Slow Boat to Laos, July 23rd - 25th

We're playing a bit of catchup posting-wise as we're now in Vietnam. From Chiang Mai we spent three days traveling into Laos. The first day was simple- we drove to the Thai border town of Chiang Khong, a village of ~9K people and important as it's a marketplace for many of
the surrounding hilltribes of Northern Thailand.
On our second day of travel, we crossed the river border by ferrg into Huay Xai, Laos. The process to get through customs and onto the boats took about 4 hours and was extremely chaotic, and we finally settled into our seats on the slow boat to leave at noon. We traveled with ~80 others, mostly British, Dutch and Australian, for 7 hours down the Mekong river, stopping overnight in the Lao town, Pak Beng. We stayed in one of the few places with electricity that ran through the night- no AC but a very effective fan and a gorgeous spot for dinner and breakfast. Out last day involved another 8 hours of boat travel with a brief stop to pick-up massive bags of rice and bamboo bags filled with ~20 live chicken + ducks each (fortunately loaded to the roof of the boat). Our time spent on the river was completely worthwhile. Amazing to see the hundreds of miles of nearly untouched land. Perhaps not the most efficient way to travel, but since we had the time, very happy to have
done so.