Not another night here!!

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We woke up early to head on out of Chiang Khong and cross the raging (well, not exactly) Mekong River over to Houayxay, Laos. New country, here we come!!! Well, if we thought that there wasn't much going on in Chiang Khong, Thailand, we were in for a whole lot of NOTHING in Houayxay. This town has so many different spellings (Houay Xai, Huay Xai Houai Sai, Houayxay, etc.). I am convinced that they do this, so that you won't remember the name of the town NOT to come back to. Haha. You'll be thinking, "Hmmm... have we been to Houai Sai? I could have sworn there was an X  in the name... I guess we'll check it out" and then *BAM* you'll find yourself back here! But, the thing is, the town is completely  unavoidable. It is one of the few border crossings from Thailand into Laos and very popular with the backpackers, as it marks the spot where the 2-day slow boats leave for Luang Prabang, the gateway  to the whole Luang Prabang - Vang Vieng - Vientiane leg of Laos. The same leg that we are doing!

Getting our Visas for Laos was very easy. We just crossed the river, exchanged money into Kip (the currency of Laos). We're millionaires here, we found out, when we exchanged $280 US dollars and got $2.8 million worth of rubber-banded stacks of Kip. We felt like we needed a briefcase leaving the currency exchange! Some advice to anyone crossing the border from Chiang Khong to Houayxay: find your own way of getting to Chiang Khong (rather than a tour) and you can get your Visa right at the border for $10 US cheaper than if you are buying through some sort of a tour. It will come out to $35 US for the Visa and $1 US per person to cross the Mekong over to Houayxay. Don't get scammed!

We crossed the border the morning after our San Fran friends, Ryan and Kelly, did. The Gibbon Experience (I told you about) was fully booked until Febryary 28, but they had heard if you just show up at their office, a lot of people cancel or don't show up, and you can get in. Well, they got in the morning we arrived. We tried to get in too, but there were no spaces left! :( So, we had to decide if we just wanted to hop on a slow boat that morning or wait until the next morning to see if anyone cancelled for the Gibbon Experience. We waited, of course.

Our first night in Houay Xay, we spent at a place called Friendship Guesthouse, which was pretty sleazy. It had huge posters on the walls of sweet little Lao girls with boxes of "Number 1 Condoms" superimposed into their hands. I doubt they knew what they were posing for. So, you can imagine the sleaze factor. In between checking into the Gibbon Experience's office to see if everyone for the next day had checked in yet (every hour, on the hour - those poor people!), we basically just wandered the street (notice how that is not plural), went to see the slow boat we will be on in a few days and ate (every hour, on the hour). They do have a place where they serve pizza here, which I almost can't believe. We headed back to the Friendship Guesthouse which is three stories tall and they had a huge roof deck, so we watched the sunset from the roof, which had a great view of the Mekong and the street below.

We found the next morning that "it was the first time in 2 months that everyone has showed up" for the Gibbon Experience. Which means, no Gibbon Experience for Holly and Kevin. Which meant, slow boat or another night in the Godforsaken town of Houayxay. After seeing how packed the slow boat leaving to Luang Prabang was by 11 AM, we grabbed a Beer Lao and picked the latter. Another night in Stephen King's "Desperation." Walking dejectedly through the one dirt road of the town, we realized that with all the foreigners who left on the slow boat and the ones who actually showed up (the nerve) and took our spot (haha) on the Gibbon Experience, we were the only foreigners in a land of Lao. It was a little intimidating, as there still is a little  hostility/tension of Lao people towards Americans since the Vietnam War. I wasn't really feeling that well at this point (and I don't think Kevin was either) and these two Lao men drinking rice whiskey (I think it was) on the side of the road called Kevin over and made him take a shot. I don't think it went down too easy, and I couldn't help but picture it marinating in the hot sun in a bottle of cobras and scorpions. Glad they see women as beneath men here, as they did not ask me to take a shot! I would not have been able to stomach it!

Walking through the small village back to town to get another guesthouse for the night, two young Lao boys came up alongside us. I kept saying hello and smiling and they kept speaking in Lao and looking down towards the area where my sling purse was resting. I thought they were just curious, so I was being friendly just saying "hello" but kept a tight grip on my bag in case they tried to pull anything. Then, all of a sudden the one closest to me just reached out past my bag and tried to grab me (in an area I shall not name) and then ran off, yelling to their fathers drinking along the side of the road!

I think it was time for the foreigners to get back into town and go harrass the Gibbon Experience office a little more. We booked a night at the B.A.P. Guesthouse, which ended up being lovely for only $7 a night, much nicer than the Friendship Guesthouse. I'm not trusting anything that starts with "Friendly" or "Friendship" anymore. We relaxed by the riverside, climbed the 100 steps to the temple in town and waited for an answer from the Gibbon Experience to see if everyone showed up. There were two spots left, but we would find out at 8 AM the next morning if they showed. We were crossing our fingers, but it looked unpromising, and we didn't think we could last yet another night in Houayxay.