to lovely boats...and back on the bus

from luang prabang we took a much more relaxing journey up to nong khiaw-on the boat! it was a full day and still pretty uncomfortable, but it really is the way to travel in laos! absolutely stunning scenery through countryside, hills and cliffs. the water levels were so low that at one stage all the guys (he he!) had to get out and push the boat along. nong khiaw was really beautiful as well, on the river surrounded by hills and really remote.

after that we ended up back on the bus westwards...this was another crazy journey. we were all crammed in to a songthaew- an open sided truck with 2 benches along the sides. it looks like it only holds abot 10 people but everytime they manage to squeeze about 20 in. This time was quite interesting. One woman got on with bags of rice, clothes, baskets of meat, 2 pigs, and chickens, and a sack of about 20 massive fish. Its so strange, they were sitting on someones foot and the whole place stank and nobody even looked annoyed. Poor Chris had been a bit ill the night before with food poisoning and wasnt really feeling the best, and the next thing, one of the boxes on the roof (also filled with fish) kind of burst and becky and chris got covered in fish juice...so gross!!! but also quite funny- just glad it wasnt me!!!!"