Our minibus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong took about six hours, with a couple of stops along the way: at a cashew nut factory for an enforced lunchbreak (I wonder how much commission the driver gets for that) and at Chiang Rai's White Temple. The temple was indescribably lovely and ornate, even if it did look a little like a giant marzipan wedding cake.

When we pulled up outside our hostel for the night we were pretty pleased with ourselves. The hostel's restaurant looked out over the mighty Mekong River towards Laos and the ambient setting made for a very relaxing meal, albeit a mosquito-filled one. This was not necessarily a bad thing as it reminded us to start taking our malaria tablets for Laos!

Yesterday we got up early and rode in the back of a pick-up truck to the Thai departure point, where we were stamped out of the country (literally on the day our visas ran out!) and herded onto a small longboat that took about 3 minutes to make the crossing to Laos. It was a bit of a faff to get our visas then as there seemed to be no queuing system and no signs telling anyone where to go. Eventually, $35 poorer, we were through. Whoop! We caught a tuk-tuk to the pier and were shown onto the slowboat we would be travelling to Luang Prabang on.

Now we'd heard awful things about the 2-day slowboat journey: that the boats are so packed that they sink, that people have to sit on the floor, that there's no windows, that the wooden bench seats are supremely uncomfortable etc etc. We were pleasantly surprised, therefore, to find that although the boat was undeniably packed, everyone had a seat allocated to them and that this was a rather comfy car seat that reclined, not a wooden bench. Not that there was room to recline but still, the thought was there. We spent the next few hours admiring the amazing lush green hills on either side of us and waving to the occasional Laos fisherman or children bathing in the river. Everything looked so remote and wild and tangled, like the kind of world Pocahontas would have lived in. It was beautiful. It was also a wee bit repetitive so we passed the time by reading and playing games.

We docked at Pak Beng as the sun was going down and everyone scrambled off the boat to try and find somewhere to sleep for the night. We needn't have worried; there are over 150 guesthouses in Pak Beng and they all seemed to be competing for our business. For £4 each we managed to get a lovely ensuite room with 24 hour electricity and hot shower. Result. We ate in an Indian restaurant that night, paying in Thai baht. We thought the waitress was being cheeky and asking if she could pocket the change ('Keep change, okay?') when in actual fact she was asking us if she could give us the change in Lao Kip ('Kip change okay?'). Breakdown in communication number one. Jak is a bit miffed actually that we've changed countries again, he's only just mastered how to say hello and thankyou in Thai hehe. Oh, and in case you're wondering, we let her keep the change.

Today it was more of the same: beautiful views on the boat, sore bottoms, finished books. We docked in Luang Prabang at around 5.30pm and spent about half an hour looking for a place to stay. Everywhere seemed to be quoting about $35-45 a night, which is way out of our price range, or to be fully booked. Luckily we found a small place down a side street (but still only 2 minutes from the main drag) for $10 and managed to nab the last room. Okay so we had to Sellotape the window shut and our chargers into the sockets but that's not a big deal, we've had worse. A curry later we went for a wander round town and through a market selling bags, clothes, jewellery and lanterns. We ended up bumping into Thaksin, ex-Prime Minister of Thailand and ex-owner of Man City football club in England. He was being followed by lots of people and kept stopping to shake hands, pose for pictures and order fruit shakes from street stalls. I'm not sure what behaviour I expected from an exiled prime minister but ordering an orange shake wasn't it.