27th – I'm on a boat!

We left the hotel around 0730 to drive 10-ish minutes to the Thai border where we all went through without issues and got onto a bus, drove a few minutes through no man’s land until we reached the Lao border and immigration. As I was the only one in the group not needing a visa I could skip the visa papers, fill out my arrival form, exchange all by baht to kip, use the ATM and go through the short immigration queue without worry.

When we were all once again gathered, now in Laos, a new pair of minibuses picked us up and took us to the Mekong River and a longboat, our mode of transport the next 2 days.

We took off at around 1000 and the following 6 hours we made our way down the Mekong River. Lunch was served but apart from that we tried doing as little as possible; relaxing, playing cards and just seeing the world pass slowly by.

We arrived at Pak Beng where we checked in at a simple but cosy hotel; no AC but with a view of the river from the rooms. Also – on arrival there was no power. When we later started our small walk in town we were told that a log or branch had dropped onto some powerlines interrupting power to the entire area. During our walk where we got to see the market (in the late afternoon, shortly before they closed, we were probably in a lot of people’s way) we did luckily see power coming back on around us so the damage was limited.

"But why do you bring all that camera equipment with you? Isn't it heavy?"

This is why.

At the market. Notice the dried squirrel just above the spring onions - apparently it's used to keep flies away(?).

Well, if you can't find anything else to use as a stable pillar you might as well utilize a bomb casing from the war.

We had dinner and afterwards we ended up in a bar next to our hotel, so when I a couple of drinks later went home, among the first, it was quick and easy getting back. Going into our bathroom I did meet a bigger than average spider sitting on the wall; a tile wide so 15-20 cm would be a good guess. That did wake me up to be honest.