There is something inherently romantic about boat journeys. Whether it’s Katherine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart falling in love on The African Queen, or the weekly romances on The Love Boat, voyages over water seem to conjour some feelings of nostalgia. I enjoy boat journeys for the simple reason that it’s usually a slow and relaxing way of getting to my destination, while having the opportunity to see how life is lived on these important waterways.
My journey on the slow boat from Thailand to Laos began with a 6am pickup from my Chiang Rai hostel. There are two ways you can arrange this trip. The cheaper option is to get a local bus to the border town, and then a tuk tuk (or hitchhike as others I met had done) to the actual border. Or, you can arrange it through your hostel or travel agency for a minivan and driver to take you and assist with all of the formalities. In hindsight the cheaper option probably would have been best, but sometimes convenience (and laziness) wins.
There were seven of us heading to the Laos border and we were there shortly after it opened at 8:30am. Exiting Thailand was a relatively easy exercise, and soon after we were placed on a bus to take us over No-Mans Land to the Laos entry point. The formalities here seemed to take forever, as we all waited patiently in line and eventually we were off again, in a tuk tuk to the town of Huay Xai, where the slow boats leave from. Prior to being taken to the boats though, we were taken on a little detour to the tour agency office on the pretext of needing to take down our passport details. They then told us that this was the last opportunity we had to get food before the boat. I had a sneaking suspicion this wasn’t true, however was unwilling to test it lest I starve on the boat. So we all stocked up on sandwiches and snacks (at inflated prices of course).
Down to the jetty and low and behold, food shops everywhere! My suspicions were right. Oh well, at least I wasn’t the only one to fall for this scam.
The boat was long and narrow, and the seats appeared to be old seats taken out of coaches and placed in the boat, but not nailed down in any way. Comfy at least. We all freaked out a bit over a stowaway, a large spider that looked like a huntsman, and when he ran over the side we were all apprehensive to sit back near there. Eek! Finally at about 11:30 we were off, and not a moment too soon. The breeze from the water as we commenced moving was a godsend, and I knew this was going to be a pleasant journey.
What followed was 6.5 hours of watching the world go by, the only sounds being the engine from the boat and the chatter of travelers all getting to know one another. This is a great way to meet other people. On the river we passed small villages of subsistence farmers, water buffalo cooling themselves in the water, fisherman out in long canoes, and large rocks jutting from the water. Coming out of dry season, the river was low and navigation surely tricky. I wouldn’t be taking a fast boat at this time of year.
Our stop for the night was the small, sleepy, one street town of Pakbeng. Guesthouse touts were waiting at the dock as we all disembarked and I joined up with three American guys I’d met on the minivan that morning to find a place to stay. We followed a young Laotion guy to his guesthouse and were soon in stitches at his antics. He would have been quite comfortable starring in a ladyboy show, and the guys got a lot of attention. When another traveller called him crazy the next day, he responded with “if I was crazy would I be this hot?!” Obviously never seen the Crazy/Hot Chart.
The following morning we were all squeezed onto a smaller boat, this time with a lot more locals joining us. I sat across from a young girl and her mother. The girl, about 6-7 years old, proceeded to guilt me into offering her some of my Pringles each time I had a few, by staring at me intently and looking longingly at the can. I finally caved, but instead of taking a few, she took the whole can stowed them away in her mother’s bag. When it came time to eat my sandwich for lunch I determinedly looked ahead the whole time, though I could see her staring out of the corner of my eye. She wasn’t getting my lunch!
Another day passed slowly, large cliffs rose on either side of the river, we watched an elephant being bathed just across from us. Late afternoon we arrived at the dock, not in the town of Luang Prabang, but 10 kilometres out of town, so we had to pay for tuk tuks. Another scam to get more money out of us, but we had no choice. The ticket desk charges 20,000 kip for a trip into town, though you can get it a bit cheaper if you walk past and flag down a tuk tuk futher down. Not many could bother with this though, it was hot, we had our bags, and it had been a steep climb up from the boat to the road. Just check your change, as the guy tried to rip me off and seriously short changed me. I wasn’t that exhausted not to notice and he made good when I pointed it out.
This was definitely an experience not to be missed, and from what I’ve heard, it won’t be around much longer, with the Chinese having been granted permission to build more dams on the Mekong. This will likely change the flow, and seriously affect the livelihood of all those subsistence farmers who rely on the Mekong.
