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Other entries in Pak Beng

What a pain in the Ass!!

Literally, the two day slow boat up the Mekong River was a pain in the ass!!  We started out at 7:30am, and made our way to the boat pier where we boarded a long tail passenger boat that seated around 60 people on teeny tiny wooden benches.  We were supposed to leave at 8am, but we didn't leave Luang Prabang until close to 9ish.  We managed to leave though after many people and all the lugage was hoarded aboard, and away we went.  The weather was spectacular, and the scenery was lovely, but our bottoms were beginning to hurt quite shortly after leaving.  We didn't bother to take any food with us, except for a couple of loaves of banana bread, as we thought we would be stopping for lunch, and to stretch for a bit.  We were mistaken, 1 o'clock passed, and then 2 o'clock, and by that time we realized we weren't stopping. 

By the time 7 o'clock arrived our bums were numb, and our bellies were aching for some grub.  We stepped off the crappy boat onto a sandy hill in Pak Beng with no steps, and were welcomed by a hoard of little boys wanting to carry our bags for $4 a piece.  We declined the offer, and made our way up the hill without falling backwards.  We found a young man who took us to a guesthouse for 200baht a night ($5), and dropped our bags and made our way for some food.  We confirmed our boat ticket for the next morning, and ordered a lunch to go so that we wouldn't go hungry another day!

After dinner we walked around town for a bit.  There wasn't much to see.  Pak Beng seems to be strictly a stopover town for everyone, not just 'farang' ... foreigners, but Lao people as well. 

We got up the next morning had breaky, picked up our lunch, and our boat ticket and hopped on the boat for another adventurous day of achy bums.  We were sitting in front of 2 Canadian couples the second day.  We had a great time with them.  They were from Saskatoon, Sask.  We were all around the same age and we got along great.  This new conversation made the day go by A LOT quicker much to our delight!  We were in Huay Xai before we knew ... sort of!!

We got off the boat, and said goodbye to our new friends, as they were planning on crossing the border that night because they had budgeted themselves to the last kip, and were out of money.  We checked into the Friendship Guesthouse, and made our way to the Gibbon Experience office.  We paid our money for the tour and signed a scary waiver of liability and talked to Noke about the tour.  We were psyched!

We had dinner overlooking the Mekong, and ran into our Canadian friends once again.  The border had closed by the time they arrived, so they were forced to spend a night in Huay Xai.  We drank beer lao and ate some budget food with them, it was a great dinner!

Tomorrow morning, The Gibbon Experience!!

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