Advertisement
Published: August 26th 2006
The only way to get from Huay Xai to the rest of Laos in the rainy season is to get a two day long boat trip down the mekong to Luang Prabang. The only other way is by speedboat but with one fatality a week we didn't fancy this option, so opted for the slow boat.
The boat is a long narrow boat with seating down each side, the first block of seating is comfortable chairs like on a coach, the rest of the seating consists of small wooden benches, with no cushions. They are probably the most uncomfortable seats in the world.
Day 1
The boat set off from Huay Xai at about 11.00, we weren't on the boat quick enough to get the comfy seats so ended up on one of the benches. The boat goes down the river for about 6 hours at a very slow pace, but then it's called the slow boat for a reason! The river runs through miles and miles of untouched forest then every so often there's a small village with a few cultivated fields on the hillsides and a few straw huts. The boat stopped at some of the
villages to pick up or drop off people, rice, bamboo, sugar, engine oil, rambutan and anything else that needing to go. Sometimes there were people on the shore who would try to sell the passengers drinks, snacks and fruit. At other places the boat would just slow down and longtail boats would pull alongside and pass things accross. After about 4 hours our bums were so numb from the wooden bench that you can't feel it any more and when we arrived at about 17.00 we were very relieved!
After a day of only seeing bamboo huts along the river when we arrived at Pak Beng where the boat stops overnight, we were glad when we managed to get a lovely room with 4 solid walls and a solid roof and 2 very comfortable beds. We had a nice evening chilling out and having a few drinks with our new friends from the boat.
Day 2
We learnt our lesson and got up really early so we and Tai and Georgina (who were on the bench behind us yesterday) could get to the boat before everyone else to get a comfy seat. We were told the boat
left at 9.00 so we went down at about 8.00. When we got there we found that there were no comfy seats left as everyone else had the same idea, so we were back on the benches, which were even more crammed in than yesterday. Laos people obviously don't have legs. The boat didn't actually leave until 10.00 so we were sitting there for nearly two hours before we even left. The journey was pretty much the same as yesterday, pretty enjoyable once your bum is numb, but this time we were on the boat for 10 hours.
Once in Luang Prabang we headed to find a room, we didn't like the first place we tried but after a bit of a wander around we managed to find a nice enough place. Then we went out for some dinner with Tai and Georgina.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.249s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 6; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0393s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
