I just arrived in the UNESCO World Heritage city of northern Laos, Luang Prabang. Over the past 2 days I took the slow boat down the Mekong river. It was quite a unique and unforgettable experience. I travelled with 5 friends I met along the journey. It was really fun doing this slow boat experience together, I could not have imagined doing it alone. Nicole, Gunter, Lotte, Nicole, and I met in Chiang Rai at Get Hi Hostel. We all were headed to Laos the same day and teamed up to take the slow boat together. From Huay Xai we drove on the boat eight hours on Thursday to the small village of Pakbang. We did not have any accommodation booked so we searched the city to see what we could find. At first many places said they were fully booked, but I was optimistic. I ended up finding a nice guesthouse which cost us each about 4 dollars a night. In Pakbang I also met up with Anton who I met at my hostel in Chiang Mai. He joined our group to split costs and adventure together. In Pakbang we all ate dinner together but the service was terrible and the food took forever. I stocked up on snacks for the boat ride for the following morning because there is no food on the boat. I went with Pringles and some seaweed chips. Today, Friday we all woke up early to get good seats on the boat. It was another 8 hour day down the Mekong River. We had snack time, question time, story time, and percussion gun time. We laughed and got to know each other better. Even though sitting on a crowded boat for 16 hours over two days was painful on the body, the company and conversations made it all worth it. I would recommend any one coming from Thailand into Laos to do the slow boat experience because it is so unique. You pass through real jungle and dramatic limestone landscaped. You take occasional stops to drop off food and packages to local villages and see how the rural Lao people live. We saw many water buffalo too. Arriving in Luang Prabang around sunset I did not book any accommodation. As I discussed earlier I want to embrace more spontaneity and not plan too much. Typically I would book a hostel on hostel world but I wanted to see what the city had to offer. I learned going in person is usually much cheaper and can find unique gems. Anton Gunter and I had food at the night market and set off to find accommodation. We roamed the city and found a four dollar hostel dorm room first. My main rule is never buy the first thing you see, so I continued to compare prices. Also the hostel was on the main road and I was fearful the noise would be brutal. I walked and asked more than 10 places about accommodation. Either it was fully booked or way too expensive. I was not worried because I knew it would work out. This is the backpacker lifestyle. Every time a hotel said they were full I would ask where I should go to next that is cheap and available. Finally a nice gentleman whose place was already booked took me on his motorbike to his friend's hotel. The man offered 26 dollars for a private room and I got it down to 17. I was actually very happy for this price. After 2.5 weeks of dorm Iife and many snorlaxs waking me up I booked the private! I am hopeful I will get a good nights rest and be energized to explore Laos.
