Around the World in 174 Days - Part 3 - Out of Thailand, into Laos and Down the Mekong

Only selected photos in the blog. The rest can be found HERE

The bus voucher said that we should be at Bus Terminal No 3 (We never did locate Terminals 1 & 2) 1 hour before our 8am departure time. We had tried to book a taxi at the hotel front desk the day before but they quoted us 250baht so we decided to take out chance with a songthaew on the street.

As there was a level of uncertainty as to the reliability of this strategy (the risks you will take to save £4!), we set the alarm for 5am and were out on the street by 5:45am.  Sod’s law decreed that, within 5 minutes, we passed a couple negotiating with a songthaew driver and enquired where they were going. “Bus Terminal” they replied. “How much?”,  “40bhat each”! Happy days, except this meant that we were at the Bus Terminal by about 06:05am for an 8am bus departure. (This will remain a common thread so just go with it. We have learnt to!)

Bus and Train Termini (I think that’s the correct plural?) are always odd places, full of transients , some travelling with a purpose but some just drifting through. Bus Terminal 3 was no exception. I purchased two incredibly strong coffees, located the stand where our coach was set to depart from and we sat and watched the world go by.

There was a stream of Green Buses (our chosen company) going in and out of Stands 20 & 21, until 7:30 that is! Nothing then came to either stand. 8am passed, then 8:05, 8:10, 8:15! Suddenly, two marvellous Green Buses manoeuvred their way towards the stand. Sadly, neither were the #220 to Chiang Mai! These two buses left the stand and then, like a big green chariot, the #220 rolled onto the forecourt.  Just for future reference, if you are ever planning to take a green bus from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, there is absolutely no need to arrive one hour before departure time.  Neither did anyone pay any particular attention to the weight of our luggage, even though our voucher told us there was a strict 20kg limit on luggage placed in the hold with a 20baht per kg surcharge for any overweight luggage. They just put our luggage in the hold and we boarded the bus. 

We booked the majority of our travel on this tour with a company called 12go.asia and, to date, they have been exceptional. I guess they can only pass on the instructions of whichever carrier they book with?

By 8:30 am, we were underway.  The first 60km or so, once we were out of Chiang Mai Towwn, was extremely bumpy.  They are in the (very) early stages of building a new road out of the city and we basically drove along the wide dirt track which will eventually become the new road. I would imagine, that in 5 years’ time, that journey will be at least one hour shorter once the new road is complete.

I spent much of the 5 and a half hour journey completing the next chapter of the blog.  I am finding the exercise of writing very enjoyable and it is making lengthy journeys far less tedious as time goes by very quickly when I am writing.

The coach travelled north through the mountains and the route  is littered with temples and religious artefacts which are located in places where you wonder how any human even managed to get to, let alone construct or carry a massive statue of Buddha to?

The only other notable thing on the journey was the ability for two people to have so much to say! The female couple behind me talked incessantly in Thai for literally the whole journey.   I had stupidly put my IPod (still old school!) in my hold luggage so could not drown it out at all. I just kept wondering. “What on earth do they find to say?”

The coach arrived on the outskirts of Chiang Mai just after 2pm and we were deposited outside the Green Bus offices.

As usual, we were greeted by smiling tuk-tuk drivers.”Hello, where too?”. I had checked ahead and new that we were only about 1.5km from our hotel so we opted to walk (I have managed at least my target 10,000 Fitbit paces since arriving and would really like this to continue). Armed, as usual, with Google Maps, we set off towards our hotel, after initially heading in the completely wrong direction which I always manage to do when given a 50/50 choice by Google Maps).

After about 500m, we passed a sign which read (in English) “Chiang Khong Teak Garden Riverfront Hotel - 300m”.  I found this odd as Google was telling us there was still 1km to go? I then became concerned that there were maybe two hotels with the same name or I had somehow put the wrong address into Google Maps.  The long and the short of it was that there was actually 1km to go and, apparently, Thai Metres are considerably shorter than European ones, in the same way that when the train guard shouted “5 minutes to Chiang Mai”, there was actually 40 minutes to go?

Our hotel was lovely, recently taken over by Ibis Styles (although we were unaware of this when we booked) we had a room with a balcony overlooking the muddy brown waters of the Mekong River.

We settled in and then walked out to explore Chiang Khong, this took about 15 minutes! There is only really one reason to visit this town and that is to travel onward into Laos which we could see across the river from our balcony. The town has a couple of bars and restaurants, lots of hotels and hostels and a few shops, that is it. 

I got my 10,000 in though and we sat on the balcony,  just chilling for a few hours (if you would describe getting desperately frustrated whilst trying to sort out the font for your blog on an IPad, chilling?).  If anyone can recommend some good blogging accessory apps for IPad that work with Google Blogger I would be eternally grateful.

At about 8pm, it was time for dinner. I had read about a Mexican restaurant in the town called Bamboo House. Not only did I think this concept was intriguing but it also came with excellent reviews so we were delighted when it was the last thing we passed before reaching our hotel on the way in.

We arrived at Bamboo House just before 8pm and there were only a few Europeans drinking beer out the front with nobody eating.  I had read about the guitar playing hippy owner in the reviews and instantly recognised him and his wife who was at the back of the restaurant.  I have to say at this point that neither looked very pleased to see us and I got the distinct impression that we had caught them just as they were about to close the kitchen for the night. However, the owner showed us to a seat and supplied us with menus and a Chang so it seemed likely we would get some food.

Whilst the welcome wasn’t overly warm, the food was absolutely delicious! We ordered Nachos between us and fajitas for two.  The salsa that came with the nachos was really good (no guacamole so I guess avocados aren’t plentiful) and the fajitas were really tasty with more delicious salsa and. Corn on the cob,  washed down with a few Changs.

I would really recommend this place but probably best to go early in the evening?

Not long after we had placed our order, the owner’s wife put up a “Kitchen Closed” sign out the front and I am guessing she wished she had put it up 20 minutes sooner.

Then it was off to bed ready for another early start the next day. (We did catch up with The Apprentice in bed!) 

I had booked the excursion for the next day with a company called “Mekong Smile” and, as I type, I am on a slow boat, chugging down the Mekong. Thus far, I have nothing but praise for this company.

We were picked up efficiently by our driver (Mr Air) at 07:20 in the hotel lobby where we met our new travelling companions,  Brigitte and Marten from Düsseldorf.  We were then taken on the 10 minute drive to the Thai/Laos Border Post.  Mr Air showed us to the checkpoint and said “Someone meet you on other side” and was gone.

This was one of the events which had kept me awake in the small hours of many mornings leading up to the trip.  I am normally pretty laid back but get freaked about anything which could potentially be a trip-stopper (missing flights, not being allowed into a country because you misread the immigrations rules, you know? That kind of thing). You can’t do anything in advance to ease your passage into Laos, you can only apply for a Visa on Entry and all that kept going through my mind were all the. “What ifs”.

In the event, it was all quite ridiculously simple, only with the normal levels of beurocracy which you would encounter when entering any communist country. I experienced similar levels on a trip to Kiev a few years’ ago.

Leaving Thailand is really easy, you show your passport, they take out the departure slip and you are on your way.  Their is a 25 bhat fee for the shuttle to take you over the “Friendship Bridge” to the Laos side.

You then wait in what is effectively “No Man’s Land”, for the shuttle.  We were the first 4 people out of Thailand that day and were pleased that we had got ahead of the crowds we had read about. Sadly,the shuttle won’t take just 4 people so waits for enough to fill the bus before it departs.

Once over the bridge we were met by our guide for the next two days, the ever smiling “Ket”. “On Mekong Smile Cruise, we always smile!”. Ket showed us to the counters and we were first in line. Yay!

💡What we didn’t realise was that you can really speed things up for yourself if you have already filled in your Visa Application Form before your get to the border and, apparently, most hotels can supply these for you. Our German travelling companions already knew this (of course they did!) and waltzed to the counter whilst we stood at a desk completing our applications, putting us almost at the back of the queue of people who had got off our bus.

I was cross at first but, it was actually irrelevant as this is where the beurocracy starts.   Counter 1 takes your Passport and Visa Application, inspects it and takes a photo. You are then directed to Counter 2. By the time we had got past Counter 1, Brigitte and Marten, our forward planning Teutonic pals had still not cleared Counter 2. Between Counter 1 and Counter 2, the Visa is actually affixed to your passport page and it obviously takes sometime for the affixing machine to warm up in the mornings which holds everything up considerably.  Once B&M had their passports back, it was only a matter of a few minutes before we had ours back.

You then walk forward to Counter 3, where Passport and affixed Visa are checked.

Then comes Counter 4,  the payment counter. A Visa for a UK Citizen costs $35 US (I did check and it’s the same for an Irish Citizen so I couldn’t save a bob there!).

You then need to get Laos currency at another desk. 

💡 For the most part, forget about your Monzo, Revolut or any card really. when visiting Laos. Cash is definitely King. Also, when we were doing our research, much of what we read led us to believe that US Dollars are the favoured currency. This is not true! Most places we have been thus far prefer for you to pay in Laos Kip. We discussed this with Ket and he confirmed this to be the case. They don’t want to have to change the currency.

Obtaining Laos Kip reminded me of the days of Italian Lire (11,000 Laos Kip to the pound). I was instantly a millionaire! 

So, 1 hour and 15 minutes after leaving Thailand, we were finally in Laos. Whilst waiting in one of the queues we discussed where the rest of our travelling party might be and decided that they must have crossed the border the night before and be joining us on the boat at Houyxay Port. A slow-boat typically takes between 32 and 50 passengers. Once we were safely on the Laos side, Ket informed us that we were, in fact, the only 4 passengers for the entire 2 days! We had a  boat capable of holding 50 passengers all to ourselves.  I have to give Mekong Smile cruises huge credit for still going ahead with this trip as many operators would have cancelled and tried to move us to another boat. 

We took a 15 minute shuttle to Houyxay and it is instantly striking how poor Laos is when compared to Thailand. They also drive on the other side of the road. Thailand drives on the left, the same as UK but Laos drives on the right. If the beurocracy at the airport wasn’t sufficient to let us know that we were now in a communist country, the hammer and sickle flags flying next to all the Laos national flags certainly drove the point home.

Once at the port, we boarded our transport for the next two days and Ket told us a little about Laos and the Mekong River. I’m not going to simply just regurgitate information here but it really is a fascinating country with a population consisting of members of three main tribes. Ket’s own history was equally fascinating, brought up in a hill tribe family but self taught in English and relatively well traveled. He was a really nice guy and made the two day trip a great experience.

We set off down the Mekong River taking in all of sights along the way. The Mekong is flanked by Thailand and Laos for 47 km and then you finally leave Thailand behind and then the river has Laos on either side for the remainder of the trip.

Our first stop, just before midday was a tribal village called Nam Tin. As the boat approached the shore, children ran down the bank to greet us. They all had small hand-crafted bracelets to sell and they held onto Lucy and Brigitte’s hands as we walked up the bank to the village. Ket told us about the lifestyle of the villagers, which is extremely austere and, although interested, couldn’t help feeling like we were somehow just patronising these quite primitive people and looking down on them from our middle class, privileged western standpoint.  We didn’t see one adult during our visit and I was also struck by how less scrupulous people could easily exploit this situation for their own benefit. I have had the misfortune to investigate men who have done just that in other parts of the world and you can see how the children’s eagerness to please could potentially make them vulnerable. There is obviously some sort of deal struck with the slow-boats and villagers as, just as we were leaving, Ket gave what was clearly the senior child in the group some currency (I couldn’t make out the amount).  We then set off again towards Pakbeng.

It was now time for lunch. A fantastic spread of spring rolls, sweet and sour fish, chicken curry and green beans. I think they cooked as though there were still 50 passengers as there was masses of food for just the four of us! It was really lovely food too. 

The rest of the afternoon was just spent relaxing and watching the banks of the river and various activities on those banks. Water buffalo drinking, fishermen tending nets, people divining for gold like they were on The Klondike with bamboo divining pans and just jungle all around. I took the opportunity to do some writing and did have a little afternoon nap..... Ooh! And a BeerLao!

At 4:30pm we arrived in Pakbeng. We were taken up to our hotel, The Pakbeng Sanctuary Lodge with instructions to be back down to the port by 5:30pm to meet with Ket for a tour of the town.

We booked this trip back in July and a different hotel was included in the package. However, a week before we left the UK, we received an e-mail saying we couldn’t get into the included one and offering us the Sanctuary Lodge with a $38 US supplement.  We were a bit miffed at the time as it was another unbudgetted expense.  However, once we arrived at the Sanctuary, we were simply stunned at the beautiful hotel with spectacular views and luxurious rooms. In fact, we were now a bit disappointed that we only had a brief time before we had to be back down to the port and couldn’t really spend more time just chilling in the hotel. 

However, like good Brits, we did as we were told and walked back down to the port.  We were shown around the town and market. Pakbeng has only really been established since about 2007 and has sprung up mainly due to its location, halfway between Houyxay and Luang Prabang and therefore a convenient stopping point for the slow-boats and their passengers. It is now choc-full of hotels, guest houses, bars and restaurants as well as mobile phone shops and ATMs. I reckon it is only a matter of time before a hotel chain gets involved and I am guessing that in 10 or so years’ time it will be unrecognisable.

The tour didn’t take very long so it was time for a beer. Ket took us into what was obviously a mate’s bar and restaurant. I presume that each tour guide has their own “friendly” bar owner where they take their passengers. We drank “BeerLao” and had a taste of Lao Banana Whisky. Lucy and I both agreed that it was foul but Brigitte and Marten seemed to really enjoy it and drank many shots of it during the forthcoming meal. We hadn’t spoken much to our travelling companions during the day but it is amazing how beer and whisky can set conversations rolling and we had a really enjoyable evening. Brigitte and Marten have visited Laos many times before so it was good to get some tips about or next three destinations in Laos.

After dinner we went to Happy Bar which is a clearing in the jungle with a bar which plays loud western music and is mainly frequented by the regular hordes of backpackers who parade through Pakbeng on the route through to Luang Prebang.  By 9:30pm, we were all suitably refreshed and ready for bed and a 6am start the next day so we walked back up the hill to The Sanctuary.  We were in Lodge No 2 but lost our bearings and tried to use our key in Lodge No 6, much to the dismay of the occupant who yelled something at us in a language we didn’t understand!  

We eventually found our own lodge and had a good sleep until 4am when the rooster started!!!

I actually did sleep again after this and was awoken by the alarm at 6am. Up and out for breakfast with the anticipated elephant sighting.

The Sanctuary is located on the opposite side of the river to The Mekong Elephant Park and, at around 7am, the elephants are taken down to the river to bathe. We weren’t disappointed and, at around 6:50, the first of two lumbered down the sandy bank to the river.  A companion followed about 10 minutes later and we spent 15 minutes watching before we had to go out for our transport at 7:20.  Unfortunately, the transport was slightly late and had to make a detour before the port so we missed the opportunity to see the elephants up close as, by the time our boat had left port and got to where we would have been just a few metres away, the elephants had already gone up from the river.

So, were on our way to Luang Prebang. ETA around 4:30pm.

We literally did nothing all morning! I did some writing, read a bit, slept a bit, Lucy read a bit, slept a bit and sometimes we both just watched the ever- changing scenery along the Mekong. It was bliss! peaceful and relaxing. Another massive and delicious lunch was served at midday and then, about 2pm, we docked at Pak Ou Caves. These are two sacred Buddhist Caves but, in all honesty, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they are just a dumping ground for all the unused and damaged religious relics from Luang Prabang. The lower cave is easily reachable whilst the upper is a quite steep 220 step climb up the mountain. We saw both (with all this, my feeling is always that we will never get another opportunity) and then were on our way again.

Our last stop before Luang Prabang was a craft and whisky village which is clearly set up as a tourist trap and the slow-boat drivers and guides are happy to provide regular supplies of tourists for trapping. I tried three whiskies. One was pleasant enough but the other two were simply poitin and tasted foul (nobody ever drank poitin sober!). 

We were only in the village about 10 minutes and then walked back down to the boat. I thought how much I had enjoyed the entire trip and was looking forward to taking the boat the last two hours into Luang Prabang. I also felt quite sad that it was nearly over. Lucy and I both felt the same. It had been a fabulous adventure. 

However, our triumphant arrival by slow-boat into Luang Prabang wasn’t to be! When we got back down to the boat, we were told by Ket that the boat had developed a fault and we were going to have to take a bus the rest of the way to Luang Prabang! We were both extremely disappointed and, frankly, didn’t believe the story about the boat breaking down. It was all too convenient as Ket had told us earlier on that he needed to get a bus back to Houyxay that evening to bring another group down river tomorrow and became less believable when the bus which was going to take 40 minutes arrived to pick us up at the craft village after 25 minutes. 

I just felt like we hadn’t quite made the trek and that gave me a sense of sadness. I guess we will just have to do it again one day?

So, here we are, in Luang Prabang. You can already detect the French influences in the town as we sit on a colonial wooden balcony outside our hotel room looking out into the street like a shanty town in New Orleans!

But I’m spoiling the plot! More adventures to follow.

Thanks for reading.