The Mekong River Epic

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Part 10
January 28 Huay Xai
The adventure begins, or actually hits its stride as we enter Lao (no one here uses the 's' as this was only added by the French). Along with about 100 other assorted travelers, which is quickly becoming 120 as they pack more and more on this 100 foot long, 10 foot wide boat, built with 40 closely cramped wooden benches made for 2, and now another 30 or so plastic chairs in the aisle, and another bunch sitting on the floor.
This is the slowboat tour down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang, slated as two 6 or 7 hour days, but this is not exactly assured as everything is on the follow the crowd and wait system--visa application, passport control, signing this paper here and another elsewhere, moving from van to guesthouse to pickup truck to ferry to tuk tuk to boat....The first people through this gauntlet wishfully thought the boat would leave at 9:30, and after 50 people they would get another boat. Well now it is almost 11 and we may have packed all we can (maybe 130+) onto our hopefully riverworthy craft. The straight-backed bench is only mildly uncomfortable at this point, but this may change for the worse as I give hourly reports further on.
2:30 After packing on every last straggler, we pulled out at 11:30, and backed out straight into a sandbar that ground the engine to a halt (maybe overloaded, perhaps?). Restarting the engine, we began downriver, making a good 10 minutes before we pulled to shore, where our driver dove under the boat to remove the damaged propeller, which, remarkably, they had a replacement for. So with amazing efficiency, we were off again down the very scenic course of the Mekong. There are virtually no villages along the way, and only occasionally do we see the individual bamboo house atop a small rise. Mostly, we are surrounded by deep green hillsides rising from the muddy waters of the river.
So far, the ride has been remarkably pleasant--a chance for relaxed reading and some talking (for the younger set, a chance to down a good quantity of Laos beer). Despite being told there was no food or drink on the voyage, this being Asia, there was a good supply of beer and chips for sale, and we just stopped at a small settlement to resupply and to allow the local hawkers to offer pineapple and bananas and Lay's chips and Double Stuff Oreos for sale.
No one has any idea how long this trip really takes, so we just putter along, on what is so far a relaxing journey in the less developed world.
5:22 Although it was pleasant to have most of the 20 year old beer drinkers on top of the boat's roof to lessen crowding, it made the boat more than a bit top heavy. After ignoring many requests to get down from the Lao speaking driver's assistant, the driver finally stopped the boat until they got back in the boat to help balance in the faster water coursing through the rock dotted riverscape. The scenery has gotten more spectacular, with steep sided mountains dropping near to the river, and as the shadows fall over the river as the sun sets and temperatures drop, we now begin to wonder when we might arrive at the stopping town. We were told the boat has no lights, so this should add to the intrigue as night falls.
The comfort level is still tolerable, thanks to scoring a plastic portable chair that is slightly less Puritan than the straight backed wooden benches. And being able to climb on the gunwales or hang out the side makes things at least a tad more interesting, or at least different. Hopefully we make it to camp before I need use my fleece vest cushion for clothing.
6:30 Darkness descends as we come upon the lights of Pakbeng on river left. A string of smart looking huts lines the river north of town, but these are too far to be anything but some special resort for more deluxe boats. We drift downstream to the main docking site, which is so packed with tied up barges it takes 10 minutes for us to find a space to squeeze in. With no one to provide direction, the passengers vacillate between disembarking or crowding to the back to search for their packs in the darkness. Finally, we agree to send everyone off with whatever pack they can grab and sort it out on shore. It is too dark to make much sense of all this, and all too many people have no idea how to identify their pack except by sight (which is made more difficult by the dark and the steep rocky slope on which we have disembarked). We luckily locate our two packs (the lightest on the ship I note) and plod up the hill to our passably mediocre guesthouse. Day 1 of the voyage successfully completed, more or less.

January 29
Mekong River: Day 2
With the fog sitting over the river, a different mood pervades the intrepid travelers. Maybe some of this is the lessening of expectations after the first day (and maybe part is the beer hangover of the younger travelers after yesterday's debauchery, or perhaps fatigue of those whose sleep was interrupted by rats jogging across their guest house roof (our guest house was a relative luxury, I guess, although somehow the exterior walls with gaps between the wood siding did little to buffer the sound of roosters and motorcycles this morning).
There is a certain level of camaraderie as we eat breakfast along with tables of other boaters in a dirt floored, rattan hovel (run by the recently married ex-monk who met is wife when she was the best noodle seller in town). Part of this is reliving yesterday's highlights, and much is the mysterious anticipation of today's logistics (when do we leave, one boat or two, how long is the trip, ...?).
As we locate our boat (we think, although since no one working speaks English, we are simply following our fellow westerners), it is clear either there will be two boats or a trip in one that would make yesterday's look like a cruise ship. When we learn there is a second boat, things sort themselves out so that our boat is the one for the older, responsible ones (having all dutifully arrived at the dock early), and the other becomes labeled the "beer boat" for the younger set.
So now we are in the relative lap of luxury, with more seats than people (but just barely) and a few floor spaces to move to as a change of pace for the 7 or 8 or 9 hour journey (depending on your source). And with our now shared experiences, it is much easier to strike up conversation, sharing one's travels together and then talking about life in general. This has occupied us from our departure at 9:45 'til now (12:06)--let's see how interesting this all is in another many hours.
2:30 Under sunny skies, the pleasant float continues. Today we have a somewhat more local feel, as we stop to pick up some bags of rice, a few Lao people, and still we have room to stretch out.
It is now mostly just an endurance contest, as the conditions are plenty tolerable, and the scenery continues to be most pleasant. As we sail, we have passed small villages of raised bamboo and wood huts that are only accessible by boat. The economy of these settlements seems focused on fishing from their small handmade canoes, and the kids seem to spend much of the day playing in and by the water (often happily frolicking naked in the sand).
For us, periodically a small set of rapids adds a bit of excitement, but for the most part this seems like a remarkably navigable river that traverses such a length from China through Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam (the world's 10th longest river I am told). Books, IPODs, and continual snacking seem to pass the time for most, and we continue onward.
5:24 Our intrepid journey comes to an uneventful close. Suddenly our little team of fellow travelers scatters to the wind (or less poetically, clambers ashore, up the hill to hunt down guesthouses), only to be reunited in small gatherings in this seemingly confined but quaint town. We reconnect with the Israelis, the lone speed boat riders from the first day, who related their horror stories of a trip they felt lucky to survive. Another group from our slowboat couldn't face another day and (rather than commit hara-kiri) chose to "upgrade" to the fast boat, which provided one set of discomforts to replace the others.
But in the end, we all have survived one of these shared miseries that will surely become more embellished and horrific over time (soon we will gloat over the 1040 passengers stuffed onto this motorized rowboat for 6 days!). And surely many of us will cross paths again in Lao or Cambodia or Vietnam, or somewhere along this backpackers circuit we now have immersed ourselves in.
Luang Prabang is a welcome relief from the discomfort of life on the river. Civilized and even chic with its French influences and United Nations heritage site support, it retains a slightly rougher edge that makes it more than an amusement park and more of a real small city in the less developed world, struggling to survive and move forward without the almost unlimited resources taken for granted in the more developed world.

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Photos

Sun Going Down--Luang Prabang
Two boys return from frolicking in the river with Koby as the sun sets over the Mekong

Pack Em In
A typical view of the 130 or so fellow travelers jammed onto the boat as we start our epic journey down the Mekong River

River View
One of the continually scenic views as we ambled down the river

Another River View
One more of the continually scenic views as we ambled down the river (I have even more of these)

Kids Playing in the River
Nice light as the kids play in the sand

A City of Wats
Luang Prabang is full of temples (wats), and novice monks who do normal things like water plants

Lao Woman and Child
A Lao woman waiting for our boat to join us for the last leg of the trip

Comments

[jay]

thats me!
thats me! in the green! and thats my mate, in the hat! and also it wasnt us rocking the boat, it was some drunken idiot who ruiend it 4 everyone. thankyou.