From Chiang Mai, we took a 4 hour bus to Chiang Rai. Found a super cheap hole-in-the-wall hostel for the first night, and then found a nicer 8-bed hostel for the next night. We only had 3 other travellers in the room with us, and everyone was quiet and respectful. Not much to report about Chiang Rai – it was basically a smaller Chiang Mai, and about half of the restaurants and stores were closed because it was a long weekend. BUT we did go for Thai massages, and holy crap did my body ever need that. I have never received a professional massage, but I’ll definitely be getting another. We ate a cheap 7/11 dinner that night consisting of ramen and stuffed buns, and had a good nights sleep.
The next morning, we caught an 8am bus to the Laos border. The bus had open windows and an open door at the back, and unfortunately one woman’s bag flew off of the bus halfway! There was some conversing in Thai (had not reached the border yet) and I guess they made plans for her to retrieve it. We learned a new lesson that day – make sure our bags are SECURELY packed away!
We passed through the border seamlessly – we were officially in the second country of our trip! A Laotian visa was about $40 CAD on arrival. From here, we took a van cab to the pier in Huay Xai (pronounced who-I say) where we hopped onto the popular 2-day river slow boat along the Mekong River.
The Mekong River is the worlds 12th longest river and the 7th longest in Asia (which infers that Asia has some of the world’s longest rivers!). It runs through China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, and is a major trade route between western China and SE Asia (thanks Wikipedia).
Day 1 of 2
The first day consisted of an 6.5 hour ride from Huay Xai to Pak Beng. It was a gorgeous route. We had arrived minutes before departure so we had to get seats near the back of the boat, which has been reported to be deafening due to the motor. The motor wasn’t that loud – it was the other tourists who were loud! Ky and I were all set for a nice and peaceful boat ride, reading our books, and taking in the sights, but the boat quickly turned into a party boat. Beer was sold on board but a lot of people came prepared with their own. There were 2 middle aged Australian men in front of us who got absolutely plastered, kept trying to initiate conversation with us, but it ended up turning into them talking down to us like children. They quickly got the point that they were being annoying and we didn’t want to entertain them anymore. But we didn’t let them ruin our ride; we ordered some beers for ourselves, plugged in to our headphones, and read. It was also aggravating to watch grown adults ooh and ahh when they saw naked indigenous children swimming and playing in the river, as if they were animals in a zoo. People rushed to the side of the boat to snap pictures of them. Kylie and I just looked at each other and rolled our eyes in disbelief. Toursists, man.
We arrived at the port in Pak Beng, a small river village, and were swarmed by locals trying to get us into tuk tuks to their guest houses and stay for the night. We politely refused and pushed through and walked the 500m distance to the village with our own 2 feet and found a nice spot for about half of what was being advertised at the pier. We met a friendly German traveller named Johanna who was also looking for a place to stay, showed her to the guest house we found, and then invited her to dinner. It was Thanksgiving Day back home, and it was nice to share a meal with a new friend. I ordered a traditional Laos dish called Laap, which was minced meat (I chose pork) overtop of vegetables. And the restaurant we went to gave us each a free shot of whiskey. Afterwards we settled into our private room for a much needed sleep.
Day 2 of 2
The next day, we got to the pier 30 mins early to get better seats. It seemed like a lot of other people had a similar idea, but we managed to get a good seat near the front of the boat, and it was a much more peaceful ride. We think a lot of people were suffering from the day before. We both napped, read a lot, met a fellow Canadian from Vancouver, and ordered a couple of beers. It was a longer second day boat ride (~8.5 hours) but we arrived in Luang Prabang with still a bit of daylight. We found a decent hostel for the night, and went searching for dinner.
We settled for a spot along the river, and heard there was a night market so we headed there next. It turned out to be a great market – lots of local art, free whiskey and wine tasting (I actually bought a small bottle of wine), and some tasty vegetarian street food.
As we were walking the night market, we saw a travel agency that plans bus rides. We knew we wanted to get to the 4000 islands in Laos, specifically Don Det, but didn’t know how to get there yet. We quickly discovered we could do a full day of travel the next day and planned a crash course to Don Det. We heard that Don Det was a beautiful and relaxing island, and that is exactly what we were looking for.
The next morning, we took a van taxi from Luang Prabang at 8am to Vientiane. It was HOT and crowded. The AC did not seem to work very well. Kylie felt crazy sick the entire ride, and it didn’t help the trip consisted of a lot of winding roads through the mountains. It was a beautiful and scenic ride though. We had a bus transfer in Vang Vieng, which actually seemed like a very cool place to stay and in hindsight we may have stayed a night there if we had known what it offered: lots of hiking and trekking through mountains and jungles. However, Vang Vieng has a reputation; upon googling it, one of the first descriptions is ‘a hedonistic party town.’ So, maybe not the worst thing we skipped it. We arrived at the Vientiane bus station around 6pm, and had time to buy some bus station dinner (ramen) and a couple of beers before our night bus.
The Night Bus
This was our first experience on a sleeper bus. Instead of seats, there are small beds. Felt like we were on the night bus in Harry Potter! One problem we were quick to notice is that these kind of suck for single travellers; there is a very good chance you get paired with another single traveller who you’re forced to sleep in very close confines with for the ride. We heard a disgruntled gentlemen in front us complain “I asked them to make sure I was alone!!!” Turns out the only way to assure you are alone is to buy 2 tickets!
Even though we had a bed for the night, it was pretty uncomfortable. Our bed was right beside the bathroom, which had people coming and going all night. Also, everything in Asia is not designed for large people. So I was constantly bumped through the night. Also, it seemed that the storage underneath the bus was full, and they packed the entire isles with bags so that it was basically a jungle gym that people had to crawl over to reach the bathroom. We have now learned that it is common for buses and vans in SE Asia to transport goods and who knows what else on public transport. They pack as much shit as possible onto whatever vehicle has space.
Anyways, after not a very restful sleep, we arrived in Paske at 6:30AM. We climbed into a truck taxi, and were the only tourists surrounded by 15 locals. Before we left the station, women with baskets of fried insects came around so obviously I bought some. They were selling bags of crickets and bamboo worms with green onion for 50 cents. It was an odd choice for breakfast, but the onion complemented the bugs quite well. However, it would probably be best served as a dinner appetizer. For the remainder of the 4 hour drive, we stopped frequently in small villages where locals would surround the truck and (much to Kylie’s dismay) shove sticks of entire roasted chickens into the truck for purchase. I tried one of these a few days later on Don Det (petty good).
Finally, we had arrived in Nakasong, where we caught a 15 minute ferry to Don Det. We were here, paradise awaited us!
Matt and Ky Travel Thai (+) 