Up bright and early we all were packed and ready to go. We had another small breakfast much to Uther's chagrin, and had the opportunity to meet more people who had arrived later that night. We packed up our bags and loaded up into the truck and were driven down the river to make the crossing into Laos.
After "exiting" Thailand speedy river boats whisked us across the river into Laos. The border control was a crowded and confusing place, lots of forms and numbers and running around. Luckily we made it through and were ushered to where another bus would take us to our slow boat.
We sat at a little shop with snacks and stuff, a man came to register us for the boat and explained that the place we were stopping for the night was a very small town and we would be arriving late therefore places to stay would be not very available. He offered us rooms at a guesthouse and we all signed up. After he left the woman came by and said the bus would be arriving soon but we should get snacks now as there would be no food on the boat and also we should think about buying pillows as the ride was bumpy. We got supplies and then an old broken down tuk tuk showed up honking it's horn loudly. We assumed this was the bus and started to load our things. The kid with our passports brought them back over and through broken English stated something about each of us needing to pay an extra 100 Baht for "Passport Control". I stared at my friends in disbelief, an older couple with us eagerly whipped out their wallets and just as they were about the hand the cash over the tuk tuk started to drive away. I reached out and snatched the passports from his hands and the truck pulled away from a very disappointed Laotian boy hoping for a good scam.
Speaking of scams, not only was there food on the boat (plenty of it!) but the seats were also old bus seats, in other words very cushy. I laughed thinking how many foreigners had eagerly shelled out the bills for all these things over the years, they had a good scam going.
Almost had a boat crash! The day was long and leisurely, lots of gorgeous views of the Laotian jungle. Relaxing and reading and dozing all day sailing down the Mekong is my kind of holiday!
When we arrived at the town for the night, I laughed again as there were many many trucks parked at the dock waiting to take people to a hostel, I wondered how much we had over paid for our room. We all got settled and went to dinner. Unfortunately that night my dinner came back up and I spent the rest of the evening in bed preparing for another day on the river.
After "exiting" Thailand speedy river boats whisked us across the river into Laos. The border control was a crowded and confusing place, lots of forms and numbers and running around. Luckily we made it through and were ushered to where another bus would take us to our slow boat.
We sat at a little shop with snacks and stuff, a man came to register us for the boat and explained that the place we were stopping for the night was a very small town and we would be arriving late therefore places to stay would be not very available. He offered us rooms at a guesthouse and we all signed up. After he left the woman came by and said the bus would be arriving soon but we should get snacks now as there would be no food on the boat and also we should think about buying pillows as the ride was bumpy. We got supplies and then an old broken down tuk tuk showed up honking it's horn loudly. We assumed this was the bus and started to load our things. The kid with our passports brought them back over and through broken English stated something about each of us needing to pay an extra 100 Baht for "Passport Control". I stared at my friends in disbelief, an older couple with us eagerly whipped out their wallets and just as they were about the hand the cash over the tuk tuk started to drive away. I reached out and snatched the passports from his hands and the truck pulled away from a very disappointed Laotian boy hoping for a good scam.
Speaking of scams, not only was there food on the boat (plenty of it!) but the seats were also old bus seats, in other words very cushy. I laughed thinking how many foreigners had eagerly shelled out the bills for all these things over the years, they had a good scam going.
Almost had a boat crash! The day was long and leisurely, lots of gorgeous views of the Laotian jungle. Relaxing and reading and dozing all day sailing down the Mekong is my kind of holiday!
When we arrived at the town for the night, I laughed again as there were many many trucks parked at the dock waiting to take people to a hostel, I wondered how much we had over paid for our room. We all got settled and went to dinner. Unfortunately that night my dinner came back up and I spent the rest of the evening in bed preparing for another day on the river.
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