Pak Beng to Luang Prabang

Another day another boat trip. It was another eight hours from Pak Beng to Luang Prabang. This time there was only one boat. We sat at the front in the hope of having more legroom but as the journey went on, more and more Lao people got on the boat and had the same idea as us. We ended up being pretty squashed but it was good to travel with the Lao people. One old guy got on with a huge machete and a bottle of dodgy-looking ‘whiskey’ and not much else. After a couple of sips of the whiskey, he spent the rest of the journey crouched at the side of the boat just gazing out with a satisfied expression. Must be good stuff.

Luang Prabang is “an incredible collection of Buddhist and French colonial architecture clustered together on a small riverine peninsula and surrounded by mountains”(Lonely planet, South East on a shoestring, 2004). We stumbled off the boat to another onslaught of tuk tuk drivers and guest house touts all after your custom. It has to be said the tuk tuk drivers here are shocking, we saw about eight people bundled into the back of a tuk tuk, only to be driven 200 metres down the street and charged 20 baht each for the ride.

Luang Prabang is cool, good town to wander around and lose a few days here and there.