28th – I'm still on a boat!

Having left (relatively) early and (almost) sober last night getting up this morning wasn’t much of an issue. My room mate even thanked me as he admitted he wasn’t sure he would have gotten up in reasonable time if it hadn’t been for me and my alarm (yay – I am useful!). Breakfast was had across the road, a couple of elephants were spotted on the other side of the river being walked by their care takers, and the last person was woken up a few minutes before departure time.

The view from our room.

Elephants with their care takers.

We got back on to the boat and a few minutes delayed around 0800 we continued down the river towards Luang Prabang. We stopped at the Pak Ou caves to see the numerous buddha statues and figurines placed throughout the caves. It wasn’t just a place where people have put thousands of statues, it has become a holy place on level with a “normal” temple. Apart from this stop we just gently cruised down the river.

Pak Ou caves.

The first couple of hours on the boat were pretty quiet as people were still recovering from last night but they slowly livened up during the day. There isn’t much traffic on the river these days so apart from muddy water and constant forests on both shores there isn’t much to look at, so time was mainly spent on playing cards and reading.

We arrived at our destination around 1530 and form there a half hour drive to the hotel. It’s very nice; large rooms, AC, good beds and a no-shoe rule when entering the building where your room is located.

At 1740 we left for a walk to see where the night market was, locate ATMs and exchange booths, and then we were taken to a food stall with a vegetarian buffet with a set price per bowl. Despite it being vegetarian it was surprisingly delicious.

We had a walk around the market before returning to the hotel before 2100, effectively concluding the day.