Falangs arrive in Laos!

Our driver taking us across the Mekong
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So we made it to the border town and headed straight to the immigration and departure point of Chang Kong. As we headed down to the river we passed a strange man taking his baby elephant for a walk....? To cross from Thailand to Laos is very easy...you basically show your passport, pay 20 baht (40 cents), pick your boat, hop in and 5 minutes later your in Laos. It was pretty exciting doing our first Asia border crossing and we were slightly disappointed it was so easy! Once we arrived in Laos we headed to immigration and because it was a weekend we had to pay the officials their overtime directly...another 20 baht! Perhaps this can be a system we introduce to Europe????

Main street of Huay Xai
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We had only one night here and after haggling with a guesthouse owner to get a room (it went from only having a double with air con for 650 p/night to finally getting a twin with a fan for 250 p/night) we set out to see what Huay Xai had to offer – this only took 5 minutes as it consisted of one street, one temple and a gorgeous view of the Mekong River. So we settled ourselves in for an afternoon of drinking pineapple fruit-shakes, reading and watching the fishermen in the Mekong – bliss!

Huay Xai Temple
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That night we headed out for dinner when we were hit firstly by a power outage, the whole town was in the dark when then 5 minutes later a huge storm came through. We wondered why the locals looked so calm but we were soon to realise that this is not uncommon to Laos...we learnt to take our torches with us everywhere we go! Another trait common to Laos is the way meals are served....just because there are a few of you ordering at the same time, don’t expect to get your meals together....just be thankful you get them at all, especially as you have to write the order down yourself at the counter! All in all our first night in Laos was eventful but we loved it, the Laos people already seemed lovely and we were looking forward to the next few weeks here.