A long but easy day with many new things.

Not much more than an hour's cycling, a couple of border posts and a long boat ride.

We got a new country with a different language and currency, different character and food and, of course, a new beer.

The border crossong was pain-free. Cycle to the border control center near the new bridge, check out at Thai emmigration, buy a bus ticket for yourself and your bike (20 and 100 baht respectively) and wait for the bus to be loaded (they will load your bike in the rear of the passenger area nd you panniers etc in the luggage hold). On the Laos side, get the forms for visa application and entry from the RHS window, fiil the forms in and hand them in at the same window. When your passport appears at the LHS window they will call out an approximation of your name and you pay your fee and get your passport returned with the visa and already stamped out. You can now walk your bike past the passport control table where they will glance at your passport and allow you through.

Don't forget to cross to the RHS of the road once you start cycling!

Once we got to the Slow Boat quay in Huay Xai, about 10 kms from the border control, we drew some Kip (instant millionares!), bought our boat tickets and some food (enough for breakfast and lunch) and took our seats on the boat. The bikes were loaded on the foredeck - I had read that they would be loaded onto the roof.

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There appeared to be only one boat for the day and it was quite full with a tiny group of "party animals" who gave an initial "look at me!, look at me!" performance but then settled down once they realised they had been seen by everyone.

The trip itself was more interesting than I had envisaged with some lovely scenery PLUS two lifers in the form of Small Pranticole and Mekhong Wagtail.

On arrival in Pak Beng, we were accosted by numerous touts doing their best to get business in the off season. Leigh, who is normally very resistant to touts, was taken by the lady from Vardasama Guest House and we cycled up the hill (ignoring the offer of a lift on her pick-up truck) where she was waiting to show us the room, which was good and and priced attractively at 80K Kip.

The only hiccup has been a very slow internet conection (I'm sure it's not a life-threatening condition) and the occasional power failure (3 so far). Ah, reminds me of Africa ;-).