Slow boat down th' Mekong River

Setting off early so as to get into Laos with visa in place and onto the boat by 10.30 we were up and enjoying breakfast at Bamboo mexican house in Chiang Khong with plenty of time. This was a lovely wee place, we ate there at lunch and the night before when i'd sat with the owner playing blues guitar for a bit. His wife is the cook and they understand food to a T! Best pumpkin soup in Thailand and we made sure to buy some sourdough bread for the journey ahead..
Crossing was fairly easy, getting the visa was slightly more chaotic with groups of US and Italian tourists and other odd-bodies competing for service at the two desks. Soon enough we were in and on our way to the pier.. A game of patonc was underway outside the ticket office which i wish i'd joined. As with all things Lao we had a long wait between the official time and when the boat was actually leaving. Setting off it seemed like a pretty exciting journey; with toilets, a small shop providing food and drink on board and although fairly full it could definitely be worse.. Heading downstream it seemed like it would take no time. Six hours later we pulled in to Pak Beng and the sharks were out for feeding - by this I mean that everybody rushed for their bags and all friendships or allegiances made on the trip seemed in the distant past.. 'Me first' culture rearing its ugly head.. Once the bags were retrieved we had to scramble up a jagged rock face while being touted for hotels cafes and bars which is understandable given this is a place few people stay for more than a night. Finding a decent enough venue we chucked off our weights and had a good bit of grub before settling into an uncomfortable bed.
Morning comes and off on part two, setting off was typically late and some passengers neglected to understand that their apparent discomfort was at the cost of Lao schoolchildren and families sitting in the rear - the engine room quarter of the boat.. Effing ingreats. As we travelled down more stops were made, more passenger got on and trades were carried out. By the time we were there i reckon a good 170+ people were on a 80x8ft boat. Eat your heart out Easyjet. The whole trip was long but made for an altogether pleasant time, you can get uncomfortable but compared with the perils of car-sickness on a 10hour time frame i think it was a good choice. It gives a good chance to see the hilltops surrounding every straight and the floodplain farms entering new phases of crops, fisherman throwing or reeling nets, burning or cutting of trees and other boats to race downstream..

Arriving in Luang Prabang was much less chaotic though took longer due to the vast number of people and a slightly more chivalrous attitude to baggage. We tuk-tuk'd it toward our hotel and came to the wooden bridge that gave us the first sign we knew we were heading in the right direction. Then he stopped. "cannot cross" er... But there's other tuks going over?! "police!! New bridge 40,000 kip" - an extra mile and ten thousand more.. No sorry, not up for this, why say you can take us somewhere then renege! So we unloaded our bags and started to cross the wooden planks on wood struts - no more - over the River Chan 40ft below us to our hotel....