Wednesday 21 October 2009

King of Khong and the Slow Boat day 1.

So this was the latest in a series of misjudgements of how much time it takes to get from point A to point B. The journey from Chaing Mai to Chaing Khong was not as I first thought a 4 hour trip but was in fact almost double that. Which was ok with the Ipod and people to chat to, but got a bit hairy when our non air conditioned local bus began to fill with the aroma of vomit from the very ill Thai child down the front.



We eventually made it to Chaing Khong at about 8 in the evening to be greeted by the strangest man I've met on this trip. He had a fishing rod over one shoulder came running over to us, let out an eerie high pitched laugh showing his four teeth before jogging off down the road.

We eventually managed to find a guest house (or ghost house as the sign read) and then a restaurant (which was nice, except from the fact they forgot to feed one of the group).

The next day we did the journey which was easy enough (short pick up journey to the border and then a long tail boat into Laos where we breezed through customs and tuk-tuked our way to the slow boat pier.

The first day on the Slow Boat was a great laugh- met an Irish guy who had stowed away on the boat - a decision which I think takes a lot of balls in a country where they will hang you for less. played a lot of cards, drank some drink, laughed at the people passing in the speed boat with terror in their eyes, and just generally enjoying the scenery.

The locals were up the back gambling- now that they were out of Thailand it seemed to be the done thing, and after over a month without poker I was itching to join in. However the language barrier got in the way....

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