Slow Boat Day 2

What a difference a day makes.....

We turned up at 9 am for the boat ride's second stage ( only 8 hours ) to discover that the three boats of yesterday, filled with comfortable seats that we had spun round so as to be able to talk to one another were gone, to be replaced by one of the same boats, filled with hard wooden seats in a shape that would make a chiropracter's dreams come true.

Presumably they had done this to save petrol by only running one boat and because we were this far along, and having already paid for our tickets, there was nothing for us to do but go along with it. So with my mocking comments of the people who had brought cushions with them the previous day ringing in my ears I contorted my body into the seat. My fellow passengers, who has been bouncing around the boat the day before seemed a little more subdued, due to the combined forces of alcohol, opium and late night attack of bedbugs from which I had been blissfully immune.

I think I'm alone in the fact that I enjoyed the entire second day of the trip. I thought the scenary was amazing, and that the occasional stops by the small riverside villages were a great look at the way life is for some people, living without fresh water, electricity or any other modern conveniences, miles from their nearest neighbours. Would be great to swap lives with them for a week, then to trade back quickly and leg it down to McDonalds....

Anyway after this travelling we arrived in picturesque Luand Prabang (too late at night to see if it was picturesgue but I have been assured that it is)