Houeixi to Louang Phabang via the Mekong River

We have not quite melted yet, but have certainly started to.

The last we left off I think we were in Chiang Mai enroute to Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai is a small city that people use as a jumping off point to explore the various hill tribes that surround the region. My former Park Slope Food Coop-er, Havilah, got us in touch with her brother, Caleb, who lives in Chiang Rai and works for an NGO out there. It was great to have him show us around for the weekend, and he speaks Thai which is pretty helpful, too. He took us to an Akha village where one of his co-worker's lives with his wife and baby and it was pretty fascinating to see how the village is set up and learn a bit about their history. There were also Karen and Hmong tribes living in that region as well, and I think I would have passed out from wearing the heavy clothing and head coverings some of the women were wearing due to the heat, but I can only assume they are just used to it. Regardless, it was quite intricate and colorful.

We hired a driver to take us from Chiang Rai to the border at Chiang Khong, where we would purchase our Lao visas. It was sort of a package deal, as he drove us to various sights enroute to Chiang Kong, so we made a full day out of it. First we visited the Monkey Caves and hiked up steep steps to some dark caves full of bats and Buddha shrines, but no monkeys. The monkeys were hanging out at the bottom of the caves by some water and didn't seem too interested in people, nor did we get too close to them to avoid being bitten. After that we drove to Maesai, a big shopping town which we did none of since there isn't much room in our packs to buy stuff, but there were some great viewpoints above the city with temples and shrines. After Maesai we drove to the famous "Golden Triangle" region where you can look out and see Burma, Laos, and Thailand come together by the Mekong River. Our driver took us to this overly touristed Opium Museum, which was filled with old opium pipes, opium scales and weights and other paraphernalia, in addition to information in English on a brief history of opium. Somehow the museum staff thought it would be helpful to include a section upstairs on catfish, marijuana, bamboo waterpipes, and photos of Karen "long-necked" women. Go figure.

Kitt, our driver for the day, drove us through some really pretty countryside areas while we sweated our butts off in his "air conditioned" jeep, and in the afternoon, arrived at Chiang Khong. He found some guy, whose name and actual job description I never got, to secure us visas and tickets for the longboat journey on the Mekong into Laos. We handed over some money and our passports, and assured us he would see us at 8 a.m. the next morning with our visas and drive us to the dock.

Chiang Khong is a one-road town that is quiet and peaceful. We stayed in very modest accomodations (I think $5 a night) that served food and beer. That night we met Lynn and Andrew, she from Ireland, he from Wales, who met while travelling in New Zealand. We drank and chatted with them that night and learned they were also going on the boat the next day to Laos.

Next day, 8 a.m. we are ready to leave and no sign of the man with our passports. 8:30 comes and Paul sets off down the dirt road to find him (it is a small town, remember?). Five minutes later a motorbike comes down the road with the man with our passports and Paul on the back!! He forgot all about us, our passports, and our visas, and hurried to get them. He returned with a friend who is on a motor bike and I get on the back of one and Paul on the other, with our semi-heavy backpacks mind you. Off to the docks! Visas get stamped, exit fees from Thailand paid, we are rushed onto a longboat and away we go. Minutes later we are on the Laos side of the river in Houeixi, Laos. Paul and I are talked in to paying for a room in a guesthouse in Pakbeng, where the boat is heading to on the first leg of our journey "because it will be too dark for you to find a place when you arrive, so it is best to secure one now". Yep, we are scammed. But more on that later.

Who do we see in the restaurant before boarding the boat but Lynn and Andrew! They also purchased accomodations for the night in the same place that we were talked into, so at least we weren't alone. We board the boat and sit in front of them. Off we go with about 100 other people down the Mekong for the next 7 hours. We were pre-warned that the benches make your butt sore so we laid our yoga mats on them for some comfort. The scenery was incredible and I can only imagine it is more so after the rainy season when the water level is higher and the trees are lush and green. It was a long day on the boat and we were relieved to know they sold beer which came in quite handy after the 4th hour or so.

The benches, by the way, were not very stable and were in serious danger of collapsing from under us. I tried my best to tell this to a crew member, who only shrugged and seemed uninterested in this information. Paul lashed a daypack to the bench and connected it to a post in hopes this would prevent a disaster. When Lynn and Andrew moved temporarily to sit on the floor of the boat in front to stretch their legs, I took over their bench to have some more room. Sure enough, their bench collapsed from underneath me and some other passengers took photos of the now in pieces bench, as it was pretty hilarious. A crew member carried the pieces off, no questions asked, and didn't seem surprised in the least.

Finally we arrive in Pakbeng and loads of children race to the dock in hopes of earning some money for hauling bags up the steep steps. The four of us had none of this and grabbed our own bags and followed the guesthouse worker up the street to where we would spend the night. Mind you, it was not dark out and there were PLENTY of places to stay. Regardless, we were shown our room and it would have been ok except for one thing--the bathroom was so unbelievably disgusting that no amount of incense we lit could remove the foul stench. I actually dreaded having to use the toilet and preferred to hold it in, much less take a shower. I wish I could say I am exaggerating, but I am not. Lynn and Andrew paid a bit less to have a shared bathroom and instantly wished they had shelled out the extra buck or two to have their own, as they were pretty disgusted as well. The beds looked ok, until you sat down on them--I think they were made of wood or concrete, no joke. Despite all this, the village itself was quaint and lit by candlelight as electricity was scarce. We had a good dinner and basically called it a night.

Everyone complained of sore hips the next day from the awful beds and were pretty eager to get out of town. We ate breakfast and headed down to the boat and lets just say that was another experience all on its own. The stairs headed down were very steep and covered in sand and I had images in my head of tumbling down them while wearing my 30 lb. pack and breaking my ankle. To top it off, you had to literally walk a narrow wooden plank to get on the boat. Luckily everyone made it just fine and Lynn and Andrew nabbed some seats for us in the back where we would have more leg room.

At some point the boat pulls in to bring on more passengers and we all seemed shocked--where would they sit?? There are no seats left! There went our leg room. I'll tell you right now, if you have issues with personal space, don't take the slowboat down the Mekong! People thought nothing of squeezing in between others and just plopping down at their feet. Live roosters and baggage get piled on top of the boat, and then the boat just won't start. You can hear the engine struggling to start as someone is banging on the engine. People suddenly begin to theorize: Will we have to get off and wait for another boat? Will we get stuck here? Where are we, anyway? Someone paddles out on another boat to try and help. Next thing you know, a group of men are holding onto a heavy rope that is attached to the engine's flywheel, they start counting in Lao, do the heave-ho move and yank hard a few times until the engine roars to life again. Everyone cheers loudly and the boats takes off.

No one seems to know what time the boat is due to arrive in Louang Phabang (I see different spellings on the name--sometimes it is Prabang, other times Phabang)--some are told it is shorter than the first day and will take 5 hours, some were told 6, some 7. In all, it takes 9 hours, a total of 16 hours in two days. I have a meltdown of sorts on the last 2 hours of the trip due to a wave of pre-menstrual depression and people try hard to cheer me up, but nothing seems to work. I just stood in the head and cried, how pathetic. I hate when this happens, and luckily it does not happen every month, luckily for Paul.

Paul and I feel we have earned a night in an expensive hotel at this point after sitting for so long on a 2 day boat ride and take a tuk-tuk to a place we read about; they are fully booked and reccomend another place called the Merry Lao-Swiss. Everything there is written in German and English, and I'm not sure if I understand the connection, but there you have it. It is a lovely place and we check in, take a shower, and head to The Apsara, a swanky, New York-priced place for dinner. The food is delicious, and we both wake up around 2 a.m. feeling horrible. We have food poisoning! The next day is spent in bed but at some point I manage to make my way downstairs to let the staff know the A/C is broken, we are sick, please fix it! Within 10 minutes 3 guys come to the door to replace the relay in the A/C, and we are relieved to be spending a sick day in a comfortable guesthouse and not on the boat or in Pakbeng.

The next day we finally get to see the sights of Louang Prabang and have been here ever since. It is a cute place with friendly people and a laid-back atmosphere. LP is an early to bed, early to rise kind of town and there isn't much going on after 10 p.m. We have been to several Buddhist Wats, or temples, as there are loads of them. There are also many young (by young I mean at least 10 to 15 years old) "novice" boy monks with shaved heads all over town, who are here to study. They carry parasols to shade them from the hot sun and I think they look adorable.

Tonight we are off to the capital, Vientiane via Laos Airlines. More updates to come from Vientiene before we head off to Viet Nam.