The Mighty Mekong

12^th – 13^th February 2016

Goodbye Thailand

After a month in Thailand my visa was nearly up so it was time to move on. I’d seen everything I wanted to see and now it was time for a new adventure in Laos. I could have just taken a bus to Luang Prabang but its not the done thing. Most travellers opt for the two day longboat sail down the mighty Mekong River.

My E.T impression

The first part of the journey was on a draughty local bus from Chiang Rai to the border town of Chiang Khong where I had a bit of a mix up. I thought the current way to cross the border was a small ferry crossing in town but this was old information. Plus it seemed strange that I had to pay more to get off at the new bridge border when it stopped before the town. I mentioned that I didn’t think it was the border to a couple of people on the bus so they stayed on it with me. I felt bad when I realised I was wrong.

Me and my new friends I'd landed in troubles got a tuk tuk back to the border which was, again, a bit of a faff. The man told us it would be 60 baht but when the driver got to the border he told us it was 60 baht each. I had double checked with the man organising the tuk tuk how much it was and refused to pay any more. 240 baht for a 5 minute ride was ridiculous. You wouldn’t even pay that in western countries! I ended up giving him an extra 40 and walked away.

Border control scrum

The border also had its own annoyance. I stood in line of a huge queue for about half an hour before I realised I need to fill out a form before I got to the desk. I managed to grab one from a guy handing them out to his bus load. I gave the man at the counter the form and my passport.

The next part of the process is ridiculous. I had to stand in what can only be described as a scrum of people all trying, to get a view of the tiny window where a woman was holding up passports one by one. There was no queueing system at all and if you missed your name being called then your passport went back to the bottom of the pile. Not that she was handing them out in any kind of order, just whichever passport she decided to pick up.

Familiar Face

I got mine but the people I had made friends with had to wait much longer for no apparent reason. Whilst I waited for them I spotted a familiar face. Daimi from the Ultimate Thailand tour would be joining me on my trip through Laos. She had booked a package deal from Pai so once her passport had been stamped she went off with the rest of her group. I would see her on the boat later.

I spoke to another tour operator whilst I was waiting. He said I could join there group for a discounted price. After the faff I had been having all morning this sounded like a good idea. The girls I had met also joined me. We got taken to a little shop where we had chance to grab some lunch and other snacks. Then a guy told us everything that would happen with the boat before taking us down to the harbour.

The longboat

Busy

I got onto the boat and found myself a car seat. Yes, that’s right. The seats on the boat were all old car seats bolted on to wooden skis that moved around once the boat set off. I saved a seat for Daimi who arrived a little later and, once the boat was full, we set off down the Mekong.

The Friendship Bridge

Down the Mekong

I would see the Mekong River a few times over the next couple of months as its one of the longest rivers in the world and goes through many countries. It starts in China, dips into Myanmar before running along the Thai/Laos border. The river then continues through Laos into Cambodia and out the Mekong Delta in south Vietnam. This marked the old border when the French colonised the area. They had everything east of the river.

Taking in the view

Here come the mountains

The flow rate of the river is quite remarkable. You certainly wouldn’t be able to swim against it. It looked like a quite slow and peaceful when we had crossed over the Friendship Bridge but it wasn’t long before we were met by small rapids. The captain did an amazing job steering the boat through a worrying amount of large boulders and rocky outcrops along the river. Not to mention the other boats coming the other way. It reminded me of doing the Jet Boat in New Zealand.

Small village

The last corner of Thailand

We sailed for over an hour with Laos on the left and Thailand on the right until we got into some mountains. At that point the border slipped away to the south and we were heading further into Laos. The scenery became spectacular as the mountains rose higher on either side. It was a little odd to have the river flowing into a set of mountains but that’s just where the river goes.

Mountains and cows

Epic scenery

Fisherman's huts

I must admit, I thought that two days on a boat would get pretty boring after a while but it didn’t. I really enjoyed watching the Laotian countryside drift past me. The mountains looked amazing, there were cows munching on the grassy banks and locals fishing in the river. Around every bend there was something else to see. I ended up with a lot of pictures!

Bit of rapids

More mountains

Every now then we would stop at a little village where a local person would get on or off. Not all of them seemed to be designated stops just flagged down by a man on a bank.

Awesome

Fisherman

A few hours later the sun was setting and we docked at the small town of Pakbeng where we would spend the night. We walked the plank to get off the boat which was a bit scary carrying big bags. Then we had walk up a lot of steps where we were greeted by many locals trying to sell us a room. I had heard it was best to walk up the hill away from the river to get the best deals so that’s what we did.

We must have got to he last guesthouse before we finally found somewhere. Everywhere seemed to be full which was concerning but we got there in the end. It was a dingy twin room that had spiders on the ceiling but it was a bed. We walked back into the village for some food and then had an early night.

Misty morning

The next morning we were greeted with fog which I thought would ruin my picture taking. We grabbed some food and a lot of snacks. Today we would be on the boat for 9 hours.

Ready to go again

Spooky

Leaving Pakbeng behind

The got back onto the boat and sailed out of Pakbeng. The fog lifted so my excessive photo taking could resume.

Goats

More mountains

Dodging rocks

Our captain once again navigated his way down the river superbly. We later heard a story that the boat the day after us came into a bit of strife. It went over a rock and punctured a hole in the bottom of the boat. The passengers had to help bucket the water out of the boat whilst they tried to repair it. I’m very glad I wasn’t on that boat.

Caves

As we were nearing Luang Prabang we went past the Pak Ou caves that’s filled with Buddha statues. You can take a boat back here on a tour but I felt like I’d seen it now.

Stunning

The last village before town

It was a long day but again the view was awesome so I didn’t get bored. We finally arrived in Luang Prabang late afternoon. Well I say arrived. We had to get off the boat 10km from the town so that they could charge us extra for a tuk tuk into town. This is the accepted scam now and there’s no avoiding it.

Luang Prabang

We got to town and started searching for a place to sleep. I had booked the only thing available online which had some seriously bad reviews so I tried to find somewhere else. I followed Daimi to her hostel, which took a little while to find. They had overbooked and Daimi had to stay at some other random place and there was no room for me. Just I was resigned myself to bad nights sleep I found a place that was cheaper than the one I booked and seemed much better.

Now I was fed and with a bed, I was quite excited to see what the country of Laos had to offer.