Suitably kitted out and bags safely strapped in, we shot off up the river taking only 20 minutes to catch the slow boat up which had left an hour earlier. We literally skimmed up the river, bumping over some pretty big whirlpools and only briefly slowing down to ride up the rapids. After an hour we stopped to swap boats and head on up river in a slightly less stable boat which bent and bounced around at the bow a little too much for my liking - accused of a white knuckle ride by Mr W, he forgets that my legs aren't long enough to wedge myself against the seat in front, so down to a light grip on an almost non-existant hold point!
We stopped a couple of times up river and it soon became obvious that there was an issue with the boat ... we were running out of gas, yes gas - these boats run on gas. Our young driver made for the bank and tied up alongside a tub of a boat and told us to wait whilst he took the gas cannister and "borrowed" a motorised dugout - last seen heading off back downriver to the Thai side! We had a nice break under cover on the tub and our driver duly reappeared with fuel and off we went, arrived in Houei Xay with yet more steps up the side of the river bank to negotiate! Waited on the main road for a ride into town ... an interesting looking character in his minivan with music blaring - somewhat John Wayne-esque - stopped and said he'd take us into town for $10 US. Great we thought but I'd spotted his mutt sitting on the bsck seat, a take on an Alsatian - having had our Thai dog experiences I was somewhat wary of having to get into the back of the van in very close proximity to the dog ... well she didn't move an inch, sat there and took our invasion of her space as a daily occcurence!
Stairs to the fast boat jetty
The fast boat ...
Feet don't reach ...
Back to front skid lid ...
Waiting for fuel
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