Laos border crossing and speedboating down the Meekong

Crossed the border from Chang Khong in Thailand on the ? Jan after an awful night in a shitty guesthouse with karaoke blaring into our room. We renamed Chiang Khong the Picton of Thailand – serves one purpose to get to the otherside of an expanse of water. - Chiang Kong(Thailand) is on one side of the Mekong River and Laos is a 1 minute boat journey on the other side.
Once in Laos with our Visas sorted we were supposed to catch a slow boat down the Meekong with another 100 people which would taken 2 whole days. But after some swift talking by a local Laos salesman (and probably a rather rich local speed boat owner) we brushed aside the warnings of various respected travel books and friends and ended up spending more money and catching a speed boat down the Mekong river to Laung Prabang.


This made the 2 day journey a short 6 hours...but wasn't without its drawbacks. We were given our standad issue Supertrooper-esque combo of visored helmet along with a lifejacket, and travelled on a tiny boat which seated a max of 8 people. You had to sit with your legs up by your chest for the entire journey as you sat on the ground of the boat which nearly led to early onset of deep vein thrombosis among other things. We had also managed to convince an Aussie couple to join us - not sure how happy they were with the whole adventure.

All in all glad we took the fast route - as you may be able to tell from the photo...the slow boat looks pretty packed. However the jury is out on whether we would dare to recommend it to others...

Trying to upload a movie of the boat ride- but might have to sort that out for next time