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jandajoy

Ok, here we go. My first attempt at a photo thread. Please accept apologies in advance.

So, we decided to go for a trip on a boat.

Chiang Kong to Luang Prabang.

A bit of research on various forums bought up a bit of info. We got a bloke on TV who reckoned he had just the type of trip we wanted.

The thing is as we understood it, there only 2 types of boats going up and down the Mekong here.

The speed boats, 6 hours of uncomfortable, cramped, bumpy hell, with added bonus of a likely crash.

Then there's the slow boats, which are, well, slow. Two days to get down there with a stop over in Pak Bang. Eight hours plus per day.

We didn't fancy the speed boat and 2 days seemed a bit of a drag. So we were pleased when the TV bloke said there was a special boat, once a week that did the trip in one long day. Cool.

So Joy rang the contact and guess what? Yup it was bolloxx. He also tried to charge us double the going rate. Moral of the story, don't believe all you here on TV.

So off we went to Chiang Kong and got ourselves organised with tickets, cushions and a packed lunch, courtesy of the very helpful Syan at the River Gold Travel.

(Tel: 0869131144)

This is in his bar, The Easy Bar, three quarters of the way down the main drag towards the port on the left hand side. Its painted yellow. A good bloke speaking good English. He can also sort the visas' out. Foods good too.

He organised everything for us to go the following morning so we went home. Next day at about 7 am we rocked up at The Easy Bar. Breakfasted well, got our papers and Syan ran us down to Immigration. He also parked our car up at the back of his place for the duration.

Immigration was a breeze and we climbed aboard a small narrow long boat to cross the river the Laos.






^Chiang Kong dock side.




Laos
When you get to the Laos side there's a bit of messing around with immigration - take your own pen - and then it's up the hill to the bus to take you to the boat.

N.B. You'll be met by loads of touts trying to sell you accommodation for the night
in Pak Bang. They'll have lots of stories about
No rooms available when you get there.
No electricity when you get there.
Cheaper rooms through them.
No ATMs there.
No food after 6.pm.
and on and on and on.

Did we fall for the patter? Of course we did. And had a shit night in a shit hole with electricity 'till midnight, food 'till 11 pm, and could have the shit hole room with flooded bathroom and toilet for a lot less.




So we got the bus and got to the boat.



"Hello"


"Emergency exits to the left"


We're there on time and it's looking good. Plenty of room.

And there we stayed. "Waiting" said a helpful member of the crew.
On hour later and we're still waiting.
Then we found what we were waiting for........



and




and finally.......



my foot stool for the trip.

So, a word to the wise. If you get there early try and check when they're going to go and how many of these fat ugly, pink, rude, obnoxious prats they're going to be taking along.

Finally we set sail. Enough talk just pics for a bit now.



^ what we didn't go on.


confused water


two kid power


fishing


All ashore


Pick up


same same


"Can we come too?"


"What about me?"


Lunch


Headman


couldn't resist another shot.


harbour wall ?




we broke down for a bit.


mountains

That's it for now. Only taken a few hours. I'm crap at 'puters.
Time to cross fingers and press the post button.

There'll be more later if this works.

By the way it's a bloody good trip and worth doing.


AAAGGGGG photos too small!!! WHY?

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