Laos Village
A short walk from our overnight hotel was the river marking the Thai-Laos border. Arriving early to try and avoid the crowds we got jumbled up in amongst a huge Chinese tour group, all wearing matching hats, coats and bags in a fetching shade of green.
Strangely I also saw a dog in a negligee which I guess is Vietnamese food porn.
A speedy long boat transferred us to the other side where we jostled with another crowd whilst the officials deliberated over our passports for nearly an hour. Eventually we allowed access and went back to the river bank to find our transport to Laos. This turned out to be a surprisingly luxurious slow boat, complete with a bar, for the first 6 hour trip down the Mekong.
The boat chugged gently along the river whilst we passed the time playing cards and reading.
Our only break was a stop at a remote village. The village children came out to greet us, then led us into the village to see inside ceratin houses. He we finally found the few adults that weren’t hard at work, and helped them grind some grain using a huge stone wheel. This was mixed with water from the village well to make their hard flat-bread.
One man led us into his hut to show us his prized cockfighting contestants, who seemed anxious to start a fight even without provocation.
After a long hot day on the boat, our eventual arrival at Pak Beng was a bit of an anticlimax. The town is purely a stopping point halfway to Luang Prabang with no electricity, so after a romantic candlelit dinner of cold rice and chicken skin we found three kids with the town’s only generator. Rather than creating light or food they were using it to watch a Mr. Bean DVD so we joined them for a couple of episodes which turned out somewhat considerably funnier when dubbed into Thai.
