Advertisement
Published: February 19th 2013
Edit Blog Post
Really tired today, reminds me why hostels have been off the plans so far in the trip, people in and out all night, talking and laughing, its great if you dont have to be up early! Lol 7am down at the boat, first one here, pleasantly surprised to see that there are some car seats along the edge for people to sit on, yay this journey should be about more comfortable than expected.
The boat in very long, at the far end are the living quarters of the family's who's boat it is. It slowly fills up, first all the travellers arrive to claim decent seats then the locals come in with their large packages. This boat is seriously full, thankfully they haven't tried to get us to squeeze up on the seats.
There boat is due to leave at 8.30, by 9am the boat is must starting up the engine and attempting to leave...with difficulty. They have to get a lot of the locals back off the boat to enable the boat to back off the sand.. Only in Asia!
So we've finally set sail if you will, through the mist still hanging over the river, it
as also freezing, so glad I decided to wear my trousers. I realise to my horror the women that is selling the food and drink on the boat is the 'nice' women I met in the market the night before with the trousers oh well I'm sure she won't remember me.....
I head down to her and ask for my cup to be filled with boiling water, then she demanded 5,000 kip for a cup of boiling water! Oh yes she remembers me!
The first few hours are passed quite quickly in between naps and reading.
By 11am the sun is out and warming everyone up slightly. Travelling the along the Mekong your spoilt with scenery its all so beautiful, dotted in the rainforest and river edges is the occasional village. Kids play on the sand dunes lining the river, whilst men are seen fishing and women washing clothes you then you get the occasional heard of water buffalo taking a dip. If your going to be stuck on a boat for 9 hours a day, I couldn't think of anywhere more beautiful.
The boat we have has the front bow where i noticed a small group
of people were sat so later in the afternoon I toddle up and join them soaking in the sun....
The next few hours fly by and we eventually arrive Pak Ben at 6pm. As soon as you jump off the boat there are people trying to tell you about their place and how cheap it is, me and the group of people i met from the boat manage to get a place which had room for all of us for 20,000 each, not bad.
Heading straight back out to an Indian we'd spotted on our way in we all delve head first into a delicious Indian/Laos feast.
There's not a lot in Pak Ben, its just thrived from the stop over for the tourists, you have one street that heads uphill, a few restaurants and lots of guesthouses.
Early night as we repeat the same process tomorrow.
They are early to rise here as I hear the shops opening before dawn in preparation for the stampede of tourists back to the boats.
We find our boat early, loaded up with food and drink for the journey.
I'm relieved that the boat has changed
from the one on the previous day, we have car seats set up in fours with tables, yay bring on the cards..... And no lady with a grudge against me! Cup of boiling water today = 0 kip! She definitely had a grudge! The tickets for today are purchased on the boat and the same price as the previous day. This is a great journey with all of us sat together the vodka bottle comes out at about 11ish : ) the sun is scorching today....this is the life.
The next few hours are a ball and the journey flys by, so in the crew we have are Cassy from Australia, Lance from New Zealand, Catherine and Elizabeth sisters from Melbourne. We have Robin from Seattle, Stephanie from Germany and Katie from Sydney ( who Ive previously met in Nhom Khiaw).
We are passed to day by the occasional 'fast boat' these are the alternative boat avaliable from Luang Probang, that are not recommended, reportedly people have died whilst doing this journey as they are so fast and especially at the moment the water is low so lots of rocks. They looked really uncomfortable aswel, 6 hours in the
same position, no thank you.
I have read that the Thai boarder shuts at 6pm tonight so were all praying that we get to Houng Xia before then....
We arrive at 6.15 so we reside ourselves to having another stopover. We are dropped at the far end of town so not a lot of choice for guesthouse one just up the hill from the dock was abit pricey so we headed further up and found another for 25,000 each for the night.
The Thai boarder is on the opposite side of the river so we need to book transport to it in the morning and then onto Chang Mai.
We found it for $10 each, not bad for a tuk tuk ride from the guesthouse, (boat over the river is 10,000 kip, not included). After the border there's a transfer to the bus and then mini bus to Chiang Mai, I think most guethouse will offer similar deals.
Food tonight was about dubious, cook your own BBQ..... Mmmmm : s not so sure this is a good idea.. Raw meat, fish and vegetables all cooking on the same thing at the same time : s
Having survived the BBQ. My run this morning brings a pleasant surprise, on my way back I see a line of monks walking along the road, they are doing their morning Alm collection. I've wanted to see this, locals are lining up along the roads, kneeling on their little mats and bowing their head as they hand over a food offering to each monk. Once this was completed the monks stood in a line and chanted together, pretty amazing to see, just gutted I didn't have the camera.
Picked up in a tuk tuk and taken to the Laos border on this side of the river, once through (very painless) we hop on a boat to cross the river.
Across the river and straight to the Thai boarder, there for about longer but still extremely easy..... Once were all done and free to go we get taken to a guesthouse to hang around for about an hour waiting for our mini bus to take us the rest of the journey. The waits fine as there is decent WiFi signal so everyone descends into an email frenzy.
Picked up at 10.45, by 1 o'clock we are stopping at
a cashew but factory (probably one of the drivers relatives) for lunch. Well they had trays of pad Thai and fried rice which were a very welcome sight.
Back on the road we arrive in Chiang Mai around 4 o'clock, none of us had booked anything so we took a very long tiring walk to soi 7 too look for accommodation, we ended up splitting up I went with Katie and Robin to a hostel charging 100 baht a night, the people that work here or own it are off their heads, love it!
We literally drop our bags and head back to meet the others for some food...
Well while waiting for the others we decided to havd a few singha beers on our arrival into Chiang Mai, rude not too....
Advertisement
Tot: 0.131s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0731s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb