The Lao boat experience

Location: Bangkok
Country: Thailand

---

Spent a couple of days in Luang Prabang. It is a very pleasant town with not too much to see. Saw some temples, though I pretty much feel that I have seen enough of those to last me a life time.
Every night the main tourist street closes to traffic and they have a night market which is really nice.

From Luang Prabang I decided to head to Thailand. There was some more things to see in Laos, but to be honest I have grown a little tired of travelling and just wanted to get to the islands in Thailand. Before heading for the islands I wanted to stop in Chang Mai in the north of Thailand to do an elephant trek.
To get to Chang Mai from Luang Prabang I had five options to chose from, none of which were extremely appealing :
Option A: Get a one hour flight. The main fault with this option is that only Lao Airlines fly on this route, and flying with them is pretty much equivalent to committing suicide. They are one of the worst airlines, they have very old plains and refuse to publish their crash statistics. So I decided to give this option a miss.
Option B: Get a bus that takes about three days on dreadful roads. No need to explain why I didn’t chose this option.
Option C: Get a night bus to Vientiane, from there a night train to Bangkok and from there a night bus to Chang Mai. Quite the long way round, and I knew that if I arrived in Bangkok, I would probably be too lazy to head to Chang Mai and will just go to the islands.
Option D: Get a six hour fast boat to the Thai border and from there a six hour bus to Chang Mai. Would have been the best option, only that according to the “Lonely Planet”, there is at least one fatality a week on the fast boat, and you should avoid going on them at all costs.
Option E: Get a two day slow boat to the Thai border, stopping at some town on the way for the night, and from there a six hour bus to Chang Mai.
This seemed to be the safest option, so I chose it.

The chairs on the boat were the most uncomfortable wooden benches you could imagine (suddenly the local bus in India seemed comfortable). The first day was supposed to take nine hours.
About two and a half hours after leaving Luang Prabang the boat engine suddenly died. Though the engine did make quite an awful noise, the last thing you wanted is to stop hearing it.
They managed to steer us to the river bank despite the really strong current. The Lao people started getting off the boat, when suddenly they began running of in a panic. At this point it was rather scary, didn’t know if we were drowning or if the whole thing was about to blow up or what. All the foreigners were just standing on the boat trying to figure out what was going on and what we should do.
The biggest question – do we get off and abandon our backpacks to an unknown fate?
We all got off (I would say that there were about 25 of us), and the locals were struggling to hold the boat with this rope, whilst the river was making it’s best effort to fight them. The chances of the boat not drifting away were not looking good.

I was not about to lose my backpack. I organized the foreigners to get all our backpacks of the boat, and felt calmer when my bag was on dry land.
So there we are, sitting on the sand by the river, the sun blazing, no shade in site, no food and hardly any water left, and absolutely no idea how long we were going to be spending there.
We were quite surprised by the Lao efficiency, when 2 hours later our salvation boat appeared.
This boat had no seats at all, which was much better, as the floor was more comfortable than the wooden benches and it also gave a good atmosphere all sitting together.

The boat sailed off to the sound of our cheers.
We cheered too soon. Five minutes after leaving we had to stop because the propeller, or something of that sort, broke hitting the rocks. Luckily they did have a spare one and we were only delayed for half an hour.
By now we had a little group of forgings that were getting friendly and I was sitting with two really sweet Israeli guys playing cards.
All seemed to be going well.
The catch was that we couldn’t make it to the town where we were supposed to sleep before dark, and the boat can not sail in the dark. We stopped at this tiny village and were told that we have to sleep on the boat. It gets pretty cold and night, and I remind you that we had no food and drink either. Not a great situation.
Then this guy came along and said that there was a guesthouse and we should come with him. I got my two Israeli guys to come quickly, as it was obvious that there would not be enough room for everyone.
So we go off marching in the dark, about 25 of us, with our backpacks, through these sand dunes. Must have been quite a site.
We arrive at this shed which is the house of a family in the village, there was the room were the family slept and one room where they could accommodate us. They could only fit 15 people in, so it was lucky that we were ahead in the line. The rest of the people had to go back to sleep on the boat.
We got sticky rice and plain noodles to eat. But after hardly eating all day, it was delicious.

We asked for water and were told that there is only beer. After buying over priced beer that we didn’t really want, some of the guys found the shop in the village and found that there was water. They just wanted to make more of a profit on us, so they didn’t tell us. Lovely Lao people. But at least we got water in the end.
By this time there was a real bond forming in the group and the atmosphere was really cool.
After supper they laid out mattresses on the floor in the whole room, was rather a tight fit.

The chances of me being able to sleep in such conditions were extremely low, until one of my new friends produced a Valium pill, I slept like a baby.
The next day we headed off at dawn to the town where we were supposed to sleep originally, with hope that we would make the next boat heading to the border.
Thankfully, we made it.
There were benches on this one, but our little group chose to sit on the floor at the back as it was more comfortable.
We passed the time with about eight of us playing cards (Apparently Taki is not an Israeli game and is known abroad as Uno).
We had a great time on the way, as by this point we were best mates, having been through so much together.
We reached the border town too late to cross to Thailand, and spent the night in Laos.

The next day I headed off with the two Israeli guys and two Aussies to Thailand. After crossing the border we had a 7 hours bus to Chang Mai.
On the way we got friendly with another girl and we all found a guesthouse together, which wasn’t an easy task, as the city seemed to be packed.

My reason for arriving in Chang Mai was that I wanted to ride an elephant.
So yesterday I went on a day tour. They didn’t have a tour with only elephant riding, so I also had to walk for an hour (!!!) to see some water fall and there was water rafting. The rafting I did not do, I have had enough of rivers.
The elephant ride was really cool though and I’m glad I did it.


Last night I got a 12 hour bus from Chang Mai to Bangkok. I was going to stay and explore the north of Thailand a bit, but all I feel like doing right now is heading for the islands and chilling out.
I will probably spent a couple of nights in Bangkok and head south.