Pak Beng – Luang Prabang, Laos
We woke up this morning at 7:30 and packed our things up in the cold. We checked out of our room and picked up some sandwiches (which we preordered) for the boat journey. We then made our way back down to the docks a little ahead of schedule to ensure that we would get seats.
We loaded onto the boat at around 8:15 (45 minutes before scheduled departure) and found some comfortable seats. Slowly the boat filled to capacity. Once again, more passengers loaded on. Just as yesterday the crew waited until the boat was much too overcrowded before agreeing to open up a second ship.
The whole affair took more than an hour to figure out. At 10:00 we pushed off and though we were going to be on our way. Unfortunately, we were just moving to a different part of the dock so that a passenger could load his motorcycle onto the boat! This was quite the endeavor and took another hour.
At 11:00 (2 hours late) we finally started heading downstream. The journey was very similar to yesterday. I spent the majority of the time reading. I aquired a new book (from B), “The White Masai”, and nearly finished it during the movie. I took a break from reading and watched Tombstone on Spizzle’s iPod Video. Other than that, it was an uneventful trip down the river.
We reached Luang Prabang at 4:45. We grabbed our luggage and headed up the ramp away from the river. When we reached the road a throng of tuk-tuk drivers offering to take us into town greeted us. After much discussion we decided to pay the cheap fare (5000 Khipp or 50 cents).
The driver drove us to several guesthouses, all of which were full. We circled back through the city trying to find an accommodation. After several failed attempts at finding a guesthouse we decided it would be easier to walk. To our surprise we found that we got off the tuk-tuk only a few hundred meters from where we had gotten on…
It took about 30 minutes to find a suitable accommodation. We ended up at a back road place with one room left. It was a two person converted into a room for three by dragging a mattress from the hallway into the room. Total cost: $3 per person.
After settling in we were hungry and ready for dinner. We made our way to the main road and found a nice restaurant. We had a cheap meal and then wandered around in search of the Red Cross (recommended by lonely planet for its saunas and massages). We traversed almost the entire town on foot before finding our destination.
We paid a small fee and then entered the sauna (the massages were all booked). It turned out to be more of a steamroom with the odor of sweaty men. Still, we were excited by the experience. We in our towels on small wooden benches and absorbed the heat. After so many evening of cold it was nice to feel hot again.
After an hour (and three sessions in the hot box) we decided we were done with the sauna. We dressed and headed into the night. Surprisingly, it was not at all cold (our elevation must have dropped a lot). We meandered around and eventually found our way back to the main street.
On the way home we made a short stop at a slow internet café. By the time we were all back in the room it was almost 23:00. We were all quite exhausted. I sat down and wrote my blog while the other boys immediately fell asleep.
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