First day on the slow boat

Day 6 of travelling. The slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang is 20 hours in total. The boat ride has been divided into 2 days, stoped by Pak Beng for a nite then continue the final 8 hours the next day.

745am got ready this morning catching the 1030 boat from Huay Xai. I had a Laos breakfast, which included fried noodles, a nestle cafe n a banana shake.

We were waiting for about 2 hours before the boat actually left port at 11ish. We were shocked how many ppl suddenly showed up from nowhere getting on board. We were early so we managed to get some nice spots on the boat. Those benches on the boat were terribily uncomfortable. Better bought your own cushion, like me :)

The Mekong river is very brownish, guess tat's because it's fresh water. The mountain view however, is beautiful. it did rain a bit but only cleared up the air n the sky made it more refreshing. After 6 hours on the boat thou, i didn't find it too amazing anymore. because it all look jus the same?

I am lucky, i bumped into a good mix of travellers. We played cards n mostly chatting on the way. It was a mild journey on the boat, nothing too exciting. There were all kind of travellers on the boat, young ones, old ones, few hippies, couple families, etc.

The boat had a toilet, a western style one. YET, not quite as expected as what a western toilet should be. i wanted to take a pix of the toilet to show you guys but i would look like a complete freak. In my own description, it was very tiny n very low. no flush. we had to flush using the river water from the tank next to the toilet. Needless to say, the floor was wet. I hate wet feet!!! sorry, you may not really want to know how the toilet looked like, but if you stuck on a boat like me for 6 hours, you would become very obssesed about anything, everything here.