Laos first impressions

We made our trip from Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong without any trouble thn managed to avoid the tuktuks who offered to take us to the boat for 70 Baht each!!!! I know I said I would stop, but yikes! We ended up walking. Did all the border stuff then jumped on a "ferry" to the other side.
Their border was fun, a girl in a jean jacket and skirt coming down the boat ramp to give us our forms we needed to fill out (we'd already done our Visas so no border gouging was available). Filled out the forms which were just xeroxed sheets of paper, then traded in some money $1US = 40 Baht = 10200 kip about. So I am very wealthy. Huge wads of 5000 kip notes handed over to me for my 900baht. Found a guest house then debated taking teh slow boat to Luang Nam Tha. It would have cost $100Us to rent the thing between however many people were on, and even at capacity would still cost $35 because of food and stuff at the boatman's village. WOuld have been cool but too much money. WE decided to take the bus whihc the guesthouse kindly arranged, with a fee that included a ride to the station but was still enoough to cover the trouble of getting the tickets for us, shall we say. The guesthouse came out alright. Before I get to the bus ride though...

Laos is a lovely place, not much in the way of lights though. Huay Xai where we landed was just a long strip along the river. The tuktuks were just motorbikes with a side car welded on, not the sturdy trike models in Thailand and everything was a bit older, more rundown etc. It's noce though. Had our first weed offered to us by some random dude at the top of the temple stares. Kinda weird, being in Laos for 2 hours, walking up 137 steps (or whatever) to the Buddhist temple and having some guy offer you weed while monks cant from within. Weird but cool.

The bus ride was insane. 8 hours for under 2 km. This road was a main one in the area, in fact all the roads that exist in Laos are probably main ones because they barely have any. This thing was dusty, single lane, hugging the edges of mountains, slowing for the biggest holes in the road, fording streams, threepoint turns around some jacknife corners...the whole nine yards. Super sweet.

Here in Luang Nam Tha, we quickly found a guest house and today we booked a two day trek into the nature preserve that leaves tomorrow. The trekking here is actually better controlled and run thatn in Thailand. The government and the UN got in there just as the industry was beginnning so tour sizes are limited, guids are licensed adn inmpact on both environment and villages is limited. Should be fun.

We also rented some bikes and went out to a waterfall. When we got there along with an entrance feee the old guy at the gate kindly pointed out the sign that detailed costs for whtevere vehicle you brought in. He said he ould watch it for us, but I would have found it easier to pay if it hasd just been a parking fee. Oh well. The falls themselves were okay, nothing spectacular though.

I'm going to tell you about my next adventure in a seperate blog. orry to rush through things but money is money.