Luang Prabang

A shiny mosaic at Wat Xieng Thong.

Day 9 (Feb.1): Wat Xieng Thong, Phou Si, and Dyen Sabai
It's difficult to get lost in the old town of Luang Prabang: it's just one big loop on the top of a hill. I wandered around for a day with no real plans in mind, but it was nice to run into old friends and make new ones.

I met a guy from Chengdu whose English name is Flame. He was very friendly and eager to talk about everything from politics to Taiwanese food. Even though he was from China, he loved Taiwan (and really disliked Chinese communism). We walked to Wat Xieng Thong, the city's most famous temple, where we ran into Corine and Ian! It was hot, but the temples were cool inside, so it was nice to explore and take photos. Overall, it wasn't very interesting, though. I was getting temple fatigue -- they all look the same after a while.

Small Buddha sculptures at Wat Xieng Thong.

Later in the afternoon, Flame got a massage while I got a smoothie and played with free WiFi. Internet access is advertised all over the city, but it's very rarely reliable. In fact, Flame and I actually met at the guesthouse because he asked me how to access its WiFi. It wasn't easy -- I had to go out onto the balcony to get just a few bars.

Anyway, as the afternoon wore on, we decided to hike to the very top of the local hill, Phou Si, to watch the sunset. This wasn't the best of ideas, since it ended up being so overwhelmingly crowded that any enjoyment of the natural beauty was inevitably spoiled by hordes of people taking photos and being loud. It was so ridiculous that it became funny, actually. But I'd paid the price of 20,000kip and a hike to see this, so I joined the crowd and tried to take some photos, too.

The sunset was still gorgeous. It was just hard to appreciate it with all the people around.

Me, Green, and Flame at Phou Si.

At the top of the hill, Flame and I ran into Green, a guy from Taiwan whom I met briefly in between the border crossing into Laos and the slow boat pier at Huay Xai. Green had taken a bus up north to Luang Namtha and had finally found his way back down to Luang Prabang. Realizing that they could have a lot of interesting things to talk about, I introduced them to each other and then tuned out as they talked about their respective countries in Mandarin too fast for me to really follow along.

That evening, I met up with Greg and P, Corine and Ian, and their friend Chrissie at the nice restaurant across the bamboo bridge* from the old city. It's called Dyen Sabai, and I highly recommend it. Their specialty is Lao fondue, which is similar to Cambodian barbecue. Essentially, it's meat grilled on coals like a barbecue, plus a heated broth for cooking other things hot-pot style. There was buffalo meat, Lao sausage, and delicious dishes with eggplant including fried eggplant and baba ganoush. Everything was to die for and also served with class.

The restaurant's atmosphere is also great -- instead of four walls, patrons dine in large open-air huts and sit on the floor with bamboo mats and cushions. It was wonderful. It was also cheap -- we ordered several of the dinner sets and lots of happy hour drinks and ate until we were beyond stuffed, but our total bill came out to less than 100USD. My share of the bill came out to 116,000kip, or $14.50. And this was my splurge meal of the week. Easily four times the amount I'd been paying for meals up until then, but compared to South Korea or the US, it was an unbelievable deal. So, if you are ever in Luang Prabang, be sure to try Dyen Sabai.

Lao fondue: a grill plus a hot pot. That there is buffalo meat! It's basically beef.

Greg, Ian, Chrissie, Corinne, and P, having a wonderful dinner in an open-air hut.

Of course, now that the city is booming with tourism, there are undoubtedly many other high-end restaurants that can provide the same level of class and fine dining, but this place really was something special. I think the good company added to it.

I ended the night at a bar owned by a French man, chilling with the three funny and friendly Brits I'd befriended over the past few days. After just one day in Luang Prabang, I already loved it.

- - -

*If you are ever in Luang Prabang, beware the evening bridge toll scammer! During daylight hours, tourists who cross the bridge must pay toll; this contributes to the maintenance of the bridge, which is washed away every rainy season and rebuilt. But after sunset, the crossing is supposed to be free. That didn't stop a clever swindler from installing himself in the toll booth to collect fees from unsuspecting tourists. I was lucky to be crossing with P, who marched right past the toll booth without even giving the guy a second glance. And the guy was gone when we crossed back after dinner...

The bamboo bridge in Luang Prabang

One Night in a Village Somewhere in Laos

Day 8 (Jan. 31): Off the beaten track
I left off last time with scenes from the Mekong slow boat. It's been almost two months since I've written about my trip to Thailand and Laos (and over three months since I actually went). But this weekend, I'm going to see Greg, the American expat teacher I first met in Laos, so I thought it appropriate to write a bit about the circumstances of our acquaintanceship. In a nutshell, we got to know each other well when he convinced me to get off of the boat half a day early and spend the night in a small village in the Laotian jungle, which I absolutely did not regret!

So this was on day two of the Mekong boat trip; the boat left Pakbeng at 9:00am and was scheduled to arrive in Luang Prabang after eight hours. I passed the morning reading, playing Boggle, and chatting with Corine and Ian. Time passed fairly quickly. Around 3:00pm, Greg, who had explained his situation to the captain, pointed out the bend in the river where he knew this village to be and signalled for the boat to stop.

Somewhere in Laos... (taken by Corine as the boat pulled away)

We pulled up close to a huge stack of driftwood on an otherwise nondescript sandy bank and hopped off. Everyone on the boat was staring at us, for obvious reasons. What on earth would two clearly non-local guys be doing disembarking the boat in the middle of nowhere? I didn't really know, myself. I was just tagging along. Greg, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was doing.

As it turns out, he has been visiting this village regularly, about once every couple of years, since 1999. He's friends with one of the families in the village, a single mother, P, who has five children. Actually, in some ways he's a surrogate dad to them, or maybe like Santa Claus, because he's close with the children and brings them snacks and chocolate milk, photos he's taken on pevious visits, and useful items like medicine, candles, and batteries from the city. I was amazed at the precious relationship he's built with this family over the years. He knows so much about them and fits right in, even though there's a slight language barrier. All the other villagers joke that he should just marry his friend and come to live there permanently, but I think his plan for the future is to open a hostel or small tourism agency in Thailand or Laos and continue supporting and visiting the family a few times a year. Already I have tons of respect for his generosity and heart for people whom he met almost on accident fifteen years ago.

A heart as big as the adorable baby he's holding.

I was honored, then, that Greg invited me to visit the village and see what it was like for myself. His family there enjoys having guests, and they were very generous. I talked with them, took a tour of the village to see its buildings, farms, and infrastructure (e.g. generators powered by several nearby streams), and took tons of photos. We met a group of the village men who weren't working but simply sitting around drinking a very strong liquor they called "Whiskey Lao". It was disgusting, but I smiled through the burning taste and chatted in my very limited Lao. (Basically, "Hello", "How old are you", and "I'm from America".)

The farms are by the river, but the banks change every year as flooding patterns change, so the farms change accordingly.

A hydro-powered generator for the village's limited electricity. They do have TVs!

One of their school's classrooms. Elementary education is provided here, but for middle school and beyond, students must travel to another village downriver.

Machete-made machine gun!

Dinner that evening was an interesting experience. P killed one of their farm's chicken and made a stew with it, accompanied with traditional sticky rice and lettuce. The interesting part of it was actually that we ate by candlelight because the house had no electricity and it got dark very quickly in the mountainous jungle. It was very quiet and peaceful; I don't know if Lao people generally don't talk during meals or if silence was just the modus operandi when Greg came to visit. It seemed like Greg could communicate a lot without saying very much.


After dinner, I broke out the pack of Oreos I'd brought along as a snack and showed the kids how to dunk their Oreos into the milk Greg had brought. I also showed them all the photos of Thailand I'd taken on my camera, let them play with my camera, and tried to teach them how to hand whistle, with limited success. More exciting was thumb-wrestling and Korean-style rock-paper-scissors. I had a great time with the kids! I'm so glad that language is no obstacle when it comes to simply having fun.

Save for the stars, it was pitch black by the time we went to sleep. It was blacker than black, actually. The windows were closed and the lamp was blown out by 10pm. When I lay down and looked up at the ceiling, I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or shut. It was almost scary, because I can't remember ever being in such complete darkness. But it definitely had a soporiferous effect, and I was out soon enough.

And that is how I spent the Lunar New Year of 2014. Happy Year of the Horse!

I may have eaten this angry-looking guy.

Selfies by candlelight!

Day 9 (Feb. 1): At long last, Luang Prabang!
The next morning, I woke up still in completely blackness and was a bit disoriented. At 7:30am, Greg, P, and I left the village and took a local boat -- really a canoe with a motor attached -- down the river toward Luang Prabang. Our skiff stopped at a larger bank where other people were waiting for a larger boat. As it turns out, the Mekong is an avenue, the main channel of transportation for the hundreds of villages that run its length. Small skiffs are like tuk-tuks that take you short distances, and larger boats are like buses. Many people take these river buses to work or to the marketplaces in the city every single day. It was fascinating.

Boat #1. I was really scared I'd topple out of it and into the river.

Boat #2 was like a bus! It was twice as full by the time we reached our destination.

We were packed in a narrow boat that Greg told me was what the Mekong slow boats used to be way back before tourists and backpackers began traveling up- and downriver in huge hordes. I watched a huge variety of people -- ethnic Lao, Burmese, Hmong, and more -- go about their daily morning routine. It was impossible not to bump elbows with P's friends, who happily fed me sticky rice and fried noodles on leaves. They began to joke that I could get a Lao wife from one of their villages for a month's salary, and I politely declined the offer.

By 11am, we had arrived at Luang Prabang -- and in the city proper, not the scammy pier that the slow boat had stopped at. Luang Prabang is charming and lively, almost shockingly so after one night in a small village. I wondered what P's opinion of "city life" was. But it seems that she comes into town fairly often. It's only three hours and two boats away, after all.

Luang Prabang's river pier! The boats are so colorful, and the monks fit right in.

Because of the holiday, the city was overflowing with tourists. It wouldn't have been easy for me to find a guesthouse had I not been with Greg, who knew of a good place with a few open rooms. 80,000kip for a single room and shared bathroom for one night was probably a good price for this season. It was actually really nice to have space completely to myself after a week of close quarters.

I cleaned up, ate lunch, and then set out for a day adventure in the World Heritage City! Next time: temples and tourists, sunsets and splurging on food!

I'd like to see these kids again one day. I wonder how likely that is to haapen?

Chiang Mai / Chiang Rai, Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos via Slow Boat

This is for reference for fellow travelers who want to take the two-day slow boat down the Mekong from the Thailand-Laos border crossing. As of 2014, the northern border crossing happens on the Fourth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge (no more ferries across the Mekong to Huay Xai), from which obtaining your ticket for the slow boat is fairly easy. It takes 3 days from Chiang Mai or 2 days from Chiang Rai, if you hustle. Here's what my friend and I did, starting in Chiang Mai.

First, money conversions and approximations.

1USD = 8,000LAK (Lao kip); multiply by 8 and add three zeroes/thousand.

1USD = 32THB (Thai baht); mulitply by 3 and add a zero.

100,000LAK = 12.50USD; take away three zeroes/thousand and divide by eight.

100THB = 3USD; take away a zero and divide by 3.

January 29th, 2014: We caught a tuk-tuk from our hostel to the Chiang Mai Bus Terminal 3 (Arcade) and bought tickets for the Green Bus to Chiang Rai. The service is modern and professional-looking, with computer booking. Buses leave from platforms 20/21. My X-class ticket (middle of three bus classes) cost 185THB.

Our bus left at 10:30am on the dot, and the trip took three hours. It was a very safe, smooth ride with nice countryside views and complimentary water and snacks! VIP travel -- I was pleasantly surprised. We arrived at Chiang Rai Bus Terminal 1. (The newer Terminal 2 is is the first stop, but it is outside the city.)

Green Bus counter. This photo (and more) from biglittleplanet!

We spent the rest of the day in Chiang Rai and visited the White Temple (incredible and well worth seeing) and the night market. We stayed at FUN-D Hostel, which I highly recommend: they are familiar with travelers just passing through on the way to Laos and are very helpful and knowledgeable, not to mention that their facilities are first-class.

Extremely helpful chart detailing various ways to get from Chiang Rai to Luang Prabang, provided by FUN-D Hostel. My friend and I took the yellow and purple routes. Click to enlarge.

Tuk-tuk from CM hostel to CM bus terminal: 50THB per person

Green Bus X-class from CM to CR: 185THB

Walk from CR bus terminal to CR hostel: 0THB

One night in mixed dorm at FUN-D hostel: 260THB

Day 1 total: 495THB (~15USD)

January 30th, 2014: We were up at 5:30am to walk from our hostel to Chiang Rai Bus Terminal. We caught a local bus at 6:30am, headed for Chiang Khong. It was very easy to get on this bus; if you look like a traveler, the folks at the bus terminal will point you in the right direction. This local bus was 2/3 local Thai and 1/3 travelers with their backpacks crammed into the back. After about two hours of fields, fog, and a breathtaking sunrise, we arrived at a bus stop in the middle of nowhere (still far south of Chiang Khong) and were shepherded off the bus. This was the stop for the Fourth Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, and the only way to get to border control from this bus stop is by overpriced songthaew, 50THB per person.

First bus 8am, last bus 6pm. Fare is 20THB for passengers with one bag. Before 8:30am, between 12-1pm, and after 4:30pm, fare is 5THB more... because of reasons.

Take note: there are transportation fees at every junction on this trip. It's gross, but everyone has to do it. The songthaew ride was a mere five minutes. In retrospect, we could have walked the distance and not missed the boat, since we were early enough. At border control, we filled out departure cards and paid 20THB to cross the bridge on a nice bus. The journey was uneventful.

Leaving Thailand from Chiang Khong Immigration. You will be in good company; hundreds of people do this every day.

The shuttle bus that carries passengers across the bridge (no more ferries that cross the river from Chiang Khong). Chiang Rai and Bokeo are the names of the two adjacent provinces in Thailand and Laos.

Crossing the Friendship Bridge over the large Mekong.

Laos!

Welcome to Laos! Get ready to shed money.

It was about 9am. At the Friendship Bridge Immigration line, a large group of travelers of all kinds was milling around wondering together how this works. Immigration was a circus. A slow, nobody-gives-a-flying-fart circus. Fill out your departure card, wait in line forever as they process your passport. It cost me 35USD for my visa-upon-arrival. I'd forgotten a passport picture, so they charged me an extra 40THB (but it wasn't to pay for a photo at the office; it was just a fee). Travelers trying to pay in baht were charged 1400THB, which is more than the American equivalent... Anyway, visa prices vary depending on your country of citizenship, so look it up beforehand. My friend and I were stuck in long lines at immigration for about one hour.

A chart for visa-on-arrival fees, also provided by FUN-D. Click to enlarge.

At about 10am, upon exiting immigration a confused and exhausted mass, we were herded into songthaews to get to the bus terminal (for one traveler headed north to Luang Namtha) and then the ferry pier in Huay Xai (for all the rest of us). It cost 100THB per person for a 16km ride, which was extremely difficult to bargain down.

Huay Xai was just a blur; we went straight to the river. Up on a hill is the office to buy your ticket -- 220,000LAK or 950THB -- and the boats are down by the water. There were about six boats, but only two were leaving that day. There are no signs dictating when the boats are to leave. They leave when they are full, or whenever the captain decides to leave. Ours happened to leave exactly at 11am, which is supposedly the correct time, but who really knows?

The slow boat pier. Boats leave wheenver.

The colorful boats that cruise down the Mekong.

The inside of the boat. Most seats are car seats taken from old minivans; some boats have less comfortable wooden benches. There is also floor seating in a back room, by the loud engine. (It seems like locals prefer this space, while the main seating area is nearly all foreigners.)

We arrived in Pakbeng, the halfway point, at 4:45pm, about six hours later. The boat ride itself was pleasant. Bring a book, cards, and your own snacks, as the boat's snacks are very expensive. It will be full of foreigners, so make some friends and get a deal on a guesthouse in Pakbeng, although all of them seem to have the same rates. I split with friends on a room with two double beds and bathroom for 500THB total (about 170THB each), not a bad deal at all. Pakbeng is a very odd town. It seems to exist only for the travelers spending one night in transit to Luang Prabang. Food is overpriced (full dinner for 180THB) and WiFi is advertised in every building (but only works in a few). There is nothing to do in the town except hang out with friends until it gets dark. Best to sleep early, anyway.

You'll notice I'm quoting some prices in baht thus far in Laos; at least in Huay Xai and Pakbeng, baht are accepted for transactions (although kip are preferred), and the two lonely ATMs in Pakbeng dispense kip. I relied on baht until I could exchange baht for kip at a bank in Luang Prabang.

Walk from CR hostel to CR bus terminal: 0THB

Local bus from CR to CK: 65THB

Tuk-tuk from rando CK bus stop to border control: 50THB

Bus to cross 4th Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge: 20THB

Immigration; visa-on-arrival for US citizens: 35USD

*If you don't have USD, they will charge 1400THB, which is about $8 more.

Immigration; pointless fee for not having a passport photo ready: 40THB

Tuk-tuk from immigration to slow boat pier in Huay Xai: 100THB

Slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang (via Pakbeng): 220,000LAK / 950THB

Guesthouse in Pakbeng: 170THB

Day 2 total: 1395THB + 35USD (~78USD)

Pakbeng's street. All the guesthouses and restaurants are basically the same; take your pick. Notice that we are now in a Communist country!

January 31st, 2014: We got up early and stocked up on food (about 300THB for a sandwich, bananas, and some pastries; enough to last me all day), then headed down to the pier at 8:30am to make sure we got seats on the boat that would depart earlier. No seats are reserved for the second leg of the journey. The boats were "scheduled" to leave at 9am and 10am; the 9am boat took off just before 9:15am.

The water is deeper and the rapids a hint rougher on this part of the river, but otherwise it's mostly the same. Reading, snacking, and napping help pass the time quickly.

It was 8 hours from Pakbeng to Luang Prabang. They will drop you off at a pier some ways out of town, from which you must take a songthaew to the city proper. (There is no good reason for this. A few years ago they needed to clear boat traffic around the actual piers for a festival, hence the change, but since it's such a lucrative venture for the songthaew drivers, no one bothered to switch back.)

Day 3 total: the price of a songthaew as best as you can negotiate!

Congrats; you just took the scenic route from Thailand to Laos for about a hundred bucks. Welcome to Luang Prabang! It's a beautiful city.

I hope you found this travel guide useful. Feel free to leave questions or comments for me below!