We wanted to head back into Thailand to visit the north, and decided to go by slow boat. We had heard and read mixed reviews about this journey, especially because we were going to be heading up river, against the current. Many people said it was a two day headache as the engines on these boats are so loud, others said it was a long and boring journey while still others said they enjoyed it. We decided to check it out for ourselves because after all ... its not every day you can drift on the Mekong River!
We hopped in a tuk tuk early in the morning and headed 10 km out of Luang Prabang to where they recently moved the local ferry long boats. We brought a few sandwiches with us as food on the boat is expensive, and got there early to get seats near the front of the boat and away from the loud engines. At the pier though, we saw a familiar face... Chris. We never knew his name before now, but he had sat behind us watching Friends in Vang Vieng and was with us on the mini van when we tackled the curvy bus roads from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang. He was obviously following us - or were we following him? It was time for introductions and we had a good two days of getting to know our Aussie friend a bit better.
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| A chilly morning departure. |
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| Our slow boat at the ferry pier. |
The Captains and their families often live on these boats in the quarters at the back and we saw many boats cooking and doing laundry. The water was quite low as it's the dry season, so the Captain was working hard in narrow passages in order to steer clear of rocks and shallow rapids. At one point on our trip, the captains wife yelled from the back of the boat to him repeatedly. He couldn't hear her and she was motioning people to get his attention, so Jamie stood up and whistled loudly. That did it. Everyone was awake now. At first, we thought that somebody had fallen over board, but we think she was telling him to veer more to the left as a heavy barge was coming our way.
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| We squeezed into a spot between two other boats in Pakbeng. |
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| Jamie and Chris smiling for the camera. |
The Mekong is a whirling, swirling, lively river with a swift current. I thought the scenery was beautiful as we passed by small hill side villages, jungles, fishing nets and other boats including death defying speedboats. We stopped at a few villages on the way and usually a gathering of people would come out to meet the boat in order to help family and friends carry the goods and supplies they bought in town. The boat got quite a bit lighter by the time we reached the end of the first day just after 6pm. We slept in Pakbeng, Laos that night and stocked up on sandwiches and banana chocolate loafs in preparation for the second days 9 hour boat ride. We had lost track of Chris when we arrived in Pakbeng as everyone scrambled to find a guest house for the night, yet, there he was sitting at our guest house breakfast table the very next morning.
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| Unloadong the boat at one of our stops. |
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| Somebody's getting a new roof! Everyone joins in to help. |
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| Next stop...picking up more car seats for the slow boat. |
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| The swirling waters of the Mekong River. Water levels were low. |
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| Kids watching the boat being unloaded. |
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| Sunset view of the Mekong River at Pakbeng. |
So, what do you do on a boat for two days, nine hours a day? We spent our time on the boat dozing off, taking in the scenery, watching the locals unload all of their supplies off the boat, waving to people on shore and other boats, talking to Chris and meeting another interesting couple - Lucy and Iuri. They have both been living in Australia, but Lucy is from France and Iuri is from Brazil. We were all hoping to cross the border into Thailand at the end of the second day, but as we passed under the Friendship bridge at about 5:45pm, we realized it wasn't going to happen. We all had dinner together and spent one last night in the town of Houay Xai. The next morning we made our way to the border and were through Laos immigration within minutes, bribe request free. After a quick shuttle across the Friendship bridge and five more minutes with the Thai immigration, et voila...we were all in Thailand again. Lucy, Iuri, Jamie and I decided to head towards Chiang Rai, while Chris hopped on a minivan to Chiang Mai.
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| Our travelling bands first steps into northern Thailand from Laos. |
