Fancy a swim in the Mekong river?

Mekong River

And off we were to Luang Prabang! That almost makes it sound like we got there quick but that was most certainly not the case. In fact, it took us longer to get to our destination than the amount of time we spent there! The journey from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang using a combination of buses and slow boats takes nothing less than three days and two nights.

Day 1: bus to Chiang Khong. Overnight at a guesthouse

Day 2: cross border over to Laos, board long boat. Arrive in Pakbeng Village in the evening.

Day 3: leave village early in the morning, arrive in Luang Prabang late afternoon.

I didn't know much about Laos before including it in my travel itinerary. As it turns out, Laos is still one of the world's 20 poorest nations but with a GDP growth of 8% this may possibly change in the next decade or so. Unfortunately in the attempt to spur economic growth Laos willingly sacrifices a lot of its nature and wildlife to logging and slash-and-burn farming, which neighbouring countries, foremost China, are more than happy to exploit. 10% of Laos is original-growth forest; a hundred years ago this number was 75%.

Laos, or kingdom of Lan Xang (meaning the land of a million elephants) as it was known from the 14th throughout the 17th century, hasn't been a sovereign nation state for very long; it was only in 1953 that the country gained its independence from France. Before this, Laos was a collection of disparate principalities subject to wars, invasions, prosperities and decays. The country has a very diverse ethnic make-up, with 132 different beliefs and traditions. The one thing they all have in common is the laid-back attitude and 'doing good in order to receive good' mentality (this is a little conflicting considering the number of common scams we have heard about).

I should tell you at this point my facts come from a combination of sources including Lonely Planet, locals, tour guides, and other travellers, and I don't guarantee the accuracy of any of it! So please don't hold it against me if I get my factoids wrong and tell you Buddha is Jesus reincarnated in the reverse time order or anything else that may be untrue.

Day One

Anyway, day one went smoothly before you knew it the seven hour bus ride was behind us and we had arrived at our guesthouse! A little unsettling was finding mosquito nets with holes in them in our room, knowing this is a malaria infested area - lucky it wasn't the rainy season!

Day Two

Broken mosquito nets

Day two began with big bags under our eyes. The night we spent at the guesthouse in Chiang Khong was a little on the uncomfortable side, mostly because it got VERY cold. To begin with, as the pictures demonstrate, the room wasn't exactly on the luxurious side. Worse than that, after sunset it got seriously cold; so cold that eventually at 3 am without having slept at all Aurea and I decided to join forces and sleep in the same bed with doubled blankets so we could get at least some shut eye.

The bathroom in our room

We had left our passports at the reception desk and overnight the hostel had arranged visas to Laos for us which was nice and convenient. So in the morning we picked up our passports and visas and boated over the river to the border where we crossed over to Laos. After we had passed immigration we were picked up by the travel organiser who took us to a rinky-dink shop where we waited, and then waited some more (without actually quite sure why) until we got own our long boat and sailed away!

This very funny and friendly travel organiser who guided us from the border to the long boat gave us 'an introduction' to Laos's dangers and annoyances and heads up as to what to expect from the next couple of days. He told us about some common scams that are known to occur in Pakbeng; for example, the police and the guest houses collaborating in robbing tourists. He also told us about other travel options if we wished to shorten our journey time to Luang Prabang all the while making the long boat seem like a very bad idea! Whilst I appreciated the heads up about the various dangers I was disappointed that even this chatty and smiley travel organiser was trying to milk us dry by first recommending we change our pre-paid means of transportation by paying just a little extra, and then by telling us it was a good idea to book accommodation through him as he can recommend a reliable and safe guesthouse without overcharging (ha!). He actually said he was "just watching out for his guests' best interest." Another dodgy thing he did which we still haven't been able to figure out why (but whatever it was, happened whilst we were waiting and waiting again in the rinky-dink shop) was he took our passports and went away with them for about an hour before returning them to us. He said he just wanted to take them back to the police so they could check they had been stamped correctly at immigration... Hhhmmm....possibly?

Mekong River

The boat ride was kind of what I was expecting. The scenery sailing down the Mekong river is stunning. The landscape changed as we sailed deeper into the forest, from plain terrains with a few trees scattered here and there to dense forest. The type of vegetation also changed to more jungle like greenery. The seven hours on the boat went by relatively quickly I though which was good since I had eight more hours of sailing fun lined up for the following day. Just looking at the beautiful rural villages and jungle covered hills glide by put me in a relaxed trance-like state where time didn't matter. Also, I slept. A lot.

The village where we stayed overnight, Pakbeng, exists solely for the purpose of providing overnight accommodation for travellers to and from Luang Prabang. It is anything but luxurious but it serves its purpose just fine. We survived without being robbed or even scammed (that we know of!) and had a decent dinner and sleep for the equivalent of £5.

Day Three

After yet another COLD night sharing beds and blankets with my travel buddy Aurea, off we were on the boat again! Still cold and mountains covered in thick fog, I was wearing every warm piece of clothing I owned.

Having a beer on the boat

This leg of the journey was the same in every possible way as the previous day except for one thing - we must have stopped at least seven times along the way in various villages to pick up more passengers, locals this time. It was a little uncomfortable if not even embarrassing I thought that every time we pulled up at one of these villages everyone pulled out their cameras to point and shoot like they were taking photos of attractions at a zoo. By the end of it, we must have had an extra 60 passengers on board. With no extra seats on the boat however, these additional people managed to somehow fit into the back of the boat with the loud engines (with smoke coming out of them) - not a pleasant experience I'm sure.

Although the second day on the boat went smoothly, it did feel long. I think both Aurea and I were ready to take a swim in the Mekong river just to have something to distract us from the endless sitting.

We arrived in Luang Prabang just after sunset, and fell in love with it at first glance. Can't wait for the exploring expedition to begin!

Blackfast anyone?