Today I started a two day slow boat journey along the Mekong river from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai on the northern Thailand border. The journey started at 7.30 am when I was picked up from the hostel by a tuk tuk van. After picking up several other tourists we arrived at the slow boat pier just outside of the city. We boarded the local boat service for the first leg of the journey from Luang Prabang to Pak Bang. The boat route is very popular with tourists but is usually taken in the opposite direction taking the river down stream from Huay Xai as this is much faster. The…