When I planned this trip, one of the countries I was most excited about visiting was Laos. I knew it was a beautiful country, and slightly off the heavily-beaten Southeast Asian track of Thailand and Vietnam. So I was excited when we woke just after dawn to cross the Mekong River out of Thailand to board a slow boat bound for Luang Prabang, the cultural capital of Laos.
Crossing the border was a pretty easy affair, although it required a lot of transportation. A tuk-tuk picked us up at our guesthouse and dropped us off at the Thai immigration stall. After getting our exit stamps, we hiked down the riverbank and crossed the Mekong by open ferry, and then lined up for our Laos visas. After getting those, we took a songthaew (a pickup truck with seats in the back) to the slow boat, docked a few hundred meters downstream.
Traditionally, the "slow boat" route meant hitching a ride on a cargo boat for the 2-day ride down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. I can't imagine it was very comfortable. Our slow boat was posh, though! Our group had it to ourselves, and it had cushioned seats, a long table to eat or to hang out at or to play cards, and even had a bar, which sold us cold Beer Lao.
A goat and the Mekong River at Pakbeng, where we spent the night
A buddha statue at the Pak Ou caves on the river
The scenery was beautiful, but the ride was long, so I took lots of naps and read Pillars of the Earth to pass the time. It was an absolutely relaxing two days, and I was ready to stretch my legs and see the sights when we arrived in Luang Prabang in the late afternoon on the second day.
Luang Prabang turned out to be the highlight of my trip so far. The small city is set on the confluence of two rivers and surrounded by a lush green valley and towering, dramatic green hills. The city is full of quaint French colonial architecture and stunning Lao temples. The entire city is a World Heritage site, and I hope that protection holds off the Starbucks/McDonalds development that has enriched Thailand but destroyed a lot of its charm.
On our first morning, our group had a guided tour of the well-done National Museum, which is set in the former Royal Palace. The palace was beautiful and the exhibits were mostly very interesting. The funniest exhibit was the hall housing gifts from foreign nations. While most countries sent Laos a silver tea set or local art, the U.S. sent a plastic model of Apollo 11 and a key to the city of Los Angeles!
After the tour I visited Wat Phou Si, an important temple and the focal point of Luang Prabang, set on a steep hill right in the middle of town.
Offerings at Wat Phou Si 
Monks posing for a picture by a fellow monk at Wat Phou Si
An old colonial mansion on a hillside near Luang Prabang 
I was sorry to say goodbye to Luang Prabang, but I knew that more beautiful country lay ahead. Our next stop was Vang Vieng, which doesn't have much in the way of culture, but it does have a stunning landscape of limestone karst cliffs set above ricefields, and a slow-moving river which is perfect for a lazy day of tubing.
Tubing down the river would have been a fun, relaxing way to spend the day, but it turned out to be a blast because every couple of hundred feet is a bamboo-and-thatch bar blasting Bob Marley and serving cold beers and snacks, sometimes *in* the river itself. The bar owners call out "Sabaidee!" and toss you a rope so you can pull up to the bar in your tube. Some bars also featured rope swings and slides into the river. It was definitely one of the best pub crawls ever.
Today I arrived in Vientiane, the sleepy capital of Laos. I plan to go to the market to buy some sunglasses (to replace the ones I lost when jumping off a rope swing on the river in Vang Vieng :p), and catch up on postcards before I leave Laos for Vietnam, country #5, tomorrow morning.
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