10-16 (Monday)

We took a red cab downtown and discovered a new shopping mall. This always happens when we're ready to leave a place. I cased a $100 check and Joyce bought a luggage strap.

Mr. Patrick (our travel agent) picked us up at noon and drove us to the bus station. He had gotten us seats in the very front of the bus. It ws a vey narrow bench seat for two. The other side was a bench seat for three. It remeinded me of the bus in Uganda. We were lucky to hve the seats he got us. Another young driver! We whizzed up and down the mountain roads. We stopped several times for a bathroom break. Believe it or not the squats were bearable. They didn't stink. We would stop whenever people wanted so they could get off in the countryside. Seven hours later we pulled into Chiang Khong. No one was there jto meet us but some girl who spoke excellent English was there tyring to sell her guesthouse. We decided to sign on with her. We had our suitcases on her truck with all the other backpackers when some guy came up looking for us. He said for us to get in a tuk tuk which would take us to our hotel. We did. Our room was very basic - two beds, TV and an A/C! The bathroom was one of those with a handle hanging on the wall for the shower. You could sit on the toilet and take a shower. The travel agent rep. came and said we had to go to dinner because it was included! We went even though we didn't want to. They gave us fruit which was fine: banana, watermellon and pineapple. I had a couple sips out of the "oj" they gave us. It tasted funny. We paid the travel agent rep $48 for a visa to Lao. $38 for the visa and $10 for the bribe so we wouldn't have to wait in line with everyone else the next morning to get it. When we got back to the room I took a shower and went to bed so I would be ready to go up river the next morning.