Slow boat to Luang Prabang - Day 1

A plane flight from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos is about $200 per person. The most popular alternative route is to take a bus to the Thai border crossing, followed by a 2-day slow-boat up the Mekong river. The "slow-boats" as they're called, are named in contrast to the 10-person speed boats that make the trip in 3-4 hours. At least, for the ones that make it at all, as our guidebook suggested that an unacceptably high number of them crash on the rocks and are sometimes piloted by 12-year-olds. Indeed, later in our trip we saw a few speed boats in which all the passengers appeared to be wearing motorcycle helmets.

All things considered, we thought a more leisurely trip along the river would be nice, though we were somewhat intimidated by the prospect of organizing the separate legs all by ourselves. It was unclear when and where we could get the boat tickets, how the border crossing would work, where we would find accommodation in the small villages along the Mekong between the 1st and 2nd day of boating, etc.

Fortunately, we discovered that for about $60 a person, all of the pieces had been organized for us in a package we could buy from Chiang Mai. Though undoubtedly more expensive than doing it ourselves, we were happy to pay a premium for the added value of certainty and not having to navigate all the touts at each step of the journey.

We left Chiang Mai around 8pm in a mini-van with 6 other tourists (a Korean couple, a Canadian, a French lady, an English couple), reaching the border-crossing town around 2 or 3 am where there were clean, comfortable rooms waiting for us to take a few hours of sleep. Around 6am we awoke to the soft and melodious sound of our host singing "time to wake up, it's morning" outside our rooms.

The advantage of arriving somewhere in the middle of the night is the surprise of seeing your surroundings in the morning. Leaving our rooms, we found that we had stayed right along the river bank, which was still shrouded in morning mist.

Jen and I, tired though we were, enjoyed a coffee and some breakfast overlooking the river.

After breakfast, we found out that the river itself was the border between Laos and Thailand, and the border crossing was just a few blocks down the road. The customs offices on either side were rather haphazardly situated up the banks and seemed ill-prepared for the chaotic mob of people surrounding them. On the Lao side, in particular, there were several windows for visa application, visa entry check, visa exit check and so on, neatly arranged behind a disordered crowd vying forward for their particular window, or desperately trying to figure out what was required next of them.

Here's a photo of the boat-crossing from Thailand to Lao. The near side is Lao with the informal H1N1 screening tent in the lower-right.

This shot was from inside the border-crossing boats on the dock.

After successfully entering Lao, we were ushered a few blocks downstream to a small restaurant to wait for the departure of our slowboat around noon. In a striking failure to take advantage of a captive market, the restaurant was closed for lunch, so Jen and I bought the only food available--uninspiring foot-long sandwiches of shredded vegetables and egg-strips on baguettes. Their somewhat sad appearance was deceiving, however, as they were some of the most delicious sandwiches I've ever eaten.

The long wooden slowboats held around 100 people and appeared to vary considerably in their comfort level. We were lucky to secure a pair of rear-car-seats, while most of our party got diverted to another boat where they could only sit on the wooden deck floor (on pillows for those who bought them for 40 Baht (a little more than a dollar)).

As it turned out, many of the slow boats (including ours) did offer food (and copious quantities of the local beer lao).

Here's a shot of the other slow-boat that left the same time we did.

Though the inside appears fairly comfortable and luxurious from our photos, it wasn't quite as nice as it seems. Our seats really were rear car seats attached to wooden runners that weren't attached to anything, so it was easy to accidentally tip your seats backwards into the people behind you. It was also quite hot if you were on the sun-side (which we were), and the car-seats added to the heat.

This is only the first half of our first day, but since it takes several hours to upload photos here, I'm going to have to break it for another post. Next time: More beautiful views from the boat, and the village where we stayed overnight.