Laos slow boat: day 1

Breakfast was at 7.30am with our bus scheduled to leave at 8.30am, however we were about an hour late leaving and the delay was a sign of what was to come...

First a bus took us a short journey to the border where we had to get our passports stamped to leave Thailand before getting on a bus over the bridge to the Laos side of the Mekong river. We had to queue to hand over our passport, photo and two completed forms. Then we had to wait for our passport to be flashed in front of the crowd and collect it by paying the $36 visa fee ($1 extra as it's a weekend). We then waited for another bus to take us to our boat where we bought lunch and had to wait around until nearly 1pm when our boat finally left.

Luckily I got a seat with my two new Dutch friends but we were at the back near the loud engine. Some English girls I met (who all went to Sussex Uni) unfortunately had to sit in the engine room without windows and with the noise so loud they couldn't talk. Quite a few people were forced to sit in the aisle between seats as they'd clearly overbooked the boat.

The scenery was gorgeous and there were occasional pockets of activity along the riverbanks. Kids playing in the water, buffalo being herded, fisherman.