laos begins

Dear travel journal,
So today was awesome. Up early for breaky and then we piled into a minivan, across the friendship bridge (yes, that's its actual name) that joins thailand to laod and landed at the border. Check point A - leave Thailand, jump on a bus for 5 minutes and get off at check point B. Welcome to Laos. Everyone else waited in line for evers and got their visas (I already have one), then we all exchanged some monies and headed into Laos. We met our laos tour guide toi who will be with us for the next leg of our adventure and jumped into another minivan and headed to the pier. Everything is green, with cows just chilling on the side of the road. When we got to the pier there were long boats everywhere. I'm not talking Borneo long boats. I mean decent size boats that are about 2m wide and 20m long with long day beds behind the driver section and tables and chairs behind that (8 - winning, one for each of us). And a small free area with a TV behind that, a small bar behind that, followed by the toilets and then a closed off area for the owners/kitchen. It was so amazing just chilling on the water, looking at the amazing scenery. Its green mountains everywhere, water buffalo, goats, cows, herons, locals in fishing boats with nets, traditional and more modern towns. We made two stops on the way up river, the first was a boat check point for the driver, the second was to see a traditional village. With houses made of natural products themselves, the grandparents and wives looking after the children while the men where away at work. Pigs, goats, cows, water Buffalo's and chickens everywhere and one water tap as the main source of fresh water for the town. Laos has everything from those who live very traditionally through to very modern, for example the new western style houses directly across from the village. It was super interesting to see. Then back on the boat. At one point we went past a ridge and the boat mans wife threw some sticky rice over board. Apparently its believed that there are spirits in the pass who they pay respects to for safe passage and travels. And then we arrived at Pak beng. Again there were boats everywhere but the boat man managed to squeeze us in. Off the end of the boat and up the hill and the bags went in the tray of a truck and we walked through the little town and checked into our hotel. Its quite nice. I'm sharing for with Dana again tonight and once we settled in we all went through a little tour through town. Its a mix of old school and slightly more modern. We walked past dogs, cats, chickens and kids playing everywhere, walked through the food markets and the temple in town. The view over the river from the top of the hill is amazing. The town and is cute and busy and everyone is so friendly. On the way back to the hotel a local offered to shake hands with Dana and then pulled her in for a huge and sniffed her shoulder and then walked away. Apparently there is a boy in town who is a bit slow mentally and it was probably him our tour guide said that he is harmless but sometimes does that to foreigners. Once back at the hotel we had dinner and and cupcakes for micheals birthday and most people had a few drinks. After dinner we headed to the only place in town still open late - the happy bar. Where all the foreigners go apparently. We played cards, and chatted and danced and met some peoples from the UK and Canada. And Micheal, euan, and dana got drunk and we had the best time. Nicola and Nadine decided to head back after a little bit and headed to bed. Once back we snuck in the slightly open roller door which usually locks at 10pm (its 11.45pm by this point), tiptoed up the stairs and fell into ours rooms. It was he best fun. Good thing we can sleep on the boat though - we are up at 6am tomorrow, lol. Night xoOkumaya devam et