Huay Xia to Pak Beng

“Cheap cheap, special price for you.” We’re told this by almost everyone in Laos. I think ‘special price for you’ can mean anything between ten times the going rate and double the normal price. You have to haggle for everything; you get asked crazy prices at first. Our room, for example, started at 700 Thai baht (ten pounds) but we ended up paying 250 baht (three pounds).

We left Thailand from Chiang Khong, and after a five minute ferry across the Mekong River, we were in Huay Xia, Laos. We spent our first night here. You instantly notice the difference once you leave Thailand; Laos is a lot poorer - the infrastructure crumbling, colonial buildings everywhere.

We caught the boat the following morning, about fifty people crammed into a tiny dilapidated old thing. It resembled a canal barge but packed with backpackers. We sat moored on the river for another two hours then eventually started off. Fortunately some of us were moved onto a different boat which was much better, loads more legroom and compared to the other boat, felt quite luxurious.

The weather had turned really cold, something we were totally unprepared for after the forty degree temperatures of Thailand. Apart from the scenery, much of the day felt a bit like a school trip in Scotland – grey skies, rain and a packed lunch. It took about seven hours to reach the halfway point, Pak Beng. As soon as we jumped of the boat with our bags we were surrounded by touts and locals trying to entice us to stay at their guest house or buy weed or opium or eat dinner. It was really overwhelming after seven hours just gazing at the scenery from the boat.