My 5th entry.

Near death experiences: 0 - Number of new injuries: 0 (being blessed twice by monks is my secret) - Number of mozie bites: 0 - Number of manhandlings: 0

(30th jan) when i got up, i started to get a nervous feeling in my stomach as i knew i was crossing into another country. that didn't seem to last long. as i was walking to the front of the guesthouse i saw cat and the nerves disappeared. both cat and i got picked up and taken to the river. there were 2 other people in the truck (bob and mary). we were all taken to the laos imigration desk to get our exit stamps and then was taken to the boat to cross the river. once we reached laos, we headed to the laos imigration desks. i'm so glad that we were one of the first groups of people to arrive, because as we were handing over our passports waiting for them to process the visas, about 150 people turned up. laos imigration officers are not quick. i think it took about 2 hours for them to process everyones visas and make sure that everyone had the correct stamps in their passports. just before we got on the boat, our passports were taken off us. according to a laos man it was to check that we had the correct visa stamps. that was a load of rubbish, it was to get us all in a room and give us a sales pitch 'a so called safety speech'. they were trying to frighten people into paying out more money and getting people to go on a mini-bus all the way to luang prabang. they told us that a few months ago a boat sank, they said that when we stop in pak beng the locals would try a steal our bags and that there wouldn't be enough guesthouses to put us all up. it was all lies! we found out later that they didn't want to get another boat, because they didn't want to lose any money. about 30 people paid out the extra money and got the bus. they shouldn't have changed their minds as they had to get a second boat because there was too many people for one boat. we later found out that their bus trip was a nightmare and that it broke down and was stranded for hours. we finally got our passports and got on the boat. i'm so glad i took the 2 day slow boat, the views were amazing and i got the time to meet some new friends and really get to know them. i think it took about 6 hours before we got to pak beng. mine and cat's bags were at the front of the boat so we told bob and mary that we would arrange a room for them. we were one of the first people to get off the boat and headed straight for the guesthouse that was recommended by the lonely planet. we had no problems getting a room and nor did anyone else that was on the boat. after a few minutes to agreeing that we would take the rooms, 2 cute spanish boys (lois and david) took the room next to ours. i think it took bob and mary about 20 mins before they were able to to get their bags. we had arranged to meet up with bob and mary for dinner, but when we knocked on their door mary wasn't feeling to good. so cat and i went to dinner without them. about an hour later the spanish boys met up with us. about 9.45pm we decided to go back to our guesthouse and get beers on the way, because all the shops and bars closed at 10pm and the power in the town got switched off. bob came and joined us for a while (the tables where we were sitting was just outside his room) and challenged lois to a gay dance off. apparently he normally wins but got beaten by lois, it was very funny to see. after the dance off, bob headed to bed and all you could hear was mary saying 'did you do the gay dance' to then he responded 'yes and i lost'. we all started laughing. 10 mins 4 chilli girls came and sat with us (sorry can't remember all of their names). at 11pm the owner of the guesthouse came and told us to go to bed. cat, david, lois and me all went to our room to carry on talking. we put on some music and used torches for lighting up the room. i'm not sure what time the boys left, but it was cool to go outside the room and be in a town that had no lights on, enabling you to see all the stars in the sky.

(31st jan) got up early to have breakfast and collect the food we had ordered the day before for the boat trip. because it took ages for the food, bob and mary headed to the boat to get us seats. it wasn't long before the spanish boys and chilli girls joined us on the boat. it was great to travel down the mekong with a big group of people and hearing all about their countries and their travel stories. we finally got to luang prabang about 5pm. the chilli girls and the spanish boys headed off in one direction and bob, mary, cat and i went in the other direction. it took about 30 mins before we found one that was in everyones budget. the rest of the evening, cat and i just went for dinner and basically got to know the city. luang prabang isn't very big so we kept bumping into people that was on the boat with us.

(1st feb) not alot happened this day, everyone did their own thing. i wondered around the city and then went on the internet to make some calls and check emails. later that night i met up with cat and went for dinner. we ended up eating with a italian and a canadian girl, both girls were on out boat. after dinner we bumped into the spanish boys. got talking to them and stupidly agreed to meet them at 5am to watch the alma (its where the local people give food to the monks as a gift and its their food for the day).

(2nd feb)

will write more in the next day or two...off to dinner with some friends and then i'm heading to sien reap tomorrow morning