Friday, March 16, 2012 Cruising down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang

Friday, March 16, 2012 Cruising down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang

We were up and checking out of the hotel by 6am and got a reduction in price as the packed breakfast had not materialized. We walked swiftly to the travel agent for our transfer to the boat.... Took several phone calls to the agent now in China to get ourselves squared away, what with no transport to the boat, being put on the"wrong boat", shifted to another boat, and then moved back to the same boat we had originally boarded. For someone from the town to have gone to China is not unusual as this town has a long history of being the disembarkation point for Yuanese caravans led by Chinese Muslims on their way to Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.

The Thai tourist group that had chartered two boats, amongst which we had been shuffled,arrived at 7:15 and we were off by 7:30 am. The boat is about 34 meters long and is carrying about 45 people. We have our own little booth at the back near the dining/card playing area and bar. There are two western bathrooms on board. The breakfast buffet consisted of rice soup, pickled eggs, baguettes and a fried dough item along with coffee and tea. Lunch was served at noon with rice, noodles, chicken green curry, sweet pork, stir fried vegetables and tofu and son tam salad. Only the salad was too spicy for us to eat.

The Thai group is celebrating their 40th college reunion so interesting to observe - a much different experience than a younger back packing group. The card games going on at the front and the back of the boat are for 20 baht a hand of Pok Peng. From what I determined only totals of 4 to 9 are worth holding. Face cards count as zero. That is all I have determined of this game that went on for the entire almost 13 hour trip. The other activity on board was karaoke and dancing.... A DVD of the Thai equivalent of dancing with the stars was played while members of the group sang and danced. Beer Lao was consumed by the men but not really the women but they were enjoying the cards and TV entertainment. We spent most of our time reading a novel or the Lonely Planet guide book and getting a list of things to do, see, and places to eat in Luang Prabang.

Initially the river was the border between Thailand and Laos and it was obvious looking at the two river banks that Thailand's was more developed and Laos was largely undeveloped almost all the way to Luang Prabang. There was a bridged being funded primarily be the Chinese across the river to link Thailand and Laos. Then the river turned inland and Laos was on both sides of the border with no development really along the whole river except for a couple of ferries that serviced graded roads.

So while not absorbed observing the goings on onboard we studied the Mekong river banks and the flow of the river. The level of water in the river is getting almost too low for this trip as the hot dry season is coming up. Thus you see larger boulders, more sand banks, ripples and little rapids for the boat to navigated through. The engine is a turbo which allows this "slow boat" to do this trip in one day versus the usual 2 days with the required overnight in Pak Beng. The diesel engine is the same that is used in a 10 wheel truck.

The Mekong river near Huay Xai is known for the endangered giant Mekong catfish which with 12 years of growth will measure 2 to 3 meters in length and weigh up to 300 kg. we saw various methods of fishing along the banks either with throw nets, or nets stretched over a narrow pass with the use of bamboo poles. We saw cultivating of peanuts along the sandy shores that appear when the river water has receded, water buffaloes, including an inordinate number of pink (albino ones), and women and children panning for gold. They seem to be using a wooden pan and can earn 500 - 600 baht a day with the current price of gold. It must be very lucrative as you saw large numbers of women by the Lao Loom villages involved in this activity. We also saw groves of teak trees higher up on the banks.

The river has been quite narrow the whole trip and it is easy to see both side of the banks clearly. While we started with morning midst that lasted till almost 10:30, and a brisk breeze that made us think we should have brought a wind jacket by the time it was noon, we we had removed our long sleeve shirts and just had a t-shirt on later in the afternoon. The whole trip we had a wonderful fresh breeze, towards sunset, you could start to smell the smoke and see the the smoke and fires going that are such a part of the slash and burn agriculture that is practiced in this area.

The last 2 hours on the river were lovely as the light was so nice. We arrived at the riverbank dock, climbed up to the road, and took a song taw to our hotel for $3--it turned out close enough we almost could have walked.

We are staying at the Villa Somphong in the historic temple district. While our room is new, clean and with a balcony and view there is no Internet service in the room so we will see about changing tomorrow as we are here until the 21st. We had a lovely Lao meal at Rosella Fusion overlooking the Nam River for all of $16 including wine and dessert.