This morning was our earliest morning thus far. We had to catch the first local bus out of Chiang Rai at 6am to the Thai/Laotian boarder city of Chiang Khong (Thailand) to ensure we would catch a slowboat out of Huay Xai (Laos) the same day. We may have been able to catch a slightly later one, but we didn’t want to risk having to stay the night in Huay Xai and miss an extra day in Luang Prabang.
The local red busses do not have A/C, but being so early in the morning (even during the summer) there was a brisk breeze coming through the open windows. The bus costs 65 baht per person, which is about $2 USD and brings you to Chiang Khong (the last city before Laos). From there, we took one of the many tuk-tuks for 50 baht each to the Thai border. The whole boarder crossing seems a bit confusing because you can’t walk across the Friendship Bridge (you have to take a 25 baht per person shuttle), but it’s a pretty simple process when you’re going through it.
Once we got our exit stamp at the Thai boarder, we bought shuttle tickets and make a short trip over the Mekong River into Laos. We filled out entry visa papers and provided passport pictures (which you should always have when traveling through Southeast Asia…particularly for Laos and Cambodia) and we were greeted by Laotian tuk-tuk drivers ready to take us to the slowboat docks! From the moment you enter Laos and start filling out visa papers, locals will start offering you “packages” that include the tuk-tuk to the slowboat plus a slowboat ticket. A lot of our fellow tourists were buying them, but we knew what the prices should be and they were a bit high (quoting 300,000 kip each for a ride and a ticket that should cost $210,000 kip). It’s always a good idea to negotiate, but they wouldn’t budge, so we politely declined and received a grin like we were some of the few smart ones. We exited the immigration posts and negotiated a tuk-tuk down to 20,000 kip per person, which may seem like a lot, but it’s under $3 USD for the 10km drive.
Once the tuk-tuk dropped us off, we were greeted by more locals trying to skim a few bucks off the top, offering a slowboat ticket for 230,000 kip. We continued to politely decline, as we knew what the price should be. We made our way down to the docks and found a steep set of stairs that led to a more official booth that read “slowboat ticket office.” Finally, the price said 210,000 and we purchased two!
The boat tickets often have seat numbers, but we found that there were none (or at least not honored) and some seats are better than others, so we highly recommend boarding at least and hour early (you don’t want to be towards the back right next to the big block V8 engine pumping out diesel fumes for the next 5 hours of your life, nor do you want to be right in the front as many of those seat get switched around last minute). We were about 1.5 hours early, so we got some toast with butter and jam at a cute little guesthouse overlooking the Mekong River and our slowboat dock. After we enjoyed a little western breakfast, we stocked up on some snacks (cheaper around the boat than on the boat) and walked down the steep stairs and across a small makeshift wooden bridge to our slowboat, good ‘ol number 46. We got situated right in the middle and set ourselves up for a slow 5-hour trip along the beautiful Mekong River.
The first leg of the trip took exactly 5 hours and brought us to the midpoint of Pak Beng, Laos. This is a small town full of guesthouses that cater specifically to tourists making the journey to and from Luang Prabang. Many representatives met us at the docks and began pitching their spiel as to why we should stay with them. We knew that a guesthouse without A/C usually goes for about $5 USD (40,000 kip) and one with A/C goes for about $10 USD (80,000 kip). We had just spent 5 hours on a slowboat and treated ourselves to a decent, but nothing to write home about, guesthouse for 80,000 kip. Most of these guesthouses can also prepare you a nice little lunch for the next day as the second leg is a bit longer and you’ll want something of substance to eat. After we paid for the room and small dish of veggie fried rice for the next morning, Joey walked down the single street in Pak Beng to get us some dinner. He came back with two bags! One was a noodle soup and the other fried noodles. Both were delicious, but we were so exhausted from the early morning and all-day journey, we could barely keep our eyes open to finish
Tomorrow we plan to wake up early and get to the slowboat by 8am to snag another good seat for our 9am departure. The second leg of the trip is supposed to be a slightly longer journey than today, but by the end of the afternoon we’ll be in beautiful Luang Prabang, so stay posted!