Country 2! - Laos

So it was off to Laos. We had had a very enjoyable time in Thailand – 4 weeks went incredibly quickly. We were even contemplating not going to Laos at all because we had begun to realise that actually 3 months wasn’t that long to travel all of SE Asia, but Rob suggested we went as he had heard lots of good things, and I am so so pleased we did 

We travelled by mini van from Chaing Mai up to the Thai/ Laos border where we stayed over night in a little hostel in a town that seemingly existed just for travellers to pass through. From here we were to catch a small boat which was to take us over the river to the Laos border. It was that easy! The night before we were due to take the crossing while having a few drinks with Chris we met Arthur - an Australian bushman who flew into Bangkok and intended on spending a few weeks in Laos and Roald – a Dutch guy who had been travelling for about 10 months and was intending on travelling for as long as he could before his money ran out. Little did we know when we met them that we would spend the entirety of the journey in Laos with them!

So we got up bright and early and boarded the boat – and after a very simple border procedure we were in Laos. Country 2 of the journey. We decided to get the slow boat which took us up the Mekong River from the border to a town called Luang Prabang – the first major town in Northern Laos. When I say we caught the slow boat – it was a very good description of what we were catching – we were to spend 2 days on this boat – this was thankfully broken up by an evening stop in a small town called Pakbeng. We walked down the hill to see our boat, it was very basic, with a 2 sets of double seater wooden benches and then lots of people sprawled on the floor with an array of bags, guitars etc. We had been told to buy cushions before we boarded the boat and I am very pleased we did 5 hours one day and nearly 8 the next - plenty to bring on a numb bum even with a cushion! We made a beeline for the back of the boat as we saw these seats had additional padding and we very pleased with ourselves.

We started the journey and realised that although a wonderfully beautiful route it wasn’t to be the quiet peaceful journey we had maybe expected. We may have selected the comfortable option but the engine of the boat was only several meters away and one of the crew members insisted on keeping the door open (despite Rob and Chris’s efforts to sneak back and close it) we soon discovered why when we made 4 or 5 un scheduled stops where the captain would pull the boat up to a sandbank with the engine sounding decidedly ill and run back to the engine room with a roll of lx tape, a spanner and some string, fiddle around in the engine and then we would continue on our journey! The stops were actually quite nice though as often we would pull up to a bank with a load of buffalo grazing or get to marvel at the side of a hill which was covered in jungle that hummed and buzzed with life. The scenery was stunning, with large sheer cliffs and big areas of jungle. The river itself had quite a current in a few places and is was rather impressive in places where it became up to and above 50m wide!

A bottle of whiskey later and we had reached our destination and it had been a reasonably pleasant journey. The whiskey had definitely taken the edge off the uncomfortable nature of the boat and the scenery was interesting and diverse enough that there was always something to look at. Also the atmosphere on the boat was very relaxed and friendly. Pretty much everyone on there was a tourist, so was making the best and chatting with everyone around them.

Then we landed at our first destination - Pakbeng. After finding a guesthouse (there were many many touts awaiting our arrival on the bank) we dumped our stuff and headed out to find some food. The town felt like the set of a wild west film with one dusty street lined with wooden cobbled together houses, most of which were restaurants or bars. It soon became obvious that this part of the settlement existed only due to the slow boat. We struck a deal with one of the touts of the restaurants – and we managed to get a free shot of the local liquor (lao lao whiskey - which was a non descript lighter fluid type of spirit, too much I’m sure would lead to blindness) and some money off our food. We had our first sample of Laos cusine – which to be honest was nothing to compare to the wonders of the Thailand but still very nice, after a few more beers and the group commending the owners on their choice of British and American Rock playing on the stereo we headed back home. When we arrived back we discovered there was still a large group of people yet to go to bed. They had arrived on the slow boat coming from Luang Prabang, so after getting some top tips off of them (something called tubing – which I will come to later I promise!) we were soon plunged into darkness as the generators were switched off, and once the few candles that we had been given were finished we went to bed for an early start to our second long (8 Hours this time!!) boat journey.

Day 2 of the boat journey was indeed tedious, our boat was down graded and there were no vaguely comfy seats so we sat on our wooden benches with our cushions moving occasionally to stop the numb bum from spreading. Thankfully however after our lesson in engine song the day before we sat much closer to the front of the boat – and had a much quieter journey. Although the scenery was beautiful it was still the same as yesterday, so it had lost its novelty factor, and unfortunately another day on the whiskey didn’t seem as appealing, so after much book reading, DS gaming and eating of sandwiches we finally cruised into the beautiful Luang Prabang.