One perfect day

As I write this, I am floating up the Mekong River on a slow boat to Luang Prabang in Laos. It’s sunny and probably about 25 Celsius. The scenery on either side of the boat is pretty spectacular and it’s quiet and peaceful. It is indeed one perfect day!

We left Chiang Mai yesterday in two small busses (There are 14 of us) and drove nearly 5 hours to the Thai side of the border with Laos where we spent the night in Chiang Khong.

This morning we were up early to cross over to Laos (country number 94). The border crossing was quite easy if not a little disorganised on the Laos side. Going through immigration in Thailand was pretty simple. We stood in a queue and they stamped our passport – job done. Once we had exit stamps we headed across the Mekong on a couple of long boats and climbed out on the Laos side of the river.

Took over an hour in a queue in Laos to get visas and go through immigration. People were constantly trying to queue jump which is what made it disorganised but the process was really quite simple. 1. Stand in queue 2. Hand passport over 3. Stand outside another window until they called your name 4. Hand over US$35 5. get passport.

Once visas were done and dusted we hopped in a couple of cars and went down to another part of the river where we boarded the slow boat that I am currently travelling on.

It’s been a wonderfully relaxing day. The boat family made lunch for us and it was really nice. Apparently most of us had a nap after lunch. I’m not sure about that though since I was asleep. All we have done is sit on the boat and watching the world go by. I was reading my book earlier and think I will go back to doing that now….

cheerio

KC