Slow Boat in the Rapids

Crossing the border into a new country is often a slightly expensive experience - visas, taxes, extra charges for bikes, tourist tax and very occasionally an extra charge for giving your passport/bag/shoes/dignity back just because you look like you can afford it. However on arrival in Laos, we discovered that we are millionaires!

Just over 1 million Kip was equal to £35 at time of writing, and 250 thousand Kip secured us a clean room with hot/tepid water for our first night in the town of Houayxay on the banks of the Mekong, directly opposite where we’d been the night before in Thailand.

A new country gives us whole new set of culinary delights to explore, although we might skip the BBQ rat, crispy bamboo worms and deep fried toads. Laotian roads are frequently dirt tracks (yay!) and a brief discussion at the border with a pair of Irish motorcyclists tells us that some roads in the north are currently (maybe always) washed out. The traditional and possibly most relaxing (?!) way to travel in Laos is by slow boat. When in Rome.

The slow boat is not exactly slow when it’s travelling downstream, rainy season has only recently finished (May to October) and as boat dwellers we both know that our comparatively tiny engine would struggle to make any progress up stream on the Mekong at the current rate of flow. This river is BIG!

We arrive in plenty of time for the slow boat’s advertised departure time, find our distressed ex minibus seats mounted on wooden slats but not really fixed to anything. Sit through the compulsory 1 hour delay - wishing we’d stopped for an extra coffee while we wait for the gap year crew (who bought tickets and then got wasted last night) to stagger on board. Plus 6 hours of genuine travel time (punctuated by slightly nervous looking locals trying to go about their everyday business in remote places) brings us to Pak Beng.

We stay longer than most in Pak Beng (which we highly recommend- see next blog) and discover that the town only really wakes up once the slow boat docks each day and even then only really hits full power at the weekends. Laotian’s love to party but they also have real jobs when all the tourists move on - apart from the fun times crew who were very keen that we get off our sweaty bikes for a mid morning Beer Lao.

Next stop Luang Prabang- UNESCO world heritage site and popular city break destination for many Chinese tourists.