SLOW BOAT TO PAKBENG

12/10/07 - 13/10/07 $3

Decided to take a slow boat up the Mekong River to make our way back to Thailand and get to see the north. The slow boat takes 2 days, whereas the speed boat alternative only takes a few hours and is around the same price. But forget the plush white fancy powerful speedboats that spring to mind... these speedboats are pretty much a wooden canoe with a massive engine strapped the back and there are fatalities on pretty much a weekly basis. The speedboat drivers (much like the bus drivers over here) appear to have a deathwish and no regard for danger, plus the mekong itself is full of whirlpools and stupidly strong currents... so that's why we chose the slowboat.

The boat is really uncomfortable, small wooden benches with really thin rock hard cushions on them... but the views are beautiful and make you forget (for periods of about 10 seconds at a time!) how uncomfortable you are. The passengers are a mix of locals and tourists so we got to watch a lady doing cross-stitch stuff which was pretty cool. Despite the dodgy seats I've gotta say that sat on the boat in the sun with all that beautiful scenery made me realise how lucky I am to be out here and that sometimes I am probably so happy that I could pop... which again is pretty cool!

We arrived in Pakbeng around 5.30 and quickly found a room for $3 a night (around 50p each), it was in a really cute little wooden building and we had mossie nets over our beds and an awesome view of the Mekong from our window so it really doesn't get any better. We also went out for a fab indian meal (wrong country I know), which only made it better.