Slow boat to Laos

Happy February! Currently we are sitting on a boaT en roUte to Laung Prabang, Laos. We got to the border crossing of Thailand and Laos after a long six hour bus ride on Tuesday the 31st. We meT a few people on the bus that were also crossing the border as well. Jessica was from England and Ryan from Australia. We walked to the ferry port and got a ferry ride over the river into Laos. Got our visas and passports stamped and went to Find a guest house. Luckily we found a cheap guest house with two rooms left. The other two people decided to share a room after knowing each other a whole half an hour. All four of us found a nice little restaurant and got dinner. After that we stopped at a few street vendors and headed to bed. The next morning we got up and begin the two day journey by boat to Laung Prabang. This has been an experience. The boats are just long skinny open boats filled with unstable benches and seats from cars and vans. After a few hours we met some other backpackers from Australia, finland, England, and California. We turned oUr car seat bench around and helped them finish their bottles of whisky. Soon enough we realized the boat was a floating party full of backpackers from all over the world. We arrived at the halfway point Pakbeng and was on the hunt for a guest house... As were the other 75 people on the boat, and the thRee boats that arrived there before us. When we got off there were Lao people standing there waiting to sell you over priced rooms and when you walked by them they would whisper in your ear all the drugs they were selling.... Caught me off guard completely! Many people were stumbling ofF the boat barely being able to walk let alone carry their backpacks... A sight to be seen. We ran away and tried finding a place to accommodate our group of eight. of course we had to split up a bit and the California dude ended up sleeping on the other bed in our room. We all went and got dinner and one of the guys had a bit toO much whisky and apparently was starving because he ordered four meals and a half hour later when we got the food he did not remember ordering any of it! kids these days.... We went to the only bar in town after for a few drinks until the bar closed at 11pm. Today the boat is much more tame. The party animals from yesterday have spent todays boat ride in the bahroom sick and sleeping off their hangovers. the boats were very unorganiZed and did not tell us what time we would be leaving. we were on the last boat out along with the majority of people so our boat is incredibly over Packed and definitely over capacity. on the plus side it has some benches and tables and we were early enough to get a bench with a table... Our friends from yesterday were not as fortunate and they have seats on the ground. The locals are very interesting. They hate to work too long so they take breaks often, any where we go it takes double the time because they stop often for breaks or just to chill. Currently our boat just made a huge circle in the river everyone was getting up to see what it was. With all the weight on one side the boat started to tilt... Alot. The crazy Lao woman started yelling to even out weight then at the driver to stop so she could grab whatever it was we were circling around. Which in turn ended up being a dead fish belly up... Mmm dinner. And of course aLl the tourists had their cameras out ready to capture the floating item.... A dead fish...a small one at that... Or so mark says. IM not sure what defines a small or large fish. Disappointed tourists when they saw the fish. Still trying to understand the culture.... As for now we will settle with our three dollar bottle of whiskey.... What a steal! And play cards with the people across from our table.. Apparently presidents is a globally understood card game. Ciao!