6/28/13

Mekong River-> Chiang Kong

Another rough day on the river. We started our journey toward Thailand at 4:45 in the morning. I hardly slept on the floor of the chief's house in the village. It was really hot and there were loud creaking sounds.

At 4:50 we were walking in the dark toward our boat. I was hoping to get a seat up front so I could lay down but they were already claimed. Luckily we figured out we could turn around the pair of seats and make a long row of 4 so each one of us could lay down. We all pretty much went back to sleep as soon as the boat started moving.

At about 7:30 we got up to have breakfast. There were fried eggs, bread and bananas. I decided to have my granola bar I had brought from home and laid back down. For the next few hours, I read my book on my Kindle and played Candy Crush. It was funny because hardly any of us felt like taking or being social. We knew we had the whole rest of the day being stuck on that boat.

Around 11:30 we had lunch prepared for us. It was actually really good: fried rice with chicken and noodles with veggies and chicken. And pineapple! Yum! I also really like how the "boat lady" that was our cook made a yummy spicy soy sauce concoction to put on our food.

After lunch, we spent many more hours sleeping, reading, looking at the scenery, and repeating the same cycle over and over again. It's funny how when I read the description of the tour and it said 8-10 hours on a boat for 2 days, I thought "oh, that won't be so bad." Boy was I wrong.

When we had about 2 hours left, a small group of us were trying to solve some brain teasers with our local guide Keow. Around 4:45, we got to the Thai border. We unloaded our stuff from the boat and checked in at the passport control office. We got our stamps our of Laos and then had to load our stuff back onto another boat to go back across the river and get our stamps in to Thailand.

This is again when I wished I had a big backpack instead of a rolling suitcase because maneuvering up stairs is a pain in the ass. After checking in, we loaded our stuff onto a truck. All of our luggage was just hanging off the tailgate and being held into place by a thin rope that I compared to a piece of dental floss. We headed to our hotel that was about 10 minutes away without any bags having fallen off of the truck (shockingly!)

We got our room keys and were told that we would meet for dinner at 7:00. After getting to the room, I was first to take a shower. It was one of the longest showers I had ever taken! Scrubbing off 3 days of filth takes quite a while to scrub off. I literally shampooed my hair 3 times. But with it being Thailand, I started sweating right when I got out of the shower but I didn't even care.

We hung out in the room until dinner and then headed out for dinner at 7:00. A couple of us had to use the ATM because we didn't have any baht and then we walked about 10 minutes to dinner. We ate at a cool little restaurant with pool tables and good music. And a big fan. I ordered a noodle soup with chicken, as usual, and a water and a pineapple "shake." Our food came out pretty quickly and it was actually pretty good. When it came time to pay, I was happy to know it only cost me $3.

Afterward, Stef and Kristine went to 7-11! Yes, they have 7-11 in Thailand. Of course some of the items are very different- seaweed, curry and pork flavored chips and strange looking cookies and crackers. I picked up total junk food- Pepsi, potato chips, and M & M's. I also got 2 mini boxes of Frosted Flakes and some milk for breakfast because I was not going to have eggs anymore for breakfast. I was taking a stand. :)

We headed back to the hotel and I repacked my bag because I knew I wouldn't want to in the morning. I decided to update pictures and my blog on Facebook because, duh, that's what I do.

Before bed I was thinking about how fast the past 10 days seemed to go. I was also thinking about how in another week I will be on a completely different tour in a completely different country. Crazy!!!

Until next time!