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Published: July 19th 2007
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The journey from Thailand to Laos begins with a 6 hour drive to the border from Chang Mai. I’m in a minivan with 6 Irish, 1 Scot, 1 Dutch and 2 Koreans. It’s a fun journey and the day passes quickly. We arrive at Chiang Kong (the Thai side of the border) late afternoon and are allocated rooms. But there aren’t enough so 5 of us stay at a farm outside the village. Next morning we cross the Mekong from Thailand to Laos in a small river boat and check in through immigration to get our Laos visas.
Then it is time for the slowboat. We stock up on food and drinks for the journey and 150 people squash onto small wooden benches ready for the 5hr journey south to Pakbeng. Some are lucky enough to get the deck area at the front of the boat, some unlucky enough to have to sit in the engine room. The journey is actually quite fun and I chat with loads of people and not just about where we have traveled to and from. After 7 hours (everything in Laos is late, it’s a bit like Italy) we arrive in Pakbeng,
which is an oddly charming little village on the banks of the Mekong. We have dinner and a few drinks but the electricity in Laos goes off at 11pm so it’s not a late night out.
And then it is back on the boat again next morning for day 3 of the epic journey. Some of our group take a speed boat but people have died on this recently so I’m not keen to try it just to save a couple of hours. The second day on the boat is even more fun than the first. And Laos is a beautiful country, quite unspoilt, with rolling hills and valleys and lush vegetation. You can pass hours just watching the scenery along the river. Which is fine because you have many hours to spare. Early evening we arrive in Luang Prabang, a really pretty colonial town with a laid-back, friendly feel to it. Six of us decide to splash out on dinner. It’s the first time I’ve treated myself to a really nice dinner on this trip. I get wild mushroom and vegetable lasagna with a rocket salad and a glass of sauvignon. The service is excellent, the ambiance
of this French restaurant is delightful. And it only costs us 5 pounds each!! After dinner we go to a bar and meet up with others from the boat. It’s like traveling with 150 friends!!
The next day I go with 2 Danish guys and a Korean guy to see a waterfall (of course we meet 20 other people there from our boat) and this waterfall is really cool. It has beautiful turquoise pools and huge sheer drop falls. And there are rope swings and cliffs to jump from into the pools!
And then we move on again (or at least about 15 of us do) to Vang Vieng, the party capital of Laos. It’s 5 hr journey (that takes 7hrs) winding up and down through the hills of northern Laos, which makes some people sick. We spend the afternoon in Vang Vieng recovering and relaxing in hammocks by the river. In the evening I meet up with others from the boat and have a fun night out and get lost on the way home even though there are only 3 streets in Vang Vieng.
Then it is Monday morning, and that means it is time to go to work. Expect work today will consist of gently floating down a river in an inflatable tube, sipping a cool beer in the sunshine and admiring the scenery. Tubing is fun! All down the river are zip lines and rope swings into the river and bars where you can relax or play beach volleyball. I’ve met many backpackers who say that tubing is the best part of their trip and people spend day after day doing it. I wouldn’t go so far in my praise for it, but it is a cool way to spend time.
To get to Vientienne, the capital of Laos, I try a different mode of transport than the standard bus. I kayak there. It takes about 7 hrs but it’s a great way to travel between towns! I hope to get to Vientienne in time to cross the border to Thailand that same evening. But we arrive later than expected (is that a surprise in Laos?) so I take a dorm bed and spend a night in Vientienne. The travel agencies sell a package across the border and night train to Bangkok but it looks expensive (₤15) and anyway I’d rather sort it myself. So I squash onto a local bus (10p) to the border, pass through Laos immigration, take a shuttle bus (20p) across the Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River into Nong Khai in Thailand and get a new Thai visa. Then I take a tuk-tuk (30p) to the train station and buy a ticket for the 12 hr journey to Bangkok (₤6.70). It costs me less than half of the agency price and was much more fun.
After a large bowl of noodle soup I get on my train, find my bed and settle down for the night. Once again I’m heading for Bangkok…
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marketa
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SUPER!!
ahoj paule!dlouho jsem nepouzivala tuhle adresu, az ted jsem nasla vsechny tve vzkazy.to je super cist o tobe,moc zajimave!jsem ted s kvartetem v Japonsku, 200km od Tokya-do 10.9. nchces sem prijet na navstevu?dost se tu nudime,jsme u sopky Fuji,muzes spat u nas v byte,mame auto-udelame vylety.jinak nadchla me kambodza,ja tam byla v dubnu s Amforou,meli jsme koncert pro krale a objeli jsme stejna mista jako ty.dost ti zavidim tu cestu kolem sveta/ale preju!!/, taky bych tohle podnikla,hlavne Tibet a Anapurnu..ale nemam na to jako samotna zenska odvahu.. a bez cviceni na housle dlouho nevydrzim.ale myslim na tebe,nepropadej malomyslnosti,asi to neni sranda byt 5 mesicu bez vlastni postele a stale se menici lide...ale je to supe cin,zes to podnikl.ozvi se.ahoj.maketa muzik