Today we started our slow boat trip along the Mekong.
The day started with the administrative task of getting out of Thailand and into Laos at HuayXai accross the river, organising visas etc. This was actually a relatively smooth process, which was a pleasant surprise.
This route seems to have become increasingly popular with western tourists even in the few years since our guide book was published, and rather than the cargo boats we were expecting to be hitching a ride with, the slow boats are now set out specifically for transporting tourists. Although it took some of the rustic edge off the experience, it probably made the ride a lot more comfortable (albeit on hard wooden seats)!
The scenery all the way along is spectacular, with the river meandering its way through tropical forested hillsides and small riverside tribal villages, with the local kids all running down to the river to wave at the boats going past.
Almost all passengers on our boat are western tourists of all ages from the Aussies getting wrecked for someone's 20th birthday making us feel old, to the few groups of retired couples, making us feel young again! But it's quite a sociable atmosphere all in all, which together with the scenery makes this a great trip. It can be done in 7 hours in one go by speed boat, which looks incredibly uncomfortable and so noisy you wouldn't be able to talk to anyone all day. Glad we made the decision to do it this way. Plus they are selling the local beer (BeerLaos) on the boat which seems very agreeable!
And so we reached our overnight stopover village of Pak Beng, the only civilisation of real size we've seen since the boat set off. Having heard and read about the place, it's reputation as a bit of a dodgy place comes before it - and as we discovered, not without justification!
It got dark simultanously with our arrival, which seemed quite fitting. First task - getting off the boat along the 8 inch wide plank pecareously balanced between boat and 'pier'. When we say pier, we mean loose sanded steep rock at the side of the river. Having done this we then wondered how to get our bags which had been stored at the back of the boat. It was chaos, with tens of passengers perched on the rocks and the steep staircase up to the village, and as many local kids running around grabbing peoples bags before they could, and asking for money for the service!
To cut a very long story short, we eventually arrived at the guesthouse to find it had been overbooked, but in the end we were able to get the last room left! At least the room was clean and secure. We did have an en suite bathroom, but as there was no running water or electricity after about 8pm it wasn't really of much use!
We took the option of eating at the pleasant setting of the candlelit (no elecrticity remember!) restaurant attached to the guesthouse, which was actually not too bad, and a couple more BeerLaos helped to ease the experience!
We did see one of the staff doing what could only be described as 'dusting' or 'polishing' the baguettes that were sitting out in preparation for our take away lunch the next day. Some things are better not known!
Interesting though this place had been we were very pleased to get on the boat the next day!
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