and a bar made of bamboo - shockingly we were the only ones in there but we didn't care as we got to pick out what music was played and then obviously dance and sing along to it.

Day 2 on the boat and I woke to find my self in the oddest little hostel, we hadn't noticed when we checked in but it was basically the weirdest 2 story building made completely of timber and bamboo with no windows, doors that didn't fit the frames and gaps in the wood boards that separated the rooms.It was a pleasure to check out and get back onto the boat where we found our crew again, although this time we had been spit onto two separate boats L It didn't matter though, I still had a great day which started so well when I realized Kara was on my boat! I was so excited to meet her and introduce her to my new friends, she quickly became a member of the slow boat crew - it was getting to the point where I felt we must have tshirts made, find a club house, create a secret handshake and maybe have an initiation ceremony which involved coconuts? Anyway day 2 was similar to day 1 - a lot of fun, I found everyone so easy to get along with especially the 3 irish lads named, Paul, Dave and Allan.Not to live up to the Irish stereotype or anything but the boys quickly announced it to be whiskey Wednesday (it was a friday) as they pulled 3 bottles of black label out of their bags and a couple of cans of coke as mixers.You have never seen a better drunk than Allan who drank the best part of a bottle to himself and as we played cards he happily chatted to a Spanish lady who could barely understand a word of what the waffling Irish bloke was talking about as he babbled on about how boring churches where only to break when he decided he wanted to have a go at playing cards with us and glady participated not only in a game he wasn't dealt into but a completely different game to the one we were playing in the first place.It got to the point where we just let him whack down what ever he liked and ignored his inability to grasp the rules or even general concept of the game and played our own game along side him instead of with him.Yet again the day flew by, I took breaks from the card playing and drinking to check out the scenery which was breath taking, the river rambles through huge green mountains where we could see fishermen painting their boats, houses on stilts protruding into the river and buffalo have a little drink - lovely!

I don't think this blog really does m slow boat experience justice to be honest but the 20 or so people that were in my crew will all understand how good it was and I think we all agreed that it was the combination of all of us on the boat which made it so fun.It has to be the easiest group in the world, regardless of the fact it was sweaty so we all looked a little gross, we all had different languages as our mother tongue and the point that we barely knew each other I found myself completely at home with my new friends, you get to know people pretty quickly when you spend 2 days on a boat together and when it came to the time where we had to get off and part ways we couldn't.And so my Laos crew had formed, a lovely group of boys, girls, different nationalities, different ages and different travel routes we had all come together for what would turn out to be about 3 weeks of some of the best times of my trip - but those stories will all be told in my next couple of blogs.