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Published: February 10th 2009
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Slow Boat To Luang Prabang
From Chiang Mai my next destination was to get to Luang Prabang located centrally in the North of Laos. This was to be an adventure in itself and the most commonly travelled route by many. A course that would take two nights and three days, I would first travel 6.0 hours by mini bus to the Northern Thai boarder town of Chiangkhong set adjacent to the Mekong River. This leg of the journey seeming never to end, jambed up in the back seat with a rather large French Canadian and luggage spilling over us as the bus swerves around bends. The dilapidated roadways made it endless, and though passing through picturess country side, lime stone mountains and rice fields could have been more appreciated if it had not been for having my eyes shut most of the time to avoid car sickness.
Our first night stop over was the small boarder town of Chiangkhong, a guest house situated on the banks of the Mekong, across the river lies Lao our destination for tomorrow. Here non stop mini buses arriving and unloading travellers for the similar journey down the Mekong on a slow-boat to
Luang Prabang. Morning came and the full scale of this pilgrimage was evident, hundreds of travellers coming from nearby guest houses, ascending to a meeting point, ready to be herded up like cattle by an organiser to walk the 700meter path down to Thai immigration....Depature formalities out of the way we were all off to board our long-tail boats for the short river crossing into Huay Xai (Huasai) the boarder town of Lao, here we applied for our Visa's and passed through the very relaxed Passport Control where the only concern was showing your receipt for the Visa purchase.
Onto a taxi truck for a short journey down to the Slow-boat harbor were a small briefing was to be held in an open air cafe, hundreds jammed in. A Lao Tourist Official addresses he crowd - "Welcome to Lao and CAN YOU SWIM" - Silence all round, was this the Lao sense of humour of a welcoming ice breaker. We listened further as he wanted to inform us of the truth of the Slow-boat journey down the Mekong as he believed this was somewhat told to be an easy cruise back in Thailand when purchasing the tickets. As
he explains growing concerns on faces grew. We were being told that the journey down to Luang Prabang would take approx 18 to 20 hours on the river over the two days by slow boat (yes we new it was a slow-boat but how slow), contrary to the promoted time period of 12.0 hour back in Thailand....'and that the boats are a public form of transport for the locals, being very old in some cases with no Government regulations imposed on them especially as to the number of passengers a boat owner wishes to take, resulting in very crowed boats between 80 to 120 people at any one time, and many missing out on finding seating, lying on the floor the only option let alone sharing space with live stock'.....'We would most likely arrive in Pakbang late evening in the dark, the village is on generator power and stops operating at 10:00pm where finding guest-houses in the dark may be of a challenge not to mention the exorbitant accommodation fees they may charge' - GREAT! (didn't see any fine print on the ticket voucher).
The other form of transport down the Mekong and most precarious way was to
fit into a life jacket, don on a crush helmet and strap yourself in (4 to 6 people) a speed boat for the non-stop 6.0 hour journey to Luang Prabang, enduring the roar of the 160 horse powered engine in the back all the way, the hot sun beaming down onto you and hanging onto your life woundering if the boat is going to airborne and flip over with fatal consequences as had happened in the past - not for me, thank you - only for thrill seekers.
There was however another way, The Tourist Official went on saying that the roadways in Lao are improving, what was dirt roads now are being built with bitumen and make a pleasant road trip down to Luang Prabang. He goes on saying 'Just for 300baht ($12 Aussie dollars) a private mini bus of 10 people can enjoy the scenic 6.0hour drive down to Luang Prabang pass through picturess mountain sides and fields and arrive late evening around 6:00 to 7:00pm. - What's this we thought - A Scam - another way of promoting local business. We were left on our accord to decide for ourselves and come back to him
for those who chose this option...Groups of friendship's were evolving, discussing the pro's and con's - I figured, I had already endured a 6.0 hour bus ride the previous day, and was in no hurry wanting to take the time and enjoy the scenery along the way. I stuck with my initial plan, where as around 20 travellers opted to go via two mini buses, great I thought making more room on the boat for the remaining.
As it turned out, we made Pakbang (first night stopover) in 6.0 hours, enough daylight to search for a guest house and paid only $4 Aussie dollars for the night, the following day another 8.0 hours to Luang Prabang. All the while having a pleasant journey, enjoying the scenery along the Mekong and most of all making new friend and developing the friendship to travel with them and spend the time for the next 10 days through Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and Vientiane.
MINI BUS UPDATE.......We later bumped into some of the travellers who chose the bus route to Luang Prabang and was quite amused to hear they endured a rough ride, encountering two flat tires, mechanical problems and
arriving into Luang Prabang around Midnight some 12.0 hours after departing Huay Xai (Huasai) - Very Funny.
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