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Published: October 4th 2006
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Our luxury cruise liner
The slow(est) boat (in all of Asia). A mere 14 hours from Thailand to Laos. Our final night in Pai was Tuesday 26th September. We went to Buffalo Exchange where Matt ended up getting up to play songs on a guitar. It was a really good night and the whisky we were drinking may have been the driving force behind his solo act (later accompanied by a German called Seb on bongos). As we left we bumped into Carrie and Conor (the Canadians from Chiang Mai), and the following day walking round Pai we kept bumping into people we had met, both there and in Chiang Mai, starting to feel like you live somewhere when you are travelling means it's probably time to move on no matter how much you like it!
We decided to get a minibus back to Chiang Mai as our next stop was to be Laos and the trip seemed less traumatic from Chiang Mai then Pai. The trip back took about half the time of the trip there due to the driver seemingly having a death wish but we arrived in one piece and headed to the SK Guesthouse at less than 4gbp (thanks Dad!) a night. Tania and Chris (Aussie couple) had stayed previously and reccommended it, and despite
Blackstar tour South East Asia
OK maybe not, and it's a shockingly bad photo but it proves it happened us loving our previous guesthouse manager (Sunny) even he could not compete with a pool (though we bumped into him and felt so guilty when he asked us where we were staying).
There are two options to get to Laos if you go over land, bus (roads are meant to be terrible) or boat down the Mekong. You can get a speedboat but there are stories of people dying when the boat hits any debris (especially bad during the wet season i.e. now!) and this coupled with the fact that you have to wear ear plugs, a crash helmet and can't actually move for the duration of the ride (which if you do it all at once is 6 hours) made it an unattractive option. So we opted for the slow boat, this meant a 6 hr minibus to Chiang Khong, an overnight stay there, then a 7 hr slow boat to Pakbeng in Laos, and finally a second day on the boat for about another 7 hours.
We headed to Chiang Khong on the 29th, we were first to get picked up, the 2nd person was not ready so we had to return to his hotel later
Next stop Laos
Our view from Thailand to Laos from Chiang Khong where he sat with a local girl, the guide pointed at them winked at Matt and said 'Boom Boom' leaving us in little doubt of why he was late!
Our Chiang Khong Guest House was fairly basic, it was included in the boat deal and the geckos in the room were a freebie, but they at least helped keep the mozzies at bay. From the restaurant you could see over the river into Laos and we spent a few hours chatting to Frans (Boom Boom - from Holland) and Lars (Sweden) before heading off for an early night ready to face the boat. We slept well despite the bed having the hardest pillows in history.
At 9am we were taken to immigration where we were signed out of Thailand for 5bht. We then went in small boats over the river to Laos where we handed over 31$ (normally 30$ but the officials demand an extra dollar for working Saturdays!), we were given 30 day visas.
We had been sold the boat trip at SK House and were shown pictures of a boat with comfy looking car style seats. The reality was that our chairs for the next
Sun sets on the Mekong
Almost worth the hard seats to see 7 hours were no more than park benches...we quickly realised it would be a long trip! The journey was ok, Matt got friendly with some guys and sat playing guitar (yep he finally bought one in Chiang Mai). Our travel companions were a pretty mixed bunch, Ben and Jolene - a mad pair of cousins from the UK, a German that looked like Johnny Borrell from Razorlight, a gang of Belgians including some that refused to get on the boat on day 2 (though eventually relented), 2 brothers from Wales who gave us some good Vietnam info, Klaus and his wife (Germans) a few live chickens, several babies, a puppy in a box and of course Frans and Lars. There were about 40 travellers in total in addition to the various locals.
When we finally arrived at Pakbeng all the bags were loaded off except mine, I was trying to decide whether I would actually cry if it was gone when Matt ran back on the boat to find it, it was starting to get dark and he smacked his head causing it to bleed and we had not booked anywhere to stay so we were fairly fraught by
the time we got to the guest house (the first one we saw, metres from the boat, 4$ but only cold water). Laos seems to accept practically any currency (kip their own, dollars, baht and even euros in some places).
We had read horror stories about Pakbeng been really terrible, rooms getting ransacked etc so when we headed to a bar after dinner and a local was playing the exact same guitar as Matt's new purchase we thought we must have been broken into but our room was still locked and the guitar still there when we got back. The electricity in Pakbeng goes out just after 10.30 so it was another early night.
Day two of the boat trip was as they say here 'same, same but different' the scenery repeated as it had for the last 7 hours, brown river, green river banks, the odd speedboat full of terrified travellers and laughing locals. The difference on day two was the arrival of a new boat with the car seat style chairs, of course there were only a few and despite us getting there early you can guess who already had their towels on the best seats.
We did get a seat with a cushion though, which considering the boat was so full that some people were sat on bags of rice, was nothing short of a miracle.
We arrived in Luang Prabang an hour earlier than expected and headed off in search of a suitable guesthouse with hot water, no animals and 24 hour electricity....luxury!
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Tanya
non-member comment
Hi Matt, so glad your both having a great time, im so jealous of all of it, want to go again now. Ive been holding off on reading your blog so i could read loads at once, you have managed to get loads done eh and you still have loads left to do. Will keep checking in on you and your travels x