Down the Mekong by Slowboat

Slowboats, Pakbeng, Laos

After one last night in Chiang Mai, we headed to Laos with Richie and Anne. We booked a package transfer which would take us all the way to Luang Prabang over three days. We set off on the first leg at midday in a comfortable minivan — luckily we were picked up first, so had a pick of the best seats. The drive was pretty long (around 6-7 hours) and took us to the border town of Chiang Khong where we spent the night at a basic, but clean guest house. We were given supper and breakfast there as part of the package as well as a packed lunch for the next day, and they also took our passports and got them stamped at the Thai border for us and started the process on the Laos side.

The next morning we started the second part of our journey — a two day slow boat down the Mekong, ending in Luang Prabang. We headed of at around 9am to cross the border into Laos – transport across the river was a powered canoe as there is no bridge. The town on the Laos side is called Huang Xai. The visa process was pretty disorganised as Laos immigration had all our passports and would randomly hold them up one at a time for people to come forward to pay. It took quite a long time for the everyone to get through and Richie was the last out.

This is where the organisation that we’d seen so far as part of the packaged transfer ended. Once leaving the border post on the Laos side, there seemed to be random ‘guides’ waiting to collect a group big enough to take in a tuk-tuk – in no way related to the transfer company. Once it was full, we were driven to another port on the river where scare tactics were used to entice us into pre-booking a hotel at the overnight stop (Pakbeng) with stories of full hotels, dirty rooms and cold showers. It turned out that this was actually the best thing to do as we ended up in a decent place which was reasonably priced.

Once the selling was done, we were taken to our slow boat. If you haven’t seen one before, these are long, thin rectangular wooden boats that are packed with uncomfortable wooden benches. Our boat, as it turned out, was already pretty full and as we were getting on rowdy people started chanting “Full! Full! Full!” – it wasn’t the warmest welcome! We struggled to find two benches together, but some kind people moved around for us and so we could all sit together. Luckily we ended up towards the back as it turned out that the rowdy people at the front were ready to party the whole way. By the time we departed (at around noon) they had already finished at least one bottle of whiskey between about four of them and were tucking into the second one, and getting louder in the process. Fine in certain circumstances, but definitely not the people that you want to be seating next to for six uncomfortable hours. I was also really glad that we’d spent the THB40 on cushions as the wooden benches would have felt very hard by the end of the trip without them!

Despite the party happening at the front of the boat, as soon as the we set off, time slowed down. It was incredible peaceful sitting on the boat looking at the beautiful scenery go by and getting a glimpse of the villages as we passed them by. Reading a bit, chatting a bit and just watching the world go by — definitely a great way to relax and get into Lao time. The scenery was mostly green rolling hills with little villages dotted here and there, and canoes and boats docked on the shores. Every now and then we pass a slowboat heading up the river — almost completely empty with its passengers enjoying loads of spaces and waving at us gleefully when they saw our packed boat – if we did it again, we’d definitely do it in reverse!

The first day took just over 6 hours and we arrived in Pakbeng just after sunset. Getting off the boat was a bit of a trauma as there did not seem to be any organisation for how to get your bags off — they were randomly passed off the boat, often picked up by one of the children from the village who would start walking off with them. I don’t think that they meant any harm, as they were just trying to earn some money by carrying the bags, not steal them, but it is pretty concerning when it’s getting dark and people are walking off with bags that may be yours! Eventually we got our bags and headed into Pakbeng. While it once must have been like all the other villages that we passed, this town now revolves completely around the boat loads of tourists that stop off on their Mekong trip. It had a good selection of restaurants and numerous hotels/guesthouses available. Our place was at the top of the hill and was clean and comfortable, although the hot water did not work at all.

The following morning we were told to be at the peer by 9am. Again, it seemed very disorganised as no one was quite sure which boat was going, but we eventually made it on to one and set off for Luang Prabang. The second day passed much as the first, although the party people from the day before were somewhat subdued and looked very tired! We arrived in Luang Prabang at just after sunset (as Richie said — it doesn’t matter what time you depart, you end up arriving just after sunset) where we planned to spend New Year’s Eve.