Monsovanh Guesthouse Pakbeng

The next morning we walked down to the port to catch the river boat down the Mekong for the two day journey to Luang Prabang. We were a bit concerned that we might not get a seat with a good view. So, when the ticket man said we could book a “soft seat” for just a little bit more than the normal price we jumped at the chance – not surprising as this was going to be a 180 mile slow boat journey, roughly ...

Another tidbit from Jen's journal:<br><br>Made it through immigration in Thailand and across the Mekong River into Laos. Got our visa and am now sitting on slow boat #68 waiting to depart. We watched a group of passengers pester their tour leader at the border... With each of their questions my smile got bigger, my load got lighter and my heart swelled with a sense of adventure and freedom. It made the difficulties ...

... filled out<br>our details and paid in Dollars(Make sure you have Dollars for this<br>as it costs a lot more in Kip or Baht) for a very fancy Passport<br>stamp, we then, cattle like made our way to Bus/TukTuk contraption<br>which in turn took us to the port were we waited to board our &#8220;Slow<br>boat&#8221; as we waited a Thai guy turned up and basicly told us to<br>watch ourselfs as every one in Laos would try and rob/shoot us while<br>drink driving ...

Today i got up at 06:00 to get a 2 day slow boat al the way to Chaing Khong in Thailand stopping off for 1 night in a small town called Pakbeng.<br><br>We caught the boat at 07:00 and spent the whole day cruising down the mekong river, we stopped off at a families place where they make lao lao whisky. (Rocket fuel for most people) We also stopped at a a Loa mong village where ...

In the morning we were in the main room of the guesthouse for 7.30am, which served as both the breakfast room and reception. I handed in my passport and a form, and some minion went off with it and a bunch of others to get a Laos stamp. Meanwhile, we had breakfast. There were a lot of other people doing the same journey as us, and we got talking to quite a few of them. There were Darren and Matt, two guys from London, Charlotte, from Bournemouth, and Mark ...

... catfish splashing, leaping and fighting over each other in a churning mass of activity. There was quite a range of dwellings backed on to the canals &#8211; from rundown dilapidated wooden shacks, on the verge of collapsing into the water, to luxurious barred and gated compounds with majestic tiered beamed houses set in grounds strewn with statues and plants. <br><br> We also revisited the golden reclining Buddha at Wat Po, and then it ...

We wanted to head north toward the Laos/Thai border, and thought the journey from Luang Prabang would be best made by boat, so that we could be with our beautiful giant, The Mekong River, one last time. <br>The river journey can be made one of two ways: by speedboat or slow boat, in six hours or two days. The speedboat option always comes with a warning; just about every responsible source seemed to say, "Sure it's fast, but you might die ...

... in a small town called Pak Beng, halfway along the Mekong en route to Luang Prabang. The town had clearly just exploded since tourists had started doing the slow boat route, and so all that was there were guest houses, bars and restaurants. We managed to find a curry house (!!) run by some poor Indian guy who had no other help in the kitchen 'because they're all drunk!'. After turning down all manner of drugs it was back to bed ...

Arrived Pak Beng, with the massive slow boat trying to park up at the river bank, managed to wipe out a few boats on the way...was a bit of a drama but we made it, then had heaps of people attacking us with there speal of "come stay at my guest house, very cheap", and the one thing we had heard about Pak Beng was just how scum it was and to expect rats the size of beagles on the ...

... of course I'll meet a lot more people once we get on the boat. I went to bed a bit before midnight but that was the worst night with my leg so far. I was laying there until 3am unable to sleep because of the pain, and was on the verge of crying (not because of the pain, just the frustration of it being so stupidly self inflicted and the effect it's going to have on the rest of my trip). But I eventually gave in and took a couple of ...