SLOWING 747

Well, it took basically two whole days to get here, but alas I am finally in Luang Prabang, Laos.

The minibus left Chiang Mai at nuine at night and arrived at Chiang Khong at three in the morning. Of course, there was a guesthouse that was just waiting to charge us for a few hours sleep. The problem was that there was no receptionist to check us in. After waiting for twenty minutes, Laura and Cora, two girls I had just met, and I took matters into our own hands, discovered which rooms were free, and assigned our group of eleven to the rooms accordingly. The receptionist eventually came, all disoriented, but we had already sorted ourselves out, bla bla bla, thanks for nothing, we'll pay tomorrow. It wasn't like we were going to escape without paying on the slow boat, where someone could have caught up by swimming if not simply by walking along shore.

The next morning, after some shitty-ass breakfast, we were stamped out of Thailand, took a really skinny long boat across the Mekong, and entered Laos. Canadians get shafted with the most expensive visa fee of all nations: $42! GAH! I then became a multi-millionaire in kip by converting 10,000 baht (a little more than $300). With 20,000 kip (a little more than $2), can you imagine the wad of cash I got?

So before getting on the slow boat for Luang Prabang, a bunch of us decided it would be a good idea to get some liquor for the ride. Consequently, at 9:30 in the morning, Karlon, Robert, Adele, James, Youav, and I were buying hard liquor, chips, mixers, and water. We didn't wait too long after having set sail before cracking the bottles open and becoming quickly inebriated. Furthermore, as being the last to board, we didn't get seats but rather an area in the back where we had tons of space. SA-WEET! We drank copiously while everyone else in cattle class bought their alcohol from the boat, being massive ripped off. Mu ha ha ha.

There was one snotty bitch and we didn't like her.

After a few hours, we finally made it to Pak Beng, a small "town" which basicallt thrives off the tourists who stay for the night before getting on the slow boat again the next morning. I don't know whether I was hungover at 8 pm or suffering from delayed-reaction sea-sickness, but I found myself vomiting before having dinner. Felt much better afterwards, though.

The next day, we boarded the Slowing 747 anew for the remaining eight-hour sail to Luang Prabang. We didn't drink that much but ended up talking with more people. At the end of the boat ride, we formed a bloc of twelve and ended up staying at the same guesthouse for the night. We went for some grub and bowling, where I ended up having the second-highest score out of everyone! Yippee! We then went to a bar to catch the World Cup, but I grew weary and decided to retire.

Which gets us to today. Luang Prabang is HOT! But it really is beautiful and pictoresque. I took a few pictures befor almost collapsing from heat stroke. The plan is to take a few more pictures between today and tomorrow: I think the bloc will be hading for Van Vieng tomorrow so I should make the most of the time that I have now. Pictures will be uploaded to Flickr as soon as I can find a fast enough connection.