Taking It Slow

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Within a day of being back in Chiang Mai we were once again back on another packed mini bus with our bags wedged around us, heading for our next destination…..Chiang Rai. There’s not a lot to do here but the main reason we had decided to come here was so that we could get the slow boat along the Mekong River into Laos.

But before that time came, we still had a few days in Chiang Rai, which we had high hopes for, as since we have been in the North of Thailand it seems that every town and city just has so much to offer so we thought the same could be said for Chiang Rai…..which when we turned up, it didn’t take us long to work out there isn’t anything to do really. There is the White Temple which is worth a look around and there’s a pretty big shopping center to visit but the rest of the time we were just biding our time until we left Thailand in a few days.

While here aswel we had the time to plan our slow boat journey into Laos, and to find the cheapest way possible to do it! It actually worked out it would be a lot less money if we just bought the tickets as we went along ourselves instead of going through a travel agency. So when the day finally came we had found out the local bus times from the main bus terminal in town. And we were up bright and early to get the 7:00 am bus, which we thought would be worth doing as any later it could get pretty busy and it turned out this was just the right time to go. We got our tickets which cost just 60 Baht each (£1.10 or there abouts) and an hour later arrived in Chiang Khong where we then jumped into a Tuk Tuk (60 Baht for the both of us) and headed for passport control at the border, where there was only a small group of backpackers gathered at a little window getting passports stamped. After maybe 10 minutes we were then off to find a small long tail boat to take us over the border (the other side of the river which cost us 20 Baht each, 20p) and soon we were once again queuing at another small window in Laos filling out forms for another visa, which we then had to pay $35 (that’s for the UK, it varies on cost depending on where you come from) and this lasts for 30 days. We were then met by a guy from a local travel agent who then got us descent priced tickets for the next two days slow boat journey which came to 220,000 Kip each (£18 each, and the same price that we had seen you get them for anyway) to which Jade went and got money from a local ATM as you can’t get Laos currency outside of Laos, so once she had managed somehow to walk through a military check point (twice!!) without even being noticed by the guards (we knew they were laid back but that’s taking it a bit too far I think!) we then had to go back through to which the guards decided they wanted to see our passports this time, after they had finished deciding which fish they were going to buy from a local, and were soon on yet another Tuk Tuk heading to the port where our long tail slow boat was waiting for us. After we had bought our tickets we jumped on our boat and grabbed ourselves a couple of seats (which seem like car seats that have just been put in the boat not attached to anything so you end up moving about a bit!) and made ourselves as comfortable as we could for the next 8 hours until we reached Pak Bang, a small town will into Laos but in the middle of nowhere! By the time we got there that evening we were both knackered but we had actually thought ahead this time and already booked a place to stay before we left Thailand, so we literally only had to walk up the hill from the boat and check in, plus it was a good thing we did….we seemed to be the only ones who did this so it seemed to be a race between everyone to get a bed for night before they were all gone! If you are going there though there are plenty of places to stay all varying in price so you can spend next to nothing for a room for the night.

The whole town of Pak Bang is just mainly made up of bars and restaurants and they all do special deals to try and get you in to eat so you have plenty of places to choose from. The one restaurant we went in to was a small place but they gave free pancakes for every meal so we decided to go here, and ended up with a free whiskey also so by the time we left we were both a bit tipsy and well ready for a good night’s sleep before the next days 8 hour boat ride into Luang Prabang.

We had heard before we left Thailand that some of the boats can turn into a bit of a party with being able to buy as much beer as you can handle, but ours was fairly quite over the two days, in the end I think everyone just wanted to get there and have the journey over with, so nothing excited happened. The scenery all along the Mekong River is amazing though and so we are both glad we decided to get the slow boat into Laos and would definitely recommend doing it as it’s a different way to get about from the normal coach! So now after 2 days we were now ready to spend a few days in Luang Prabang……

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Comments

[Dave Fosdal]

slow boat
I am glad you did this--will be soending 3 months in Asia in 2016 and the mekong is one thing I have wanted to do for years

[Grant and Jade]

The Mekong
Hi Dave, thanks for taking time to read our blog! The slow boat is definately worth saving a couple of days to do, i bet you can't wait until 2016, you will love it!