Those of you who haven't heard Josh's catchy travel epic 'Small boat to China' might not understand why I stress the word 'catchy', after two days on a river boat singing this song at the top of my lungs..I sure do. Sorry Josh, the Finnish and I butchered your song, but you are now officially internationally recognised - by blonde Scandinavians :)
Fresh of the bike and into a two day journey by slow boat - from the hills of Pai to the heart of Laos, Luang Prabang. A wide offshoot of the Mekong river snakes through hills and mountains taking chugging river boats crammed with tourists merrily along. I was fortunate to meet two beautiful Finnish girls, Paula and Nadja, packing bottles of rum and chicken sandwiches - I couldn't have been luckier. 
Laos immigration at this border crossing was a complete joke. If you plan to go this way, try to be prepared for around 3 hours of unorganised choas in a small concrete space with 200 confused, hot and tired international travellers..
And then we were squeezed onto a boat..
Finding a nice patch of floor we settled in, a 7 hour trip the first day, an overnight at Pak Beng and another 9 hours the next day.
The girls cracked the rum...
Most of the river travellers were freshly filtered from Pai, there were a lot of old friends and new ones. A chilled chilled crew and plenty of room to smoke, stretch, chat, wander..whiskey in the front deck, rum on the cushions and joints passed in steerage. What a nice way to travel down a river :)
Luang Prabang is a city of monks and temples - - - goody - - -
