Houei Xai - Louang Prabang

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Morning,...crossing to Lao. I packed my staff the night before and headed on the main road to catch a Tuktuk. This is usually pretty easy, cause they stop and always ask. But not in this village. Even when you made signs and tried to stop them, they drove past you. Luckily as I found out, It was only a short walk to the border on this side of the river. So I lined up and the border(leaving Thailand) opened 2 minutes earlier, at 7.58 in the morning. Surprise. So, I filled out my departure paper, gave my passport to the customs guy and headed off to the small boats, that take you over the Mekong river for 40BHT. Once on the other side I got another 2 pieces of paper for the entry into Laos. Had to fill them out and wait in line, till it was my turn. They charge 30USD for the Visa. After I got my Visa I had to figure out where and how(boat, bus) I want to go. The village of Houei Xai is small and full with tourist agencies. They all try to sell you the best deal and even normal peasants want to mix in the business. After some searching I decided to take the Fast boat, regardless of the warnings in lonely planet that every year a few people day. It is a 6 hour boat ride to Louang Prabang, but the other choice was a slow boat for half the price and it takes 2 days. Usually it is jammed with people so I wasn't to do that. Once I bought the ticket I had to wait that 5 more people turn up(they do the ride only if there are 6 people). After 1 hour we had the group and they took us with a minibus to the port, which is aprox. 3km from the center. Had to give our passport again to the customs. After some additional waiting we finally boarded. As everybody had wind jackets with them I decided it might be a good idea to do the same, so I unpacked my Backpack out of the Trash bag(water protection). On the boat we got Lifejackets and helmets,...YES, helmets, which was a pretty god indicator how the ride will be. We prepaired started off slowly, cause the engine was making trouble and after a good 15 min, the engine shut off, so we landed on the banks of Mekong and waited for another boat to come. After 10 min. we boarded the other one and took off.
Man, those guys really are nuts. They are the same as Tuktuk drivers in Bangkok, but on water. We were speeding pass huge rocks and avoiding smaller ones in the water and all that at a speed of 100km/h. The boats are very narrow, for 6 people and luggage in front. The engine is an Toyota V12 with aprox 150hps and is mounted on a homemade mechanism so the boat driver can turn it around and so change direction. The propeller is mounted on a 3 m long iron rod and is barely underwater. And so we drove for 6 hours. We stopped a few times to refill the tank(gas) and a small 15 min brake at Pak Beng to grab some food and change drivers. As the journey is 6 hours and we started at 12.00, we changed drivers so that the first one can come back home in time before sunset and we just barely got to Louang Prabang, before night cought us.
Of course the boats don't drop you off in the city, but a few km's outside, so that you have to go up a hill and then take the Tuktuk drivers, that are already waiting. We made out a price and after some hassling we took of to the city, where the driver dropped us off at the night market. Took me another 1 hour to find a cheap place to sleep(2 EUR) and after that went out for a cold beer(I really deserved it) and some food at the local market.
Night market was really cool. They close down a street every nigh and it fills up pretty quick with vendors of all kind of stuff. From silk to handbags, shoes, shirts, ancient pottery and of course food 😊. Had some pretty good chicken and pork kebabs. They also had delicious looking fish, but since I consider fish a snack, It wasnt right for me.

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