Days 218-219, Two Day Boat Ride on the Legendary Mekong River, Laos

September 12^th-13^th, 2019

We got up early and had our last free breakfast at the hotel we had stayed at for four nights in Luang Prabang.  Brendan and I always got the same thing every morning – an omelet (but these omelets don’t have cheese unfortunately) and a mango smoothie.  The omelet also came with a big piece of French bread and a side plate of fruit.  It was pretty good!

A tuk tuk picked us up and brought us to the slow boat dock on the Mekong River.  We really didn’t know what to expect as I had read and heard different things about the slow boat.  Some bloggers recommended buying your own seat cushions before the trip as they generally overfill these boats leaving people to sit on the hard wooden floor when all the bench seats (also without cushion) are gone.  The lady who sold us the ticket said the boat does not have any food and does not make any stops until the night time when you stay over in a small town and find a guest house.  I had heard other people say they bought beer and stuff on the boat so I didn’t really know what it would be like.  We thought anything has to be better than another terribly long ‘mini bus’ ride. 

We were pleasantly surprised with our slow boat experience.  It is definitely a far cry from a luxury cruise but thankfully it was not overcrowded.  The boat was long and had two rows of little tables with four seats around them.  Some of the seats were old car seats so they were nice and cushy.  The other seats were a wooden bench but they did have pads on them. 

B and I were lucky to get our own four person table for the two of us.  The boat did also sell an assortment of snacks and instant noodles.  It had hot water for the noodles and you could buy soda and beer.  It had a bathroom and a sink.  So, I thought this was a fair amount of amenities.

Contrary to what the lady said, the boat did make stops.  They were not however stops you get out on, and there wasn’t actually  anything AT the stops.  We would literally just stop on the side of the shore where there were no signs of anything but raw jungle and one or two people would get off the boat to go to God knows where.  I never saw a path or anything and they would just disappear into the jungle and we would be on our way.  Sometimes at one of these stops a couple people would appear from the jungle and get on the boat.  The journey was really pleasant though.  We had nice weather with a breeze and everyone seemed pretty content with their headphones and watching the scenery go by. 

We saw a beautiful rainbow towards the end of the day when we made one of the last stops.  At this stop there were signs of a village up in the hills.  It was super cute because as we were arriving, all of the kids in the village started sprinting down a big sand dune to come see the boat.  There was also a little dog excitedly running down, and you could just tell this was an exciting part of the day for life on the Mekong.  I’m sure the kids were looking to see who might be returning to the village or if anyone new might be stopping by.  We waved to them as they watched us leave and kept making our way up the river. 

Around 6pm we made it to Pak Beng, the town we were stopping at for the evening.   A lady had approached us on the boat and asked if we already had our accommodation for the night.  Of course we did not, so she said she had a guest house and we could have a room for 50,000 kip (around $6).  Sounded good to us so we got off the boat following her and checked into the guest house.  Her place even had WiFi!  If we had not met her, there were several other locals waiting at the dock advertising their guest houses.  We walked the street of the little town and found a nice spot on the river to eat dinner. 

The next day we boarded a different boat at 8am to continue our journey to the Thai border.  This boat was even a little nicer as all of the seats were cushy car seats instead of some being benches.  I feel we were lucky again, and it was not crowded at all and we got our four person table to ourselves. 

I happen to be really skillful at the art of making a sandwich.  Probably stems from my first job being at a sandwich wrap place where the slogan was “let us roll you a fat one”.  They drove in the importance of being able to taste each ingredient in every bite (something some other sloppy sandwich or burrito makers need to learn as they will hurriedly throw a big glob of one ingredient in one spot and so you have one bite of all sour cream or something and then no sour cream in the rest of the burrito).  I could never work in a fast-paced sandwich environment because it takes at least 30 minutes for me to meticulously prepare one perfect sandwich. (@ Jess – I could probably make the cut at Safeway’s sandwich making place though! If you want a sandwich there, you better be prepared to spend your ENTIRE lunch break waiting for it, even if there is no one else in line).  I suppose if the whole NP thing doesn’t work out, that could be my fall back.  A job at the world’s slowest sandwich place.

Anyway, we had all the nice ingredients to make avocado cheese sandwiches on the boat.  So Brendan and I would spend a lot of time and make perfect sandwiches (so much nicer than cup of noodle!).  When I get extra excited about something or am having an extra amount of fun, I will usually turn to Brendan and say “I LOVE BACKPACKING!”.  After we made the sandwiches the second morning and were about to eat them, I was looking around at the pretty jungle views on either side of us as we were peacefully cruising the river with a nice cool breeze on my face.  I looked up at Brendan and he was like “I know… you love backpacking” LOL.

The rest of our day was nice. We played cards and chatted with other travelers. Around 5:30pm we made it to exit immigration in Laos.  Once we crossed into Thailand we got a van for private transportation to Chiang Rai.  The public buses had left for the day, and we formed a group with some other backpackers we met on the boat and hired the van.  It was just under two hours when we arrived to Chiang Rai and the six of us checked into the same hostel.