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Slow Boat - Pak Beng - Slow Boat

I crossed over the from Thailand at the town of Huay Xai which is where I went and did the Gibbon Experience.

From Huay Xai you can either get to Luang Prabang by bus or by slow boat. Obviously I didnt want to spend 12 hours on a bus so I decided to take the slow boat which takes 2 days and you spend a night in Pak Beng. The whole things costs $30.

All the stuff that we read online said that the slow boat is supposed to be really uncomfortable and you should bring a pillow to sit on. Also that there was no food or water on the boat so you have to stock up. Once we got our ticket and climbed on the boat we thought that we may have gotten on the wrong one. It was really big and lot of space. The seats were old van seats so actually pretty comfy and some of them actually had tables in between them. There was even a little bar in the back that sold chips, sandwiches and beer.

The boat is made for about 70 people and then they add seats to fit another 30. After that a group of about 15 people came down to the boat launch but the people on the boat refused to let any more people on.

The boat ride was super chill, and there was lots of nice scenery, a couple times it started to rain so we had to use the orange curtains to block it out.

We stopped for the night in Pak Beng which was pretty much just like Huay Xai with a  lot of sandwich stands and whiskey. There was a lot more drinking in this town though and only one bar so it ended up that i was stuck in the room with paper thin walls when all the people came back from the bar.
I did end up going out for dinner and meeting 4 Canadians, 2 from Coquitlam actually.

The second day of the boat was about the same but a different boat, the seats werent as nice and there was no tables but it was still better than we had expected it to be. But the weather was really nice and the scenery was really nice.



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