two days in a boat along the mekong river

Although two full days stuck in a boat sounds horrible, it was actually great! It was by far the best form of transport I have taken so far. It had a nice cool breeze, room to move around, comfy seats, space to play cards, beautiful scenery... very relaxing. It was good to do nothing, and not feel guilty about it! The outlook was spectactular- very jungly, with scattered tiny villages, children playing, water buffalo grazing. We stayed overnight in Pakbeng, a very tiny town. There were only a handful of restaurants in town, and I was very frightened that my choice of Indian would backfire on me, but I was fine. The town's power supply is turned off at 10pm, so no lights, but more importantly, no fan!! In the morning, power returned at 6.30am, so I was able to have a warm shower. The annual power boat race was happening that day, and was a very big deal for the village- people headed to Pakbeng from all over, so we had to leave before all the commotion began. The novelty of river travel was wearing a little thin, but a slept for a while to make the day go quicker! Some of the people in my group played cards almost non stop- I have no idea how they lasted 6 hours! We arrived in Houy Xai in the late afternoon, which was a slightly larger riverside village/town. We had a huge deck area of a local restaurant to ourselves which was great. And my meal was one of the first! I bought a bottle of Glen's Vodka to share for $6 (AUD). It didn't taste that bad actually! I stayed up for a while, but there wasn't much happening in Houy Xai so went to bed. After breakfast in the morning, we walked 100m down the street, to the river's edge to immigration. After passing the easiest border inspection of the trip, we got a little boat across the river, and had arrived in Thailand!! We took mini buses for the 4hr journey to Chiang Mai. It felt different to Laos instantly- the cars were on the opposite side of the road & the drivers were crazy again! It was much busier & more developed. We drove through some very flooded roads at some points. I only had 2 hrs to spend in Chiang Mai, before boarding the overnight train to Bangkok. All I really saw was the restaurant where I ate lunch... a little place called McDonalds! Half the group were staying in Chiang Mai for a few extra nights, so after a rushed goodbye we boarded the train. The sleeper seats were upright chairs for the daytime, then at about 10pm they got folded in bunk beds. We began drinking at 5pm cos there was nothing else to do! Three of us headed to the dining carriage to keep drinking once the beds were made, but we got kicked out soon after as the tables become staff sleeping quarters!