Sailing Down the Mekong River
Too Many People on the Slow Boat
Taking the slow boat down the Mekong River in Lao is one of those things ever guidebook recommends. Beautiful green hillside embrace the river and sharp rocks come jutting out of the river, sometime in seemingly random locations. The Mekong itself, however, is as brown as mud, and although not as polluted as Thai streams, it’s still treated as a national garbage can. Yet, strangely, also as a portal for bathing and washing clothes, and a toilet for livestock.
A Sub-Par Shot from Down The Mekong
A Hillside Village off The Mekong
Travel Notes:
- Before you head onto the boat, you will be told that there will be no cushions and you will be sitting on a hard bench for six hours, so you better buy a cushion from the tour guide. Not true.
- You will be told to be at the boat promptly at 10 AM or else you will miss it, only to find that because of overcrowding delays, and the Lao resistence to taking two boats instead of one to accomodate all the people, your boat won’t leave until 12 PM.
The journey to Louang Prabang is split into two 6-hr slow boat rides over two days, requiring a mandatory night stay in tiny hillside village Pak Beng.
Travel Notes:
- You will be amply forewarned that there are only two guesthouses in Pak Beng before you leave, and urged to book a place before (by credit card) from the Huay Xai tour guide. This is vastly untrue — it’s nothingg but guesthouses in Pak Beng and one ginormous french colonial style hotel.
If ever you hear about the slow pace of Lao, rest assured it is not exaggerated. Travel delays aside, we spend two hours waiting for our meal to come in a highly over-priced restaurant where, after the long boat ride, we were ready to eat each other.
Travel Notes:
- Most prices in Lao are in Thai baht or U.S. dollars. Lao kip (local currency) truly is, as I’ve read, the most useless currency. And, the exchange is shit. You can buy a bag of chips for 20 THB ($0.60 CAD), or 10,000 Lao kip ($1.20 CAD). Crazy, no?
So far, none of us were really feeling Lao-love. Oh, and their village generators turn off roughly at 10 or 11 PM. I have never wanted an awesome head lamp so much as in Lao.
Tags: kip, mekong river, pak beng, slow boat
