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Lazing in Luang Prabang, Don't mention the crash..
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After a bit of a disastrous first day on the slow boat when half of us got soaked, the next morning we were relieved to see that they had chartered 2 boats to take everyone, phew! Our boat left the dock a 9am and we all settled down for the 7 hour journey to Luang Prabang.
The driver headed off in the opposite direction and we all looked at each other baffled before a couple of people went up to him and said we were to go to Luang Prabang, not Huay Xai, so he said he'd turn around. He was going pretty fast when he started to turn the boat. While everyone was chatting I realised that I was the only one in the group looking towards the front of the boat and noticed the steep rocky river bank getting closer and closer. I tapped Steve on the arm and said to everyone, "um I think we're going to crash". Everyone was saying nah we'll be grand until they saw my eyes widen and took a look for themselves. As the driver was going so fast he couldn't turn the boat in time and sent some poor young lad out onto the front with a long piece of bamboo to help him "steer" instead of slowing down. He then crashed into the rock-face, buckling up the front of the boat, sending everyone flying, smashing the windows and causing all the glasses and beer bottles in the bar to smash onto the floor! When they eventually prised the front of the boat off the rocks we thought he would just pull back into the harbour but despite the protests of everyone he just kept going claiming he didn't speak english and couldn't understand us.
No-one was sure of the damage and we just hoped there was no big gaping hole. After about an hour, the driver pulled over to drop off sacks of rice to a riverside village and everyone piled off the boat for a look. The front of the boat was bent up but the rocks hadn't punctured the underside, relief! The driver then disappeared down the back and re-appeared with a half-broken pane of glass and slotted it into the place where the windscreen used to be, better than nothing I suppose! After we all got back on he started up the boat and managed to drive straight into the side of another boat about 5 mins after leaving the village (oh great only another 6 hours with this lunatic!). A French guy travelling with us managed to buy the only bottle of whiskey that didn't break and proceded to crack it open at 10am to calm his nerves!! We were all never so happy to see Luang Prabang!
We spent Christmas day in Luang Prabang, what a great little place.We managed to get a pretty nice hotel so gonna take it easy here for a while. The town looks great so far. When we got off the kamikaze boat and strolled up into the town we were passed out by a Lao Santa on a scooter! The town is unbelievably busy, there's a real buzz and brilliant atmosphere, so there were a lot of hotels and guesthouses booked out til January! The place we're in had a cancellation so we got the last room. For Christmas dinner we went to a restaurant called Lao Lao and cooked our own meal. We barbequed chicken, pork beef and water buffalo (that's about as adventurous as we've gotten since arriving in Asia), then the staff in the restaurant organised a cake with candles to surprise Steve for his 30th birthday (just an example of the hospitality of the Lao people). Was a good, but very strange, Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year!!!!
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