adventures on the slow boat to Laos

Although I had an absolute blast in Thailand, after 4 weeks it was time to move on. And I don't just mean that figuratively - my Thai visa was about to expire, so legally speaking, I had to get out of the country asap! So, I decided to go North, and took the slow boat to Laos. And no, "he's taking the slow boat to Laos" is not a euphemism like "a few fries short of a happy meal" or "not playing with a full deck" - it really is just that, a boat which slowly but surely progresses down a river into Laos (arriving at Luang Probang).

The first day of travel was a 6 hour bus drive to the border, where we stopped in a town whose only draw for tourists was its proximity to the Laos border. I spent the night in a dilapidated guesthouse with a mattress which was closer to a block of wood than a mattress (but on the bright side, at least I had a nice view across the river to Laos). The next morning the real journey began. Crossing the border itself was surprisingly easy - it took no more than 15 minutes. One interesting thing I discovered is that in Laos they use 3 currencies: the US Dollar, the Thai Baht, and their own currency, the Kip. Sometime it's better to pay in a specific currency to get the best deal. For example, everyone in our group except me paid 1,400 Baht for the Laos Visa (about $45), but I asked if I could pay in dollars, and paid only $35. Good thing I paid attention in math class!

Once we crossed the border the group helping us with our tour proceeded to make us wait about 400 meters from the pier for over an hour (which actually ran past the time the boat was supposed to leave), for no clear reason. As far as I could tell, their main goal was to try to convince as many of us as possible to "upgrade" our ticket and pay extra to take a bus instead. Our theory is that the bus was actually very cheap, and they would just pocket the money that the people who "upgraded" had spent on the boat. They actually went as far as to tell us that the town we would be staying in would be very expensive, and had no electricity! Luckily, I was un-swayed by this propaganda, and stuck with the boat, which I'm very glad I did. The boat ride itself was actually quite enjoyable. The scenery on the river was gorgeous, and it was very relaxing to just hang out on the boat, talk to fellow travelers, reading, watch the final season of Lost on my iPod (awesome!), and even enjoy beerlao (they had a mini-store on board).

Ater the first day of travel we stopped for the evening in Bengbang, a tiny town which revolved around the slow boat. Contrary to the misinformation we'd been fed, they did indeed have electricity, and the rooms were actually the cheapest I'd seen - I paid 50 Baht ($1.66!) to share a room with a guy I'd met on the boat. I spent the evening with several other travelers at our guesthouse's restaurant, enjoying Laos food, Laos beer, and being entertained by Marco Polo, the very amusing, whiskey-fireball-breathing proprietor of the guesthouse.

The next day got off to a strange start when, after 30 minutes on the water we pulled back into the town we'd started from without any sort of explanation. But after that our journey continued as expected, and we spent another relaxing day on the water, discussing how glad we were we hadn't switched over to the bus. And that evening the boat arrived in Luang Probang, where I'll be starting my adventures in Laos.

Pictures below, enjoy!

me with my coolest souvenir yet - my $1 teddy-bear seat cushion

the view from the boat

the slow boat

playing cards on the boat with some fellow travelers

the view from our guesthouse in Pakbeng (the halfway point of the trip)

more views from the boat