The Slow Boat to Laos

is fucking SLOW. This was described to us (Saara from Finland, Josh from California, and Jeremy from New York) as a not-to-be-missed part of the journey, but 16 hours on a little boat with 50 other people on wooden benches was not as comfortable as it sounds. We rode the boat for 6 hours on the first day, then stopped in at a little town halfway down the Mekong. It was a cool little town, but we had been warned by the people at our guesthouse in Thailand to be careful and not to walk alone at night. I was glad that I had Saara, Jeremy, and Josh... we found a guesthouse which SEEMED good after getting off the boat, so we dropped our bags and went for some beer and food. When we returned, we found that the place was CRAWLING with bugs... all over the floor... big ones, small ones, flying ones. It was so nice to be sharing the room. We pulled the bedsheets back, and inside the sheets were all kinds of little red bugs too. Ugh. Luckily, the power was cut at 10:30, so we couldn't see them anymore (but also the fan stopped working and the water in the bathroom too. Le sigh. At least I had my moisturizer.

The next day was better because we had a different boat that we could stand up on, but Saara and I ended up sleeping on the floor. On the way we stopped to pick people up at little villages. At one stop, big baskets of ducks were loaded on the boat with leafy branches on top for shade. The poor ducks had to sit on the metal roof for the whole ride!

We found a nicer guesthouse in Laung Probang that we're happy at, and -oh the luxury- it has 24 hour electricity! I really like it here; it's peaceful and French, there are no begging children or tuk tuk drivers harassing us. I think that I'll stay a few days then head south.

It's so quiet and peaceful here!