And do it was time to head to Luang Prabang - supposed to be the most beautiful city in Laos. I really wanted to get the boat there rather than n the bus just to see whether it would have been possible to take our own boat down the rapids as we had originally intended. During the 12 hour journey I have to say we passed at least 10 sets of rapids that we would have had nightmare in. I am sure we could have survived it but it probably wouldn't have been much fun. Especially as the captain seemed to know the river intimately and knew exactly which way to skirt around each set of rapids. And in fact at one stage we had to get out the boat and walk as the boat would have been too heavy with all of us on board to make it!!
Our boat had the french people from my boat and a good group of others including some guys (Dave and the South African girls) that I had initially met trying to sell the night before. In the long run I would get to know these guys quite well. The boat went well most of the way down despite the fact he didn't stop anywhere for lunch and I hadn't eaten...well it went well until he ran out of petrol about 20km from Luang Prabang, he seemed to fill up with a litre and then continue so obviously we ran out again about 10 minutes later...this time he had to paddle (yes one man paddling a boat with 30 people on board with a tiny wooden paddle) for half an hour to the petrol station where someone then had to go find the person with the key to the pump etc. We then filled up but he proceeded to flood the engine as we started to drift slowly down river. After 30 minutes or so sucking petrol out of various places and trying to start the engine in pith darkness while running occasionally back to the front of the boat to paddle around some rocks he gave up on the engine and proceeded to paddle us 2km into Luang Prabang. This has to be one of the most amazing feats of human endurance that I have ever seen from such a small man. And he brought us right into the correct parking place perfectly...the fact he managed it so well and that no one else attempted to help did make me think that maybe this was quite a common occurrence though.
We arrived really late but fortunately Luang Prabang has loads of eating options including an eat as much as you like veggie place where you get a massive plate of food for just 25p!! Obviously all the backpacker types loved this. They also do some of the best baguettes and coffee I have ever had. Other than food (and wine - for the 1st time since Thailand months ago we had a couple of glasses of wine one night) Luang Prabang is a pretty touristy place (the entire streets just fill up with tourist markets each night) mostly famous for the temples and Buddhist monks that hang out there. The best sight is when the monks come out at 6am to collect their sticky rice from the people of the town whop sort of line the road to present them with the rice.
I went with all the crew from the boat to some hyped up waterfalls one day...we thought they were totally over hyped but it later turned out that despite walking right to the top of the mountain twice we had missed the main waterfalls as apparently we were supposed to walk down from the car park rather than up...
In the evening everywhere in Laos much close at 12pm as there is a curfew but the one way around this is the bowling alley for some bizarre reason so at 11.30 all these tuk tuk drivers would come up to you and ask if you wanted to go bowling...very bizarre.
After Luang Prabang the plan was to head north towards China but I got on so well with some of the people I had met on the boat I decided to go south for a few days towards Vang Vieng....
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