Rollin' down the river

Note: I've been writing these along, and just haven't had the time/connections to upload

Feb 11, 2011
The morning after my last night in Chiang Mai I had to get on a bus up to Chiang Khong. After saying goodbye to my buddies (who I miss already!) I was picked up by a minivan. Needless to say, I passed out straight away and woke up only when the bus stopped so I could be sick. Lesson learned? Probably not. It was worth it. We drove up through the countryside where we stopped to see the “white temple” outside of Chiang Rai, which was delightfully morbid and weird (and by this time I was starting to feel a bit better….) We got to our crappy hostel in a tiny town on the Mekong, where since I hadn’t really slept I just passed out after chatting with a few people.
This morning I woke up ready to go. A lot of the people on this trip seem to be rookie Asia travelers (more on being a young traveler in a bit) and it was kind of cute. I was a little nervous, having stayed my Thai Visa, and after a fine (booooooooo) was allowed through to get on a tiny long tail taxi for the 2 minute trek across the Mekong. There, immigration control was a mess and everybody was getting cranky (welcome to Asia, people). I eventually got the visa (The first one on my appended pages!!!!) which is pretty, and moved on to wait outside of a travel agent with 12 other people coming from Chiang Mai and a piece of paper saying we paid somebody. We waited forever until we got to the boat, jumped on and cruised. This is a 2 day journey, each day being about 6 hrs to Laung Prabang. Its actually really pretty, and its really just foreigners so there’s a lot of chatting. I found a Laotian, and after he taught me some Lao, we caused mischief and chilled. Lots of BeerLao was consumed, some naps were had, a lot of stories swapped and we finally got there to the biggest cluster fuck I have ever been a part of (and I was in China, people). The boat (read: about the size of a bus) stopped and everybody’s baggage was everywhere and people were getting on the boat to sell you shit and people were getting off and it was crazy and everybody was so cranky. I found a guesthouse (might be the crappiest place I’ve ever stayed) negotiated my price (cause I’m not a rookie) and went to seek dinner. On my travels a nice couple recognized me (mainly cause the man had a computer out and I asked him if he had wifi) so I joined them. We were later joined by Thomas, a man who walked for 3 months through Japan and 3 months through New Zealand; and his friend. I dare you to tell me I don’t meet the most interesting people. There was more chatting and story swapping until the Beer Lao started to put us to sleep. Day 3/3 tomorrow!