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Published: December 14th 2011
On the 10
th we tried to take a public bus direct from Chiang Mai to the border town of Chiang Khong ready to cross over into Laos the next day. We had missed the morning bus with a 4 hour wait for the next direct bus. We decided to jump on a bus to Chiang Rai and from there hopefully find another bus we could catch for Chiang Khong. The bus journey was pretty uneventful and in Chiang Rai we jumped straight onto a private smaller bus that was heading to Chiang Khong.
We did not realise at the time but we were dropped off about 1KM from the main town of Chiang Khong where the majority of guest houses are and found ourselves outside a 7/11 in the dark with no idea where to go. A lady came up to us with her western husband with details of their guest house. We decided to take a look as could not see any over option but the rooms that were left were quite a bit pricey for what they are so decided to risk it and leave. We started walking down the main road where a
van driven by a scouse man asked if we needed a ride into town. He said he lived here and owned a bar. We decided to take the ride and he dropped us in the main town which was full of restaurants, bars and guest houses – good. Terry wanted to watch the Saints play so we quickly found a room and went out to meet our new Scouse friend Alan at his mates bar. Unfortunately we could not watch the match as no one could get Sky 2 so instead spent the night drinking with Alan, his Belgium friend who also owned a bar and a Brummie lad that just happened to meet Alan 5 weeks ago whilst passing through and was kipping at his house with his family – all very random. The brummie lad was from Small Heath and his dad used to work at BSA Guns where my dad used to be the MD and where my brother Ben still works – small world. Got very drunk and found out Alan used to be a professional cyclist and said he had a museum around the corner attached to his bar that he never seems to open,
as in his words is because he is a drunk! Funny but also sad as think this is a little bit true. We took off for his bar and realised he had 100s of bikes from a Penny Farthing to brand new mountain bikes, autographs from the Rolling Stones as well as Lance Armstrong. Really was interesting. Alan had married a Thai lady and lived here now with his son. We said good night and headed off to try and get a few hours sleep before the next days journey.
The next day we walked to the immigration office in Thailand, caught a ferry over the river into Laos. Brought our new 30 day visa for $35 and headed off in search of the slow boat. The slow boat is like a long narrow barge that takes passengers down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang over two days with a overnight stop in the village of Pak Beng. We brought our tickets (around £18pp) and quickly found our seats which were reserved with our ticket. The seats were pretty comfy and looked like they had been taken from an old coach but least
they were padded. Boat soon filled up with some passengers having to sit at the back of the boat where the noisy engine was. A group of around 10 people tried kicking up a fuss but was told they had no choice as a second boat would not be used for only 10 people. Instead they received 100 baht refund – only £2 but they seem satisfied.
We started off about half later than planned and set off down the Mekong. Was exciting at first but after a while the scenery becomes a little repeatable but still pretty. We passed through many small villages and could see the kids running around down to the beach to wave at us. We made a stop at one village around 3 hours into the journey and a couple of travellers got off whilst some locals jumped on. The first leg of the trip takes around 8/9 hours so we were nearly half way to our first stop. The Mekong is a fast flowing river and you can see whirlpools and rapids with small and large rocks popping up all over the place so can be a
dangerous river. However I put that to the back of my mind and we continued on. As we leave the village and start to move to the centre of the river we hear a loud scraping noise and the boat starts to tip over but only for a moment before becoming upright again. We all looked at each other nervously then the engine starts making a very angry noise and the boat darts quickly to the edge of the river and docks next to a beach. Everyone sits there thinking what is going on before Terry gets up and takes a look at the back of the boat where the engine is. People are starting to walk off the boat but I wait for Terry, he appears with our back packs that look a little wet. He tells me to quickly jump off as we are sinking! I grabbed my bag and quickly exited the boat. On the boat was a good mix of foreigners from all over the world with 20 Australian teenagers on an adventure trip with about 6 or 8 teachers. All in all there were probably around 120 of us. We got off onto the beach,
took a look at the engine and realised we must of hit a rock. There was a huge hole at the bottom of the boat and the engine looked mangled. The boat could not sink any further as we were on the shore.
Hour and a half later another slow boat turns up but is a lot smaller then the already crowded boat we were on. People start to worry but I knew we would have no choice so whilst Terry took our bags I quickly jumped onto the sinking boat and across onto our new boat to secure a seat at least. Unlike our first boat the seats were wooden with only a thin cushion to sit on, definitely not as good. The teachers decided it was just too dangerous for the kids to get on so waited for everyone else to get back on and tried to demand a new boat. I heard the driver say in broken English, get on this boat, no other boat will come; they had no choice but to get on. There were no seats left so they had to sit on their backpacks
in the aisle, felt really sorry for them and the teachers as they were obviously taking a big risk being in charge of the kids.
At around 5pm I counted the hours on how long we had been travelling and realised we would not make it to the village for our first stop before night fall. It quickly got dark and the boat slowed down to a snail pass. We were instructed to turn all torches off so the driver could see the river ahead. It was a full moon so it was not pitch black but the driver only had a small torch and I started to feel very worried as if he missed a rock we could really be in trouble. Everyone on the boat had stopped talking and there was a real uneasy atmosphere on board. After a short time we pulled over onto a deserted sandy beach and the engines were cut. The sandy beach was in the middle of nowhere surrounded by wilderness. It was a high jump up onto the beach from the boat and then a steep climb to where
the beach eventually levelled out. We joked about having to stay the night on the beach whilst really thinking they were calling ahead for someone to guide us to the village which I reckon was at least another 2 hours away, boy was I wrong. The forever smiling driver came down the boat and all he said was ‘off, sleep here’. I was shocked we had no tents, it was pretty cool as well I would say around 8-10 degrees, and with a mix of ages on the boat from around 14-75 then I knew this was not ideal. Luckily Terry and I had our sleeping bags with us so after putting on more clothes, at least 5 layers and with only one thin jumper and one thin coat we jumped off. People had started to make a fire so we sat around trying to stay warm and ignoring the animal noises coming from the forest. The boat was carrying pot noodles, snacks and beer but as Terry and I had come prepared for two days we had loads of junk food with us so just ordered a couple of beers and left the food for people who had nothing.
The boat people made a killing from us and offered no subsidised items – haha, they were the only ones that seemed happy with the situation.
Some people decided to stay on the boat but with the wooden benches and limited floor space Terry and I decided to stay on the beach and leave the boat for people with no sleeping bags. About 11pm we tried to get some sleep but our sleeping bags are only thin and we were cold, we slept on and off but some people did not even sleep instead they decided to keep the fire going as best they could so was constant chattering most of the night.
Next day we were awoken at first light and jumped on the boat. 2 hours later we arrived at the village we were meant to stay the previous evening. Again we changed boats, we were now onto our third boat but this was much bigger so we did not mine. Got totally stung by the villagers for food but we had to eat something. We then continued on our 7/8 hour
trip down the Mekong with no more dramas and arrived in Luang Prabang tired, smelly but safe. All in all we had a great trip, yes it was awful spending the night on the beach in the cold but we all became really close and had some great laughs with everybody.
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Pat White
non-member comment
What an amazing story something to always cherish. Love momma xxx