Blogs from Pakbeng, West, Laos, Asia - page 6

A boat trip down the Mekong River. There's two days we won't be forgetting for a while; the sort of experience where you know you'll look back and laugh, one day. Though our butts haven't forgiven us yet, the photos, the destination and the friends we made one the way made it all worth it. We took a bus from Chiang Mai to the Thai border town of Chiang Kong. From there we awoke early for a great sunrise, and crossed the border into Laos via canoe before passing customs and catching the aptly named 'Slow Boat' down river, destined for Luang Prabang. A sneak peak at the row of Slow Boats before boarding revealed reasonable luxury, with aeroplane style luxury via what appeared to be salvaged mini-van seats, a dining table and satellite TV. This ... read more

Our last 2 days in Laos were spent cruising down the Mekong on our own private long boat. It was just a great and relaxing way to finish this country. The scenery was beautiful, the food was fab (we had a chef onboard) and the overnight stop in Bak Beng was lots of fun! We boys from Venezuela even got us all dancing Merengue! We arrived at the Laos border town just before the border shut so we crossed into Thailand and decided to drive late into the night (rather than stay at the border) and have a day in Chiang Mai before returning to Bangkok. I won't write a separate entry for Chiang Mai as we only had a day there. We got up early (the boys had only had 2 hours sleep, I ... read more

Well, it took some getting here, but we made it! Several days after setting off from Kota Bharu, we are finally in Luang Prabang in Laos. As I previously metioned, we couldn't take the overland route into Thailand so we decided to fly (much easier than it sounds!) This involved getting to the bus station in Kota Bharu via a lift from our hostel owners, then an 8hr bus journey to KL (we set off at 9pm and arrived at 5am the next day). Being in KL now, we thought great, this is easy from here, but not so the airport is 70km outside the city! We then had a walk to the nearest train station where we had to wait for the first train of the morning to take us to yet another station to ... read more

Slow boating the Mekong River is another popular activity in Laos. I was doing it backwards, going upriver from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai in the Golden Triangle. There I would re-enter Thailand from the north. Our slow boat departed Luang Prabang in the morning and proceeded up river at a steady pace, relentlessly against the stream. The captain knew this section of the river and was constantly adjusting course, sometimes midstream and sometimes only 5 to 10 metres from the bank, weaving between rocks, past swirling eddies and running over ripples. Infrequently the engine would rev harder and the boat would roll slightly as we passed through a turbulent patch. The Mekong flows well in July and takes on a light brown colour like milky coffee. The boat pushed upstream through an endless valley of ... read more

* May. 11th, 2007 at 9:33 AM Chiang Klong - by Charlie OK, I thought, here I am, what next? Taking a look about me and looking back at the guesthouse we just passed, I figured it looked as good as any and as it was closer, maybe even better! Throwing my rucksack over my shoulder, I hiked back the few hundred yards and entered the well kept yard of the establishment. I went through the guesthouse and could find no one. I kept yelling ‘hello’ to anyone who could hear me but no one was answering so I went back to the street and the shop in front where eventually a man poked his head out from the back of a shop and we communicated that he was the guesthouse owner and I wanted ... read more