Slow Boat to Laos

Slow boat on the Mekong

During our time in Thailand we learned about the slow boat to Laos – it starts in northern Thailand and travels for two days on the Mekong River, ending in Laos.  For people in a hurry, the same trip can be done in half a day by speedboat, but the boat is super loud, you have to wear a helmet, and chances are good you will wreck if the boat hits a floating log or other obstacle (many do die each year, mostly locals who can't swim).  The slow boat sounded like the choice for us, and a chance to slow down a bit.  We booked the trip as a package in Chiang Mai and were pleasantly surprised by how smoothly it went.  We traveled by minivan from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, on the Mekong River, where we spent the night in a quaint guesthouse.  Chiang Khong is a border town in Thailand and not touristy at all, which was nice.  We wandered along the Mekong in the evening and could see Laos just across the shore. 

Crowd at the visa office

The next morning we were taken to the boat dock, where we were ferried across the river to the Laos side.  We made our way to the visa office where we joined a rather large crowd surrounding it.  There was no semblance of organization going on, whatsoever.  No orderly lines, just a large massive crowd pushing against the two service windows.  While hanging out in the crowd,  we eventually discovered that our passports had to be given to the office for processing; when they were ready they would call your name and that’s when you paid the fee to enter the country.  Most of the crowd was just waiting for their name to be called, which explains why no one had moved much.  I thought we might be there all day, but a funny thing happened.  A sense of camaraderie ensued and passports were being passed along from the back to the front, so they could get up to the office for processing.  When a passport was ready a person at the front would call out the name and that person would pass up the money due, then their passport would get passed along back to them.  When our names were called, it was like winning the lottery!  I liked that even with the lack of organization, everyone pitched in and made it work – and it was even kind of fun! 



Departure celebration!

 After receiving our official visa and passport stamp, we made our way to the slow boat.  It was half full with the best seats already taken.  A group of us that had stayed at the same guesthouse in Chiang Khong (and had bonded during the experience so far) found a group of seats in front.  After us, more waves of people boarded the boat.  Pretty soon, it was packed.  A little after noon the boat started its motor and we were headed down the Mekong!  Everyone was in the mood to celebrate, having successfully jumped all the hurdles to get to this point, so rounds of Beer Lao were purchased one after another.  Fun!

The boat itself held probably 100 people, all tourists.  Towards the back of the boat was a bar where they sold drinks and some food items.  There was a bathroom in back, with a western toilet even, although it probably just flushed into the river below.  The engine was in the back and was very loud so it was better to sit towards the front if possible.  There was a small back area where some people hung out, although I don’t know how they could possibly hear each other.  There were some communal spots in the front of the boat too, where people sat on the floor and read, or just hung out.  Lots of moving around going on, so you didn’t feel stuck in one spot the entire time. 

Riverside village

For the first part of the trip Thailand was on one side of the river and Laos was on the other.  Pretty soon the Mekong goes right into Laos and everything we saw was just the country of Laos.  It felt like we were transported back in time – we saw lots of riverside villages made of thatched huts, tons of water buffalo lounging in and around the water, naked children laughing and playing in the water, fishermen on their simple boats with their nets, and even working elephants!  The Mekong is very rocky and our boat captain knew the river well, maneuvering our boat around and between tall rocky outcrops.  

Traveling down the Mekong it becomes obvious that it is the lifeblood of the Lao people – it provides water for crops (we saw tons of farming plots along the riverbanks), fish for eating, water for bathing, as well as a means of transport.  The Mekong River is the 7^th longest river in Asia and the 10^th longest in the world.  It begins in the Tibetan plateau and runs through China, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  The Mekong is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world – only the Amazon River has a higher level of biodiversity.  In China there are three dams on the Mekong, with plans for twelve more.  The dams will be devastating for people living downriver who are dependent upon the Mekong for food and water for crops, such as Laos and Cambodia.  A slowboat last February doing the same route we did had to turn around and go back because the river was too low.  Since the building of the first dam, two species have become endangered:  the Mekong dolphin and dugong.

Lao women selling textiles to people on our boat

It took us about six hours to reach our destination for the night, Pakbeng in Laos.  We booked a place ahead of time and they told us someone would greet us at the dock to help us with our bags – they didn’t tell us it would be small children!  Besides all the kids at the dock, we were greeted by someone from our guesthouse, a young lady, who definitely wasn’t going to be carrying our bags.  We schlepped them up the steep hill ourselves, needing a little exercise after all that sitting and drinking. 

Dinner in Pakbeng gave us our first taste of how crafty the Lao people can be.  We chose what looked like a nice local place to eat and placed our order with the young waitress, probably the daughter of the family run establishment.  Neither of us got anything we ordered, although it was close.  We got a rice dish, a noodle dish, and a soup dish, but all of the details were wrong (vegetable, meat, etc).  No biggie, we were hungry and it was all good.  When it came time to pay the bill, our waitress came over with a calculator and presented us with a much higher figure than what our dinner cost.  We told her politely that the figure didn’t seem right to us, and she giggled and apologized and tapped out a new lower figure, but one that was still higher than the total we came up with.  We relented, and paid the new figure anyway (it wasn’t that much in US dollars).  As soon as we gave her the money she told us she didn’t have any change. Erg!  We told her to keep it (what else could we do) and left.  She got her extra money anyhow!

Lao children playing in the Mekong

The next day there were two different slowboats at the dock for the second half of the journey.  We got there early and were able to get good seats this time around, although little did we know we got on the sloooooow slowboat!  We were warned about Lao time, how everything is much slower in this country, and this day was a great example.  Our boat made multiple stops along the way.  We picked up all kinds of locals from villages along the river shore, as well as one guy who was just standing on a rock waving his jacket!  We dropped them off too, at different villages.  Sometimes the stops were long enough that we could get off the boat and hang out on the shore for a spell.  We arrived at our destination, the town of Luang Prabang, shortly before dark, and had just enough time to find a decent place to stay.  It was such a nice introduction to the country of Laos – I would highly recommend the slowboat experience.    

Locals traveling the river

Here are a few interesting facts about Laos:

--One of the world’s last official communist nations with a one-party dictatorship, although it has been softened a bit to allow for private enterprise and foreign investment.

--Southeast Asia’s only landlocked country. 

--One of the world’s poorest countries and heavily reliant on aid.

--Life expectancy here is only 57 years.  Its population is just under seven million – the average age here is young, only 19.5 years.

--Predominately a Buddhist country, although around thirty percent of the population, particularly those in the highlands, follow animist beliefs (this is a belief that natural objects - such as hills, trees, large rocks, or plots of land – are inhabited by spiritual entities or possess supernatural powers).

I’m including this interesting tidbit below because it’s just plain crazy:

My favorite picture from the trip

--In May 2009 a British woman was sentenced to death by firing squad for trafficking heroin in Laos.  Her sentence was commuted to life when she succeeded in impregnating herself with sperm from a male prisoner (a pregnant woman cannot be executed under Lao law).  Just goes to show sometimes life is stranger than fiction!

We’re looking forward to exploring this country and learning more about it!