The slow boat to Luang Prabang

Two days after my trekking, I hopped aboard a bus (well, two... Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai, then Chiang Rai to Chiang Khong) to the Thai/Laos border and arrived at about 7pm. I went searching for a hotel with two Canadians I met on the bus, and we got a steal of a deal - about $6 for a room with 3 beds. Perfect! We had dinner with 3 others from our hotel, and then we went to bed.

The next morning, I woke up and went downstairs to use the bathroom to find about 15 people crowded around the TV watching a movie at about 6:30am. Weird! I later found out that they'd taken an overnight bus to the border town and were killing time until the border opened. I much preferred my more bed to a mini-van going around curve after curve through the hills of northern Thailand.

After breakfast, we started walking to the border and got our stamps out of Thailand (10 seconds per person, yay!), then paid a bit over a dollar for a boat across the river to the Laos side. There, we sat around filling out some paper work for about 10 minutes before forking it over with passport photos and money for our visas ($35 for Americans, $42 for Canadians). Then, I decided that I would indeed take the slow boat up the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. (I had been throwing ideas of going into the jungle near the border on this cool gibbon excursion, or of maybe taking the bus, or of maybe taking the boat partway, then swapping over to bus for the final leg.)

In preparation, I had a sandwich made up, and I bought a seat cushion for just over a dollar (I had been forewarned that the seating consist of wooden benches. And the trip is TWO DAYS LONG.).

I made my way to the boat, which was pretty long and narrow with a roof and big windows. After I put my backpack in the luggage area in the back, I claimed a window spot and hoped that the light rain wouldn't turn into something stronger, although we did have plastic flaps we could roll down if we wanted. I crossed my fingers that no one would sit next to me, but in the end, an English girl did. There was lots of conversation around, and for the next 7 hours, people chatted, read, listened to music, tried to sleep, drank beer (sold conveniently at the back of the boat) and tried to pass the time.

That evening, I hooked up with three of the people from my hotel from the night before, and we went off in search for a hotel in Pak Beng, a town described by a friend as a "no-horse town." We found a place that was very cheap and decided it'd be fine for a night's sleep. The guy who dragged us in there also made it very clear that if we wanted to buy some marijuana from him, that was no problem. When I said, "No thanks," he was like, "why not?" I told him that there was more for him... And then when we went to pay for the room, I didn't have any small Thai bills (they still accept Thai currency and the price was quoted in Thai baht). He said no problem and hurried off to get my change.

He came back with a fistful of Laos Kip and handed them over. Me, being unfamiliar with exchange rates and the two currencies, counted the kip and decided that it didn't seem right, although I couldn't remember the exchange rate. He recounted and said, "oh right, I miscounted," and added a couple of 10,000 kip notes to the pile. That still didn't seem to be enough to me, so I called over my travel companions and asked them about exchange rates. They were pretty useless, as well, but at least I had some moral support. I asked the guy point blank what the exchange rate between baht and kip were, and he pretended not to know. At about that point in time, one of my fellow travellers offered to pay for my room, and I'd pay him back later. So, I started to suggest to the sketchy dude that he give me back my 1,000 baht note, and I'd hand him over the 100 baht he needed. He started doing a song and dance about how the market had closed, and he'd already changed the money, blah blah blah. I continued to insist on getting my 1000 baht note back, and he said he couldn't do that. We moved up to the restaurant area where two women who worked there were standing, and they got involved and started talking to the sketchy dude in Lao. Then I started in on how I didn't trust him, and I just wanted my money back, and we would leave the hotel, blah blah blah. He questioned why anyone wouldn't trust him (!!!), and I came back with commentary on his original "mis-counted" change and the fact that he'd just tried to sell me drugs. Eventually, he gave in and gave me the true exchange rate (or something close to it), and my change was sorted.

Upon leaving my room for dinner, I grabbed all of my valuables, as I wasn't sure if he would try to retaliate or something. I had nothing to worry about, though... nothing had been touched when we returned. The 4 of us had a nice dinner overlooking the Mekong River, and then we headed to another place for a drink and played some cards. At about 9:30pm, we decided we were all exhausted, and we went to bed to sleep in preparation of the next day's 7 hours on the river. Good thing we went to bed then, as the generators for the town's power were shut off at 10pm. I hoped that the rest of Laos would surpass my experience in Pak Beng in enjoyability... if not, it's gonna be a short and fast trip through Laos!

The next day turned out to be closer to 7.5 hours, and I managed to score my own bench for the entire day. Hooray! The whole trip along the river was gorgeous! Lush green hills, local people in dugout canoes and fishing from the rocks, little villages of wooden huts... too bad it was overcast both of our days on the river, but that also provided for a more comfortable journey, as it stayed cool enough to make the trip very enjoyable.

When we arrived to Luang Prabang, the 4 of us, plus a fifth, a Canadian girl, set off to look for accomodation. After about an hour, we'd all found a place to stay, and I was rooming with the Canadian girl in a nice room with a balcony and private bathroom in a quieter part of town for just a little over US$6. We set off shortly afterwards to explore town and immediately stumbled upon the night market, which is full of beautiful handicrafts. After dinner at a street vendor that had about 8 different bowls full of vegetarian local fare (as-much-as-you-can-fit-on-a-plate for less than US$1!!!), we walked around a bit longer before deciding we were all exhausted again, and I was in bed by about 10:30pm again.