Entering Laos, Traveling down the Mekong River

Monday, February 11, 2013

Our Itinerary reads:

Day 3: Huay Xai - Pakbeng

Meals included: 1 breakfast

Activities:

Today is a very early start as we need to leave Chiang Rai before dawn and travel approximately 2½ hours to Chiang Khong. After completing border formalities we take a small boat across the Mekong River to Huay Xai, our first stop in Laos. For centuries Huay Xai was a disembarkation point for Yunnanese caravans led by the Chinese Muslims on their way to Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, in ancient Siam. Today it is a hustling ferry town on the banks of the Mekong River. 

We transfer to the boat pier, where we board our slow boat for the trip down the Mekong River. The pace is very relaxed - a perfect way to observe the local lifestyle close up. We arrive in the evening in Pakbeng; a colourful village situated at the junction of the Mekong River and the smaller Beng River, hence the town's name 'Pak' meaning 'mouth' in Lao. Hmong and tribal Thais are frequently seen on the main street of Pakbeng, and small vendors along the street sell local textiles and handicrafts. We spend the night in a simple hostel. Please be warned that the accommodation standard is very basic, but also bear in mind that you are travelling in a remote area. Please have an open mind and come with an adventurous spirit!

 *****

We set our alarm for 5:00 a.m., checked out at 5:45, ate breakfast from 6:00-6:15 while our bags were being loaded into the taxi van.  We drove for an hour and a half and watched the sunrise through the mist of the Thai landscape.  Our van dropped us off at the edge of the Mekong River, where we checked out of Thailand, and boarded long boats.

I was a little worried when I saw these boats as they were very small, and I couldn't imagine riding for seven hours down the river in one of them.  Fortunately, these boats were just ferrying us over to the Laotian side of the river..a few minutes ride.    We clamored out of the boats onto the wet and muddy bank and up a steep little hill to the Lao check point.

Getting Used to The Squeeze

 We filled out the necessary visa paperwork using the backs of our passports for a writing surface, then jostled our way  through throngs of entering tourists to the visa application window where we  we turned  in our passports, and the passports disappeared for 20 minutes or more.  The system was not well organized by border patrol. 

There were no formal queues for the two side by side windows, one to turn in the passports and the other to retrieve the processed documents and pay $35.00 each.  There was no searing and the space could comfortably accommodate about 10 people, five in a queue (if there were a queue).  Unfortunately, there were probably 40 people jammed into the area with no space between bodies.  Moving from one window to the next was necessary but nearly an impossibility.

When passports were turned in, no one wanted to leave the area until they got their passport back because the Laotians couldn't or wouldn't call out the names of people. Instead the pay window person would hold up the passport photo page, and we would all try to identify the people in the room from the awful mug shot photos and try to separate the Red Sea for the person to make his/her way across the throngs to the second window.  It was quite an experience.  Everyone for the most part was good natured about the chaos.  Eventually, our party had their passport/visa in hand, and we were on our way.

We climbed up the hill to the taxi stand in a small hillside village then clamored into a tuktuk truck bed with seats.  The driver tried to start the engine a dozen times with no success.  We were in the process of abandoning the vehicle when the engine finally fired up and we were on our way.  We drove a couple of miles to a shore where several long river boats with bows in the mud awaited passengers.  

The boat captains and their families live in the back end of their boats.  We boarded a charming long boat the housed passengers in the front and family members in the back. 

We spent the day traveling 120 km down river, enjoying a wonderful Laotian cooked meal of sticky rice, vegetables, fried fish, and two types of soup, one of which was a chicken vegetable rice noodle, and the other a chicken pineapple squash soup that was deliciously spicey hot.

Pleasantly warm weather and cold beer made for a wonderful afternoon as we watched villagers along the river fishing, walking, boating, and panning for gold.

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's Floating Down the Mekong River in Laos