World Laos Houayxai

Vix & Alan in S E Asia Vix & Alan's S.E.Asia Travel Blog

Crossing into Laos Dec 23, 2006

We crossed the border on 16th December into Laos (Huay Xia) from the most Northern and least-used route of Chiang Khong after catching a local bus from Chiang Rai. A short ride in a Tuk Tuk

Tuk Tuks 'waiting' for business

to the immigration point (avoiding the pretend immigration officials handing out forms and asking for money along the way) and a minor delay due to having mis-placed my passport photos, and we were in Laos.

We booked into the nearest guesthouse to the ferry and repaired for a cold 'Beer Lao' which has since become our staple thirst-quencher alongside some fab home-grown Lao coffee. Our landlady, a jolly woman, recommended as knowledgable by Lonely Planet, said she could arrange our ferry the next day and relieved us of some dollars. However, when the communal Tuk Tuk arrived the next day, she handed us back a large wadge of Kip and seemed to indicate we'd have to buy the tickets ourselves although she had 'booked' the ferry. It transpired that, having lost a ticket agency franchaise, she was reduced to trying to make a few thousand Kip on currency exchanging (or about £1.50). Things got even more confusing when she realised she'd 'paid back' almost double what she should have done to the six or so tourists she'd organised the trip for and was in imminent danger of bankruptcy. In the end, we took our money back and all bought our own tickets at the main ferry stop.

The first part of the journey took us to a place called Pak Beng, and after spending one night in this sleepy border village in a hotel that was so recently opened it didn't yet have a name, and experiencing our first (and so far, only) power cut), we got up early

Up early (unnecessarily) to catch the fe...

to catch a slow boat

Slow boat (7 hours) down the Mekong

down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. An advertised departure time of 8.45am was optimistic, the boat finally departing at around 10.30 but we watched the world go by and the ferry captain and his staff count the money from around 120 passengers at least forty times . This isn't too surprising, however, as the country runs three currency systems - Lao Kip (appropriately named!), Thai Baht and US dollars. There are about 18,000 Kip to £1 so large wadges of notes are not uncommon here.

The journey took some 7 hours and was quite exciting with occasional rapids, glimpses of working elephants on the silted sandbanks and riverside villages along the way.

Nearing Luang Prabang

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We finally got in around dusk

Arriving in Luang Prabang

and booked into the Jaliya Guesthouse which we'd managed to call earlier using our new 'Lao chip' phonecard and our newly-acquired Lao language skills. (The universal greeting is Saibaidee which Alan has successfully mastered by calling our Zebedee!! to everyone he meets.