We heard the slow boat from Laos to Thailand up the Mekong River was a beautiful journey, well worth the 2 days of 10 hours on a slow, slow, slow boat. The boat can't travel once it's dark outside, so in between the 2 days we spent a night in Pakbeng, a small port town where all travellers to the Thai border and to Luang Prabang in the opposite direction stop. Electricity was only available from 6-10 pm. Some restaurants and homes had generators to provide electricity after hours, but not our guesthouse (at 30 kip-$3.5 /night I wouldn't have expected it). The boat we travelled on had mostly hard, wooden benches for passengers to sit on, but Jenny and I managed to get 2 of the 10 cushioned bus seats (tragically out of place on a boat). It wasn't so bad, I read about 300 pages of my new book. The second night we arrived at the border too late to cross into Thailand so we spent another night in Huoyxai, another travel stop town. We had to splurge on our hotel room, and spent 50 kip ($6) for one night stay. The next morning we crossed the Mekong river which divides Laos from Thailand. We took a "ferry" which was a tiny wooden boat, only wide enough for one person per seat. We walked up a sand dune to get to the immigration office, which was more official looking than the Laos side (a man sitting under a tent with a typewritten sign declaring "immigration"). This is Jenny at Thailand immigration:
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