Mekong River Trip

We embarked on our journey to Laos with remarkably little information about exactly what we were doing. We paid the $50 each and got into an overcrowded minivan full of Irish guys at about noon on Tuesday. After 5 hours of driving (very fast) we arrived at the border town on the banks of the Mekong. Our hotel that night (all part of the $50 trip) was quite something -- the kids described our room, accurately, as a jail cell. We ate a surprisingly good dinner (also included) and went to bed very early. The next morning we had a quite disgusting breakfast (also included) and were given our packed lunches for the boat (also included). Next we were taken to small boats in which we crossed the Mekong over to the Laos side. Not surprisingly all of this included a lot of waiting, paperwork, and lugging our very heavy suitcases around. Finally we were taken to the boat for the long river trip.
Most people had already gotten on the boat when we arrived and it was very crowded. You can imagine our dismay when we realized we were going to spend the next 2 days on a bench built for Laotian children, in the back of the boat near the engine and toilet. It wasn't comfortable, but the scenery was spectacular. For most of the time there wasn't a person in sight and the views of dramatic hills leading down to the Mekong were unbelievable. The kids were not very interested in the scenery and managed to entertain themselves with Gameboys, a movie on the computer and some reading. At around 5pm we arrived at the village where we were going to spend the night.
As the boat arrived every person in the village descended to meet us and the chaos began. Boys just grabbed any bag they could find in hopes of getting paid to carry them and there were lots of people talking to you trying to get you to stay at their guesthouse. We decided to stay at the guesthouse of a nice women, finally found our bags, and after waiting for her to come back to get us started up the hill. After filling out the registration form and carrying our bags upstairs we were told that they'd run out of rooms and we'd have to stay somewhere else. You can imagine how delighted we were with that news! The bags were heavy, we were all tired and there weren't rooms left at any of the nicer guesthouses within walking distance. So, we ended up staying in a real flea pit -- but it only cost $4 for the night. Initially the kids mistook the mosquito nets for hammocks and were very excited, but it was all downhill from there. In the bathroom (not ensuite) there was a sink but the pipe underneath it wasn't connected to anything so that anything you put in the sink just came out on to the floor. It also turned out that the showers were just for show, they too weren't connected to anything so there was no way for water to come out. Neither Philip nor I slept very well, but the kids managed a good nights sleep.
We got up early the next day, had a cup of coffee, picked up sandwiches and hustled down the hil to be on the boat first thing -- we didn't want to sit in the back again! We ended up in the front of the boat on the floor, the best seats going. So we spent the day chugging down the river, stopping at villages to load and unload cargo and getting to know our fellow passengers. In our little area we had an art teacher from Pittsburgh who was traveling until May, an Autrailian couple in their 50's who were traveling for 6 months, a very pretty German teacher who was taking a year off to travel and 2 women who had biked from China to Thailand. Everyone was very friendly and the art teacher even taught the kids to draw faces and cats.
The trip down the Mekong was really one of the highlights of the trip so far, the scenery is so beautiful and seeing it all while it is still untouched was amazing. We were almost sorry that it was all over when we arrived in Luang Prabang!