Slow boat on the mekong river, Laos

by Gregory Brine

We set off from Louang Prabang on Sunday for our 2 day trip. The boat was a traditional long boat with the front third as seating for passengers with the rest split between crew accomodation, engine, bathroom (well, hole in the floor) and storage space - although the area under our seats seemed to be included in that.

The scenery was amazing as you set off at a fair pace. One either side is amazing lush jungle covered hills. It just makes you want to jump off and explore! Occassionally, you’d hear a load high pitch noise, then see a tiny spec as one of the legendary ‘Fast boats’ appears on the horizon, zooming past with it’s passengers kitted out in life preservers and crash helmets - they have a habit of crashing on the rocks, especially in dry season which it was.

Along the way there were a few stops at villages to drop people and supplies off. Each time, the villagers came running out to sell us food and drinks - there’s none on the boat, so you have to take your own - and the children would come and wave to everyone.

I won’t lie, sitting on a wooden bench for 8 hours is a tad uncomfortable, and you pass the time staring, reading and eating (seat was too small for sleeping). This means you tend to get through your food a bit quicker than you expect and by the time we arrived, we were both starving!

Pakbeng is the overnight rest stop, and it was quite an experience in itself! All the guesthouses have their own generators, and the power goes off at 10pm. I also shared my room with a rather large rat - although he dissappeared once I went to bed. And, in the middle of the night, the heavens decided to unleash their full force on the village! I think it woke everyone up, and we were worried our wicker huts were going to collapse!

Sadly, the boat arrived at the border too late, and we had to spend another night in Laos. Thankfully, the guesthouse we stayed in was really friendly, and we got to sample a few more Laos speciality dishes, in particular the river weed - I can assure you that it was really nice, and quite sweet.

Then there’s the border crossing to thailand which comes in the form of small 4 man boats once you’re through passport control, then onto a small hut on the Thai side. From there, we had to wait until the evening for a minibus to Chiang Mai, our next stop in Thailand.

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