Leaving Chiang Mai on the 10th we headed to Laos, seemingly not too far away on the map and with relatively easy border crossings we thought. In reality though, the options for crossing into Laos are like choosing between a slow and painful death or a quick one.

First of all you can fly from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, probably a short two hour flight and only about sixty pounds, but the downside to this is that the only airline who make the flight are Laos Airlines, who still use propeller planes instead of jet engines, and the foreign office warn against flying with them as it's a matter of time before they crash. That's the quick death.

Secondly you can take a bus to the border and then a speedboat down the Mekong River, but the speedboat is not the sturdiest craft we've seen (think matchstick with a rocket launcher attached to the back), and during the dry season (which is now) the water level is low, so often you will hit rocks or run aground and people die. Again, this is not advised, or at least if you do do it, you are told to wear a crash helmet and life jacket. That's the slow death.

The third option, and the one we opted for, was the bus to the border and the slow boat, a three day trip in total, and in hindsight maybe not much safer!

The air-conditioned bus picked us up at 10am and started the five hour journey to the border, and as is usual in SE Asia the driver thought he was Alonso. Often he'd be able to overtake on straight roads but liked to wait for the blind corners instead, and he nearly crashed at one point.

Arriving at Chiang Khong the driver signalled for us to get out and then drove off, leaving us all none the wiser about what to do. We were herded into a restaurant next to a river and given some forms to fill out, and then told our visa would cost $40 or 1700 Baht each. We'd been told by a lot of people this should cost only $30, so we made a fuss and refused to pay, so instead we were told we could go to the border ourselves (well after being put on the phone to the restaurant manager who told us the border was 'full'. Never heard of a border being full before!). We were joined by a Swiss traveller called Julian, but everyone else just payed the $40.

Thinking we had a long walk to the border now, it turned out to be next door, so we stamped out and were put on a small boat to cross the river to Ban Houayxay in Laos. Arriving in Laos we were told the visa was $35 or 1500 Baht, so we paid up and were pretty chuffed we'd saved $10 and it was so easy. It also meant we got to the hotel by about 4pm, so were able to change money at a decent rate, whereas the rest of the group were kept at the restaurant for a couple of hours, missed the exchange place being open and then had to pay the officials 20 Baht each (only about 30p) overtime. Basically it was a scam to rip off travellers a few dollars each.

By 5pm we were settled in and decided to try the Beer Laos with Julian (and later Lisa from NYC), which we'd heard is without doubt the best beer in SE Asia, as they use German hops, but I think it might also have something to do with the fact it costs 10,000 Laos Kip (about 50p) for a 640ml bottle. It is pretty special though. About six Beer Laos later we turned in.

The next morning started at 7am (with sore heads), and we boarded the boat at about 9am after buying cushions for the journey (we'd been told not to miss out on the cushions). The boat left at about 11.30am with about 150 people onboard (though the boat was probably made for about 100), about a 50:50 split between 'falang' (foreigners) and locals.

Along the Mekong River we stopped at many small villages, where we would drop locals off on a rock and kids would come over and stare at all the white people. These people live in small huts, probably with no electricity, and seemed to make their livelyhood from fishing.

We were told that we'd be on the boat for six hours a day, but we arrived in Muang Pakbeng at around 6.30pm (after boarding at 9am) to mayhem!

Pakbeng was probably like all the other small towns on the Mekong until about ten years ago, but now about a hundred falang turn up every day to spend the night in their village.  Unfortunately the locals take advantage of this to quite a disgusting extent, as by the time you get off the boat your bags have been snatched by locals trying to take you with them to their guesthouse, and as Allison got off the boat a young lad put his hands all over her backside (not sure he expected to get spun round and punched by her though).  She was not the only one too.

After five minutes or so we'd tracked down both our bags, but the young local lads are constantly grabbing at you to try to get you to go with them.  Eventually we lost our tempers and had a few words with a couple of them.  Welcome to Laos!

After checking into our hotel and having dinner we stayed for a couple of Beer Laos, but left in a hurry when a drunken policeman with a big rifle on his shoulder stumbled in and insisted every one go to bed.  It was only 10pm but the town only had electricity until 11pm.

The next day we gladly left Pakbeng and boarded the boat at 8am (just missed out on the comfy seats, so had to squeeze onto a small bench at the back with barely enough room for your behind) to head off down the Mekong again.

The journey was similar to the previous day's, as we dropped off locals at small villages, though today some of the locals started to interact with the falang and offered us some local food.  Unfortunately every now and then you hear the word falang and the locals laughing, but some young locals infront of us seemed really nice. 

The strangest part of the day was as we neared Luang Prabang, and just near where some people were fishing we spotted a woman's body laying face down in the river.  Whether this was a boat accident or the result of somebody celebrating the Laos New Year water festival (which is mid-April) and drinking too much, nobody knew, but we felt sad that the woman had just been left there and nobody had tried to give her a proper burial.  Perhaps they had not seen her yet (although the fishermen were very close to the body) and someone was missing his wife, but we will never know.

We arrived in Luang Prabang about an hour later, where we would spend the next few days.