The party town and northern Laos

What it is all about down on the river

Our lil crew on day one (a bit chilly still)

Wow. After two more days of solid rain the sky cleared and what a reward we got. A fantastic day of partying on the river. It is something I can only handle for one day that’s for sure (feeling old anyone?). Buckets with a cup of vodka, tubes, flying foxes, swings and a wild, friendly party. Minus Tom getting robbed on his way home by some children (cards and money) it was a good day all round. Spike headed back again for another full day and I spent a day chilling out. 

The next morning was a terrible bus ride to Luang Prabang. Too many corners and a flat tire later we made it alive. It is a nice (yet very touristy)small city with a fantastic market. Due to our flight out of Luang Prabang being only 4 days away we raced up north the next day to Ma..... somewhere I had spotted a while ago and really had my heart set on seeing. We did not a lot other than relax in this small town. It was nice. Well worth it.

However the trip back to Luang Prabang was a nightmare. We signed up for the boat ride back to Luang Prabang. An apparently amazing 6 or so hour trip. The boat left (rather full) at 11:30. It was relaxing and beautiful. Until we heard a loud bang and the little dude launched himself into the water to stop the boat from tipping or taking off downstream. A broken propeller at 12:50. Only an hour and a half into the journey. So all 20 of us jumped out and took refuge on the river bank, where we chilled out for just over two hours while the driver and his young helper (neither of who spoke any English) went to a village to get it fixed (well we assume that’s what they did anyway). We enthusiastically set off again and were just getting back into the amazing views when the propeller came off again. Yet another one was retrieved from inside the boat and attached. Seems this is a common problem. Only about 15 minutes later it turns out the boat trip was over. The water was too low (the boat to full) and we had a two hour tuk tuk back to Luang Prabang (Needless to say I was pretty angry... hoping to take the boat to avoid the terrible (and travel sickening) journey by bus). We encountered many boulders over the road once again (a potential result of quarry work? We are not totally sure, but heard a lot of explosions while waiting on the river bank for the boat to get fixed). All in all it was not what I had in mind for avoiding the car sickness by relaxing down the Nam Ou river. We did however see a guy we met in the south, as Don Det heading the other way in a boat north. Small world.

The final breakdown

On the upside to the day not turning out anything like planned we made it back in time to enjoy a beer Lao or two with Tom (who had taken the bus back due to limited money).

I am sitting in Luang Prabang airport as I write this, waiting for the flight to Vietnam. We had a mear with our Visa (we understood we could get it on arrival by flying in – incorrect). So it cost us a fair bit to get a fast process. But hey, we made it and will be getting n the plane, so that is the main thing.