I left Chiang Rai quite early in the morning, although the transport was running late we made it to the border for Immigration. The Immigration process was actually quite simple, I don't know why I felt the need to get a tour when I could have done it myself. Thai Immigration was speedy, the ferry to cross the river was also quite quick but Immigration in Laos took a little longer. It seemed that the majority of the people crossing the border were Western, British mainly but there were a few Americans who seemed to do nothing but complain. With phrases like 'they've got all these people working there and doing nothing, why can't they do it faster!' echoing through the Immigration office. I had to laugh as one of the other American ladies shushed her friend and told her 'not whilst they have our passports!' basically telling her to politely shut up.

I met a couple of people whilst we were waiting for the slow boat. There came the first con, telling everyone that Thai Baht wasn't accepted at Pak Beng and everyone had to change their currency now. I knew differently, so I changed a little and kept some Baht as it would be cheaper to pay in Baht when we got to Pak Beng. I got chatting to an Irish guy called Billy, who had been travelling through China, was going through SE Asia and then eventually through the US to Canada. He was also a lone traveller as his friend had backed out a couple weeks before he left. He seemed nice and seemed ok with my random sense of humour.

The 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang is known by travellers throughout SE Asia as one of the best ways to get there via the Mekong River, so it was no surprise that the boat was packed with Westerners. The first day seemed to go on forever, we were told it was the longest day of the two but were yet to find out otherwise. The scenery was stunning, watching children play in the water as we floated past local villages, all their houses built of wood on stilts in the hillsides. Vast mountains stretching out as far as the eye can see. Watching the fishermen on their boats and sailing round rocks big enough to sink the Titanic. It was beautiful, however, after a few hours of this it gets a bit boring and a lot of people went to sleep which made for a very quiet boat!

We arrived in Pak Beng just as it was about to get dark to be greeted by the most awful rock climb to get up to the town. In my infinite wisdom I decided to seal my rucksack to my bag and put the rain cover over the top. I was doing well with the steep ascent till my knees almost gave way and I had to be assisted by one of the locals. I met a couple of British guys, Jack and Connor who are travelling through SE Asia as a group and cheekily asked them whether I could room share with them as it was going to be cheaper. (For me probably...for them it would have made no difference!) They said yes, after I promised they could murder me in my sleep if they were worried I was going to kill them first, which made them laugh! Phew...more people who get my weird sense of humour was a relief! Well that and the fact they weren't planning on killing me was also a relief! Pak Beng really is a small town, it basically is just one road which has an array of guest houses and restaurants on it.

We got taken to a guest house by one of the touts at the dock and I ended up sharing with a lovely Japanese girl called Amy. I could have had my own room but wasn't paying 200 Baht for a room by myself. BAHT yes...I said BAHT...knew you could spend it here, take that! So I politely asked Amy if I could share with her, she said yes but I did wonder if it was her just being polite. We all went to dinner with the boys I met at the dock and I ordered a beer, it was a large Lao Beer and randomly enough it was cheaper than a bottle of water! I updated my notebook with some things I wanted to see in Luang Prabang and then went to sleep, tomorrow was going to be another long day on the boat! Oh and my dad is right...I can't go anywhere without losing something...today it was my sunglasses. Thank god they weren't designer! In Luang Prabang I've decided to follow the backpacker crowd and purchase a pair of Wayfarer Raybans...not real of course!