Slow Boats

Hi everyone,
So my travels have just begun and this part of my trip is definitely completely different from the first part. I was sad to leave Ban San Faan, but left with great memories and a desire to return sometime in the future---I can't wait to see how the kids turn out...they are all such great kids. I almost started crying when all of the kids were hugging me goodbye. It was so great to see how well they are treated at BSF and how much opportunity they are being given.

I left on Saturday morning for Laos...the first leg of the trip was a 6 hour minibus to Chiang Khong-nothing much to it, just a border town for crossing into Laos. We stayed at the Nam Khong Guesthouse I believe it was called, though I could be making that up. All we did that night was found a place on the road that sold drinks and let us watch whatever movie we chose-The Prestige with Christian Bale was pretty good. We left the next a.m. to cross the border into Laos which involved a stamp out of Thailand and some bs fee since it was a Sunday, a ferry across the river to Laos, a stamp into Laos and another Sunday fee, and then a ride to the boat to Luang Prabang. The boat took 7 hours approximately to a town called Pak Beng, which is a town that appears to subsist only on the tourists that have to stay overnight there on the way to Luang Prabang. Their electricity was from generators that went on (very loudly) at 7pm then shut off at 10pm and for some reason were on for about a half hour at 6am. We took a walk down the street to see how far it went-the town seemed to go on for quite a bit--people used candles for light. We stayed at a nice, clean hotel for $5-the only downfall was that because of the electricity the fan went off at 10:30pm and it was pretty hot. We got back on the boat this morning for another 7 hrs approximately and arrived in Luang Prabang around 5 pm today. The boat ride though long was beautiful--mountains rose up on both sides, there were really small villages around the river and then stretches with no civilization. I saw water buffalo and goats roaming on the sides, there were sandy areas and then high rocks. The boat we were on was long and had wooden benches for seats. I will have to put up some pictures when i get the chance. The Mekong has brown water-but not because it's polluted-it is just that the bottom is silt. Here in Luang Prabang we found a nice hotel again for about 8 dollars a night with a fan, hot shower, and tv with english channels woohoo.

That's all for now folks.
love, Brittany