Laos

After a lot of forms and fees we were across the friendship bridge and free to roam around Laos for thirty days. 

There is an immediate change from Thailand. Things are a little more third world. There is a lot more garbage around. The public buildings are these grandiose stodgy looking communist inspired structures. But the people are friendly and right away I felt we were getting a more interesting travel experience. 

We took the slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. This is about a hundred foot long wooden river boat. It is relatively narrow and seats about eighty people. 90 % are budget tourists and for the most part 30 to 50 years younger than us. The organizers encourage drinking and partying so the first day to Pak Benh was a little rowdy. At Pak Benh you have to spend the night before the last eight hours to Luang Prabang. The second day was little more quiet as most of the young people were nursing their hangovers. We had got a quieter and more comfortable seat near the front. The scenery and light was spectacular in the early morning.

 In the afternoon the captain passed over the helm to his son and Kickstarted the party by pulling out the karaoke machine and singing some spectacular Lao songs . Then he turned over the karaoke machine to the tourists. This got the party spirit revved up once more. Just as it was cooling down a bit we pulled into the dock upriver of Luang Prabang.