Most people I’ve spoken to who have been to Laos have said they wish they had more time to spend there. When we arrived at Vientiane, I couldn’t really understand why. Sure it was nice and the food was great, but there isn’t much to do. Considering it’s the capital, it’s pretty empty. Vang Vieng was fun for a couple of days, but it got old very quickly. There’s only so many backflips you can do into the Mekong, a finite amount of drinking (unless you’re “party party party”, which i guess I’m not…) and about 2 or 3 decent caves to see and explore. The Blue Lagoon was awesome though. But Luang Prabang was a different story altogether. We have spent 9 days here, and even though a few of them were spent idly meandering down the main street, grabbing pastries, baguettes and really awesome pizzas, we could have stayed another week. Again, it’s not like there’s loads to do, but the atmosphere is so welcoming, friendly and relaxed that we were okay being lazy. I love it here. So I’m pretty sad that today we’re leaving for the Laos border town of Huay Xai, on our way back to northern Thailand.
It’s made so much easier though, by the fact that we’re travelling via a 50 foot river boat up the Mekong river. It’s a slow boat, so we stop for one night at Pak Beng, and then resume the journey tomorrow morning. The first leg should take about 6-8 hours, and - contrary to all literature I’ve read - it left on time. The sights were amazing. There were plenty of solitary shacks on the hillsides to the north and south of the river - we even saw a couple of herds of water buffalo. Which was cool.
It’s a bit overcast today, so every now and again the clouds split, and a shaft of light from the sky lights up the hills, casting shadows on small houses and shacks beneath them.
Beautiful. Serious, this beats 15 hour overnight bus journeys anyday.