Laos Border Crossing & Slow Boat Adventure

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Hey Everyone - so we booked our bus journey from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong on the boder with Laos. Between the 3 day trek an meeting up with some really cool new travelling buddies I was happy to move on from Chiang Mai, a very friendly and historical city but you can only pass soo many days there so it was time to move on.

The 5 (Paul,Ray,Aaron,Sarah) of us got the bus early on Thursday morning, it took about five hours in total to reach Chaing Khong, but the bus was air-conditioned so wasnt so bad. We had already sorted accomodation through bus agency so we got dropped off at guesthouse, threw off rucksacks an had a walk around the town. We walked passed a teepee, yes thats what I said a teepee, the guy shouted to come in for a drink, so we obliged for the next 8hours 😉 more people walked in wondering what a teepee was doing in Thailand - we met up with Ian, Cathy an Edwina from Wicklow..i really cant believe the amount of irish travelling over here cant go anywhere.

The next morning we crossed the river on a tiny boat from Chaing Khiong to Laos, went straight to Immigration Office and got our 15Day Laos Visa for 20euro. Also exchanged money on Laos Kip, which meant I was a millionaire 😉 1M Loas Kip = 100Dollars

We then walked to the pier/bank/sandbank that lead to the water where our slowboat was awaiting us for the next two days. Now you can see from the pictures it was madness, over the next hour about 100people got onboard all trying to get a seat. The boat is kinda slow but it allows you to properly enjoy the stunning scenery, take pictures an walk around talking to fellow travellers. The first days journey took over 7hours, thats sitting on a seat made for primary school kids for 7hours in agony Ouch.!

We arrived in a place called Pakbeng, where we would spend the night. Now this was the first bad experience of South East Asia cause there was about 20 men an kids waiting for our arrival - they basically take off the bags an pass them to kids who for money offer to take your bags to your guesthouse - now doesnt sound soo bad but we didnt know this an I took over 20mins trying to find my rucksack, which I eventually spotted a kid walking towards the town center with my rucksack grrrr - endedup hearing that a aussie guy had his passport, wallet with 300dollars, documents stolen from his rucksack and another irish guy had his passport stolen aswell. But eventually everyone got there bags an we all starting laughing about the madness an just decided if thats the worst that will happen then we will be grand. The town was very small an late in the evening when we arrived so we went out for some grub before they "turned off the electricity" - yes at 10.30pm the town shuts down power - now thats a first for me - was really weird but meant an early night

Next morning we set off again for a 6hour journey to Laung Prabang, the second largest city in Laos. Was much the same as the previous day, everyone trying to pass the time away playing cards, listening to music or wrecking guys heads with one question "name the 22 teams that have a title after there name" .ie united,town - we got 21 teams but Im convinced there is only 21 anyways but it passed 6 hours for us 😉

So we arrived in Laung Prabang after 13 hours of sitting on hard seats, an experience I dont wanna ever go through again - its just soo hard to pass the hours away but good thing is that you get talkling to loads of people and seee some stunning mountain scenery

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Comments

[Michelle]

Up Westmeath
Hi cousin, really enjoying reading about your trip. Impressed at your mathmatical ability in converting the price of beer around the world into euros. Mustn't be drinking enough! Great photos, how about one of you? Michelle

[Tom]

Thanks
thanks for the link mate! this has given me loads of info for when i travel.