[Current Jenny – I’m combining days 9 and 10 because we were sailing down the Mekong River so there’s not too much to say]

-Saturday 28th November-

This morning we got up and headed down to the local mooring point to get on our river boat. This involved walking down a fairly steep slope, embarking one long-boat, walking across it then climbing onto the boat next to it. Not hard – unless you’re carrying your bulky 11kg backpack and day sack and the two boats are floating a good foot or two apart. Then, once you’ve clambered aboard, it’s shoes off instantly. We spent the next eight hours cruising down the river in the sunshine, looking out for dolphins (only to find out the next afternoon that the pink Mekong dolphins are down in Cambodia nearer the sea rather than near the north of Laos), tigers (none), elephants (none) and dinosaurs (didn’t expect to see them but the scenery was so reminiscent of Jurassic Park that it wouldn’t have been entirely a surprise to see one or two). The rest of the time was filled with napping, reading and playing a LOT of card games – including a very intense game of Cheat that lasted over an hour.

At 5pm we docked on a sandbank (I have no idea what the boat was moored to but it was still there in the morning so it was fine) and walked up the hill to a village where we stayed the night. To be honest, I had mixed emotions about the home stay. We did a tour of the village and learnt about the communities and their ‘simple’ lives – a community of farmers, children don’t start school until 8 years old so they can help their families on the farms. It all felt a bit ‘poverty tourism’ and I wasn’t super comfortable, We then sat down and were served a delicious meal cooked by the local people with fresh local produce – the garlic chicken was phenomenal, we were fighting over the last mouthful. Then we played with the local children, again something I wasn’t happy with.

This is mostly because children scare the crap out of me and I have no idea what to do. But then I made a friend with two girls who loved clapping and playing with my watch. Channy called us together and surprised us with a pile of workbooks to hand out to the children, this bit I liked. The kids were SO excited to get the workbooks it was incredible. Growing up in England it is very easy to take things like that for granted, but they were so grateful, it was so nice to see.

At this point it was around 8:30pm and we all went to our different houses. Sleeping under mosquito nets, on the floor, surrounded by the sounds of crickets, lizards cattle, chickens, pigs, goats and who knows what else! As it was

so dark we all fell asleep pretty early – which was a good thing as we were up at 5am on Sunday morning to get back on the boat.

-Sunday 29th November-

Our final day in Laos, again spent cruising up the Mekong river. Sunday passed in much the same way  Saturday did, with the exception that when we disembarked the boat we were taken to the Laos border, left Laos, drove to the Thai border and entered Thailand – yay to more passport stamps! Note: this was all done whilst carrying our big bags again. [Current Jenny – whilst I did love my bag, the second I emptied it in my flat in Brighton I was glad to be rid of it!] A bit later we reached our guest house in Chiang Khong – to get to my bathroom I had to go out onto my balcony and through a second door. A late dinner and straight to bed for me – I hadn’t slept super well in the home stay or on the boat so I was a big fan of my comfy double bed.

Day 11 in Chiang Mai