So I bought a boat

I travelled up the river from Nong Kiaw to a place called Mong Ngoi in Laos last week. The river boat ride up was supposed to be one of the most beautiful in Laos. It was quite picturesque with mountains, and villages along the way. The only problem was the incrediblly loud engine we had to hear the whole way. Not the best way to see the place in my opinion. So by the end of the 1 hour ride I had decided that rather than the noisy 7 hour trip downstream to Luang Prabang, I would see if I could buy a boat and paddle down. Turns out I wasn't the only one who ever had this idea. 2 guys had bought a boat the day before and set out that morning. So now all I had to do was find a boat, and a few people as crazy as me. The boat turned out to be the tougher thing to find. I ran into a group of travellers the next morning, and by the following day had 3 guys interested in the trip. We bought a boat and some food and set out. We expected the trip to take anywhere from 3 days to a week. We had no map, just a rough idea of how far it was (about 150km). We knew there were many villages along the way, and locals to help us out if needed. It was a fantastic trip. Three days in all. Spent one night in a village along the river, and one night camped on a beach. The river was beautiful, the company fantstic and the experience unforgetable. Thanks Bart, Chris, and Cam.