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Published: December 3rd 2008
The Longtail Boat
So this is the little boat we pack into to get across to the Laos immigration. weeeeeSo I believe I left off in Thailand-wow-so this is a delayed blog but at least I’m getting there. I left Chiang Mai in the morning. A minibus(which is basically a minivan) picked me up from my hotel and we wondered up several little streets gathering the other travelers on their way to Laos. The entire ride to the border was a rollercoaster. We passed cars when it was probably advisable not to, and went around corners at speeds far too high. Grandma Lehman, if you read this, I was thinking about all the times you tell grandpa to slow down, and how you almost have a heart attack anytime someone other than you is driving-well, I’m afraid travel in SE Asia is just not cut out for you-at least not by any vehicle…you’ll have to fly. Anyway, along the way we managed to hit a dog-it’s almost inevitable that this happens, due to the overpopulation of stray dogs throughout Asia. Still, it was a bit shocking and sad, and the driver didn’t even bother to stop-he just kept on trucking right on through. Jerk! We arrived at the border town of Chiang Khong at nightfall, and checked into a little
guesthouse along the river. They fed us dinner, and due to the lack of anything to do I decided to hit my extremely “springy” uncomfortable bed and catch some zzzz’s. The next morning we woke early, they fed us breakfast, handed us a sandwich on the go, and we headed for the boat crossing to Huay Xai, Laos. I must admit this was one of the most unorganized border crossings I’ve ever experienced. First we took a minibus 5 min up the road to the border crossing, then we walked down to the river, hopped on a little boat with all our baggage, and sped across to Laos. The ride was all of about 5min. Once we arrived we basically spent the time being herded around from place to place like cattle. First fill this out, then go here, then do this over here, and when I got up to get my passport stamped they asked for another $1 because the day was Friday?! What kind of rule is that?! So after making our way through that, we were told to walk up the road. We were stopped yet again as we made our way up the road, to have
My Travel Friends
The girls I met up with in the minibus from Chiang Mai! our passports looked at again. Then we marched our way up the stone paved road. At the top of the road there was a tuk tuk waiting. We were told that the tuk tuk would drive us to the river where the slow boat was waiting to depart. They piled our bags on top, strapped them down with a rope, and everyone packed into the back-except me, I sat in the front with the driver. We arrived in front of a little “convenience store” and they herded us out-tossing our bags down from the top of the tuk tuk. We then sat and waited as many others were herded to the same place as us. Eventually a guy came in announcing that if we wanted, we could catch the bus to Luang Phrabang instead of taking the slow boat. Saying that it was quicker, and blah blah blah…I don’t think anyone bought it. So it was off to the slow boat! I gathered my bags and started to walk toward the riverbank to board the boat. The boat was very simple-wooden with a tin rooftop, and wooden benches for seating. Wooo hooo! I mean it was only a six hour
Laos Border Crossing
Go up the stairs, jump 2 times, touch your nose, go back down, touch your feet with your huge backpack on, go up the hill, turn in five cirlces, stand on one foot with all your bags and don't fall over-because it's Friday and if you fall you pay $5 and wait until tomorrow to get into Laos---ok so it wasn't THAT bad. journey until we stopped for the night, nothing I couldn’t handle. So I boarded the boat via two narrow pieces of wood, handed my big bag to a couple of guys who put it under the floor boards with all the other baggage, and settled in a spot on one of the wooden benches. I watched as everyone else boarded the boat, and slowly but surely the boat filled up. I ended up sitting on the bench alone, but had two English guys directly in front of me, and an Italian guy and Dutch girl behind me. It didn’t take long for conversation to start up, and I’d say around maybe 10am the English guys, Tom and Ryan, broke out a bottle of Thai whisky. The Italian guy, Daniel, and I contributed by buying some cans of coke from the ‘store’ on the boat. We also borrowed some coffee cups-and the drinking began. What better way to make the time pass?! I must admit now-since it is so long after the fact-that this was where all the drinking started…and it went on like this for almost 2 months straight! Thank you slow boat. We spent the day drinking some rather
nasty whisky, chatting, and taking in the amazing views that Laos had to offer. I think we were kind of the load and rowdy bunch on the boat, but we were having a great time. Throughout the trip we also met Emma, a Swedish girl, and Hannas, a crazy German guy with one arm and a lot of energy. As for the scenery and such, well, the Mekong River seemed massive, it was a very wide river and a very muddy river, none the less I found the scenery amazing. I also concluded as to why the boat is so slow. The entire journey we kept stopping at little villages along the way to pick up or drop off people. It was crazy some of the things that were loaded and unloaded from the boat. Amongst these things were mopeds, chickens, and large bags of rice, just to name a few. It was really neat to watch the children along the banks, often playing naked in the water. They seemed so happy and content in their little villages. They found joy in the simple things-which I feel is rare in this day and age. One guy on the boat had
Bag Toss
The tuk tuk we took to get to the slow boat from the immigration point-and all the bags being tossed from up top! bought a large bag of candies, and when we pulled up along the shore he would toss a handful on the bank and the kids would all scurry to grab as much as they could. They were so excited to receive sweets.
After a long hot day on the river we made it to Pakbeng, the town we would be staying in for the night. As soon as we unloaded the boat we were all swarmed by the people of the town-trying to get us to stay at their guesthouse. I ended up going with Tom, Ryan, Daniel, and Rhianne to a little family run place-luckily it was cheap. I had drawn out money at the border crossing-but due to the fact that I didn’t know the exchange I only took out a little-apparently very little-but it was enough to pay for the guesthouse and a meal for the night, so all was well. I chatted with the girl who had brought us to the guesthouse a bit and she was very young-I think only 17, and already was married with a child. She and her mother invited me to join them for some dinner, I thanked them for the
Loading the Slow Boat
Yes-just walk across these two twigs real quick like with all your heavy bags, it's sturdy as can be...indeed! offer, but had already planned to join the others for dinner. After showering and freshening up a bit, Tom, Ryan, and myself set out to explore the town-that took us all of 5 minutes. As we were walking past one of the restaurants we spotted two of the Dutch girls from the boat and went up to sit with them, and grab a bite to eat. As the night carried on many others from the boat started to show up-it seemed to be the popular place for the night. They had music playing and everyone was having a good time drinking and/or smoking ganja. Smoking in Laos is technically illegal, but everyone in this small village is selling it, and they allow you to smoke it in the restaurants until a certain time of night, when the police are out. So the party was going, until the power was shut down- this little village runs off of generators and somewhere around 11pm all electricity goes off. No one seemed to care too much-we all stayed a bit longer carrying on as before. When we finally decided to head back, our guesthouse had closed the gates early so we had to
Slow Boat Style
This is what the slow boat looks like-very classy! :D wake them to get in and luckily I had grabbed my head lamp earlier because it was pitch dark in there and our rooms were in the back. Once I got into my room I was greeted with a massive spider on my wall! Oh joy! Not again! Luckily I had Tom and Ryan there to kill it this time, instead of me! Haha I had a hard time getting to sleep that night because I kept thinking about the spider and wondering how many more were probably creeping around!!! The next morning we woke early to depart on the second and last leg of the slow boat journey. We all hopped in the back of a truck and they drove us down to the bank. Daniel, Tom, and Ryan had all bought more whisky for the boat, and it wasn’t long before we broke into it again-drinking before noon-I figured hey I’m on vacation, why not. So the day was similar to the day before. After an approximately 8hr journey we arrived in Luang Prabang. I learned from the many travelers carrying their travel Bible(aka the Lonely Planet Guide) that Luang Prabang is a city largely influenced by the
Mekong River
View from the slow boat. French, and that it was possible to find delicious baguettes, cheese, and wine. I was excited to get out and explore the town and indulge in these delectable goodies! I gathered my things, and being the only person who had booked a hostel in advance I was separated from the group. They all headed off with one of Daniel and Rhianne’s friends that had already been staying in Luang Prabang for a couple days, and I grabbed a tuk tuk to the hostel. I told them I’d find them all later-since the place was probably small enough and there was bound to be one central area where everyone went. I arrived at the hostel and in my mind had already decided to just stay one night and then I’d move closer to everyone the next day. I checked in, took a shower, and headed off toward the city center. I walked through the night market, and on the other side found the main street of the city. As I walked down the street I spotted Daniel and Rhianne, with their friends. They invited me to sit and join them for dinner. I met their friends Florian, a German guy, and
Village Children
An amazing photo, if I do say so myself, of the Laos children on the banks of the Mekong River at one of the villages we stopped. Nirani, another Dutch girl. After dinner we decided to walk through the night market a little. Florian and Nirani already seemed to be buzzing a bit from the beer they had with dinner, and they had stopped at the conveince store to buy some more and carried that through the night market. Florian had the best laugh! I couldn’t help bursting into laughter when he started his chuckling. After a while we decided to grab some more drinks from the store and head down to the Mekong to find a place to sit, drink, and chat. Along the way we ran into Tom and Ryan as well, and they decided to join us on our little adventure to the Mekong. We made a quick pit stop to pick up the IPOD and the stereo. We found a little cement veranda to hang out at right along the river. We sat around drinking, listening to music, and talking about life and travels. Eventually Florian started a little joke about German dancing. I jokingly asked him to instruct us, and we all stood up and followed his lead on how to dance the way the Germans do. It was something you had
to be there to experience to really understand how ridiculous it was, but I thought it was grand. After learning the dance we had an American Idol contest sort of thing with Florian as the judge. He was basically a Simon-but he liked my German dancing and I won the competition! Haha After a while we decided to wander back in toward the main street to try to go to some bars-unfortunately in Luang Prabang everything closes early. We ended up asking some guy, who seemed to be the only other person still out on the street, if there were any nightclubs we could go to. He said there was one, but we needed a tuk tuk to get there-we all decided hey why not, if there is a party somewhere-we are going! So he calls his friend, and 5 min later a tuk tuk pulls up and we all jump in the back. Off we went, everyone a little tipsy and buzzing by this point! When we arrived we realized the place they had taken us was in fact a bowling alley! The only place in the whole town that stayed open until 3 am or so was the
bowling alley! We decided hey, now that we are here we may as well check it out, maybe play one quick game, and then head back. So once we were inside we realized everyone from the slow boat was in there. I went over to say hello to Emma, she was there with the other 5 Swedish people she was travelling with, and a girl named Lonneke. I chatted with her a bit before returning to the others to discover that the next lane wouldn’t be available for another 20 to 30 minutes, and by then the place would be closing down. We decided to stay and have one drink and socialize a bit, before heading back. We left the bowling alley with the same tuk tuk that had brought us I think we paid somewhere around 5000 kipp each to get there and back?! (Which converts to a whopping $0.50!) He dropped us off by the others guesthouses, and I had to part ways and head to my hostel. I was about a 15 minute walk away, and the guys seemed concerned, but I assured them I was ok. I told them I’d been travelling alone for a while
now, and I could make it alright, it wasn’t that far. (Plus, I had the pepper spray with me if anyone happened to bother me!) I told them I’d see them in the morning when I checked out of the hostel and made my way to the guesthouse, somewhere around 9:30 or 10:00. It was a nice walk home. The night was still, where the street market sat hours before there was now only an empty street. I walked down the middle of the street, smiling to myself at what an amazing place I was in. I looked up to the sky and at the top of the hill there stood a temple-glowing brightly against the dark night sky. Life is such a beautiful thing!
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