Thailand to Laos (28 - 30 March)

Travelled across far north of Thailand in pick up trucks to the Laos border. These converted pickups are meant to have one passenger in the front and perhaps 8-10 in the back on 2 benches. It seemed quite normal to squeeze at least 20 in, plus sacks of rice, babies, watermelons and about 5 men clinging on to the railings at the back.

Next day crossed to Laos & caught the slow 2 day boat to Luang Prabang. The most rickety boat in town was comically overloaded with backpackers and locals who brought along kittens, a large bagload of local currency and 2 chickens in a bag amongst other things. Scenery was brilliant great: beautiful winding river (though sadly no ox-bow lakes) surrounded by hills, random local tribespeople popping up on the river banks now and then.

Problems started late on the first day when, after first making everyone get out and walk a mile down the river to make the boat lighter, it turned out that it was too dangerous to pass the river because it was too low. This meant spending a night camped out by the river and hoping someone would rescue us the next day (no phones here!). This looked ok: everyone got set for a night under the stars on the beachy bank of the river and we collected wood and made camp fires. Only a few worries: we were really miles from nowhere - there was only one village on the map 100km either way - and what sounded like weird gunshots occasionally from the hills. Things got more scary when a thunderstorm brewed up out of nowhere and we scrambled our stuff back onto the boat and got set for a very dark, windy, rainy, very cramped night. We had not seen a drop of rain for a month, and now of all nights!

Luckily the next day a boat was sent up from the halfway village and we walked past the low bit of the river to meet it. The river was still fairly interesting - a few close misses with rocky outcrops: once scraping the bottom of the boat and once nearly capsizing the boat sideways. The only problem now was that we had to make Luang Prabang before sunset or end up spending another night camped out or, as happened, chugging slowly along in near darkness, with only light from the riverbanks helping us avoid the rocks and sandbanks as we approached the town by night.

The star of the show was a Buddhist monk who happened to be on the boat and who could translate between the crew and us backpackers. Without him things would have got nasty but he gave us the bad news and nobody would shout at a monk would they? He was also on hand to give out advice on meditation and sleep ('only when you free your mid of worries can it truly rest') and diet (eat once a day at breakfast only!)