We started our morning by taking a Tuk-Tuk from the hotel to the Thai-Lao border. We crossed the border, got our visa on arrival and went into Laos without any problem. We were greeted by our cruise tour guide (Mr. Vong), who took us together with an American couple to the boat.
To our surprise, we were the only people taking the cruise: four people on a massive boat that usually hosts 40 in high season. The boat was great, very comfortable, with lots of space and places to sit and also to lie down to rest. The design of all the boats in the Mekong are very similar and the main difference is the seat configuration, type of seats and distribution of the space. From all the boats we saw, ours was certainly the best! - For reference we took Shompoo Cruises.
It was a two-day cruise with an overnight stay in a town called Pakbeng, and a few stops to see some small villages were local tribes still live. This included a place where they do textiles and make Lao Lao whisky (a kind of distilled rice wine), and the Pak Ou caves, also called the Thousand Buddha Caves, which is an ancient pilgrimage site in the region. Our experience in the cruise was amazing, we were very well taken care of by our tour guide and we had a great time with Mike and Michelle (American couple) on our journey.
The landscapes we saw in these two days were stunningly beautiful, always very sunny (and of course very hot), with a nice breeze cooling down the boat, and homemade Lao food cooked by the family who own the boat. I think the experience was so incredibly good also because we were only four guests in the boat. I could imagine with 40 people, it wouldn't have been as enjoyable, so doing the experience in low season was great in spite of the intense heat (more than 40 degrees at times with very strong sun).
The stops we did were good too. Pakbeng is a very small town, essentially to stay overnight while doing the Mekong cruise. There we found a great little bar down by the Mekong, where we enjoyed a few of the local beer, the imaginatively named Beerlao, with Mike and Michelle. The Pak Ou caves were also quite impressive, having so many Buddha statues and also an improvised floating pier where boats moor. Also, it was quite surprising to see the very basic conditions local tribes live in (we visited a village from the Khamu tribe), and the very basic process used to make Lao Lao whisky and rice wine. They put snakes, and black scorpions inside of the whisky bottles, claiming they increase vitality. We steered clear of buying those, and just bought a small bottle of the black rice wine instead.
All in all, a marvellous experience that we would recommend to anybody who want to come to Laos. So far Laos has been above our expectations and we are now looking forward to the next few days in Luang Prabang, a town we have heard a lot of good things about!
Omar and Phil
Relaxing on the cruise
Lunch in the boat
Mekong River
Arriving at Pakbeng, Laos
Welcome drink in a bar in Pakbeng
Having BeerLao at the Happy Bar in Pakbeng
Buddha Cave
Lao Lao Whiskey with a cobra and scorpion
This featured blog entry was written by omarp from the blog Slow Route to Sydney.
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