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Published: October 18th 2006
The Laos border crossing is the most laid-back - and the most friendly - that I've ever encoutered. A 20 bhat ferry across the Mekong took us to a little jetty, where we precariously stepped over a couple of wooden fishing boats onto dry land. A very friendly smiling local (alarms start ringing) greeted us. "Hello! Welcome to Laos," he said thrusting a small piece of paper at me. I almost pushed right past and ignored it before I realised it was the immigration form.
I already knew that currency would be more complicated over here - we'd been advised to take mostly Thai bhat and spend that, but take a little in Lao kip. Our guidebook (Footprint, which I have to say is NOT well suited to backpackers) lists all prices in US$, and I thought that it was just being awkward until I came here and realised that people talk in US$ here as well. So there are 3 different currencies to worry about. Here's something else though: I can only fathom US$ in terms of sterling, and out here one pound sterling is meaningless to me. I have to translate everything into bhat to understand how much
Tha River Bank
Welcome to the JungleI'm spending. To cap it all, I should point out that the kip is a very small unit of currency - 1 pound is about 19,000 kip. I have literally seen people carry big bags full of money around here, as the notes are in the region of 10,000 kip.
So some people only accept kip, but most people think in US$ or Thai Bhat for prices of more than about 30,000 kip.
Anyway, this actually started to impact when I changed 2000 bhat at the currency exchange on the border to kip, and got 570000 kip or so. In a stack about half an inch thick.
Checked into a guesthouse run by a cantankerous old Lao woman (the BAP Guesthouse - I think the value was okay, though) and booked a 2-day boat trip to Luang Prabang.
The boat was cammed full of tourists -they must get about 100 a day on this 800 bhat boat trip, and make a killing. The seats are basic wooden frames with hard cushions, and an onboard shop sells overpriced food and drink. My bum is feeling pretty flat after two days like that. It's not all bad, though.
The great muddy-brown Mekong River cuts its way through emerald hills, covered in a confused morass of vegetation: giant ferns compete with ivy covered trees, jutting out over the water. Occasional fishing villages can be seen in clearings, with their distinctive long wooden boats tied to the shore online. Children wave as we glide past.
Spent a night in a village called Pak Beng that literally thrives on the tourists along this route, though I think it's reaching the point where there are too many establishments and shops for the number of tourists coming through. Competition is fierce. If you wander too close to a restaurant at meal times, someone will bound out to greet you and invite you in.
More Mekong this morning, and arrived at Luang Prabang this afternoon. This is one of the country's biggest cities and I've realised that the run-down appearance of the first two villages we've been to, which we attributed to their rural nature, is actually pretty standard for Laos. Interesting. This is going to be fun!
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Helen
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Glad to get your blogs, just starting to worry. Loas is supposed to have the nicest friendliest people, not having gone through the trials of Cambodia or Viatnam and it sounds like that might be true. good pictures too. Sounds very romantic, taking a trip down the mekon Love you Mum