Read about my travels...: Laos - and the journey to Lounag Prubang

We have just spent the last two days on a magical journey down the Mekong River from the border of Laos / Thailand to Luang Prubang (Central Laos). We left Houx Yai on Tuesday morning, with the boat filled with about 60 of us travellers/foreigners or 'farang' as the locals called us. The boat ride had amazing views for the entire 300km trip - with rock formations, native bush, farmland, huts and villages, little fishing boats, nets and rods everywhere, water buffalo and a whole lot more. We stopped several times at what you would think were desserted banklines to pick up and offload villagers who would have bag loads of supplies.

We stayed the night at Pak Beng - the half way point of the journey. The boat was swarmed with local kids as soon as it docked and they had billboards of places to stay and would help carry bags up the hill. It was amazing to think that here in the middle of Laos this little village was accustomed to boats turning up and offloading travellers for the night who would spend up large on food and accommodation. They were use to it and they knew what to expect - and we didn't.

Dave and I made our way to a guest house - one of many - and along the way the price fell from about 50.000kip to 25.000kip (NZ$5). Its a competitive market out there! The room was okay. The village operates on generators which was cool with many of the restaurants having candles - how romantic. We dropped our bags and walked the street, there is only one with about 200m spanning with shops come houses and restaurants. We found a place to eat, had the local Beer Lao, which is nice. There was also the loudest thunder we'ver ever heard. We sat with a Canadian guy and two girls from Estonia. When the restaurant worker came around with Lao Lao (whisky made from sticky rice) is was custom for all diners to have a shot, or two. It was potent as!! Like turps mixed with moonshine and other various ailments. Its rude to say no to Laos and they take offence as they are very giving people. So we had it, and a couple of beers to wash it down, and made our way home at 10:30pm with the street pitch black being no power and we having little idea where our place was. This was after the worker fell asleep on the chair - a subtle hint to leave. Alas, we made it home ok.

We woke early the next morning (the last thing you want to do in miss the only boat outa here) and made our way down to the river. It was a 7hour journey East to where we are now. Arriving last night, we found a guest house, they are between a backpackers and a hotel, and quite frankly the way to go, and cruised the streets. We visited the Hmong (a hilltribe) night market, which sold anything from silver to t-shirts, art, woven bags etc. We found a makeshift vegetarian buffet for NZ$1, and tasty with lots of vegetables - somethings thats been hard to find previously.