We had an early (6AM) pick up this morning and drove some 90 minutes to the Thai border at Chiang Khong where we exited Laos. The Mora hotel prepared a box breakfast we enjoyed in the car on the way. Our guide, Jackie, is a keen gardener (I think it’s his happy place) and has picked some ‘rambutan’, a bizarre looking Asian fruit, from his garden for us to take with us. Very nice. Once arriving at the border, we bid goodbye to Jackie and driver Chip.
Exiting Thailand was quick and easy. Once through Thai border control we took a crowded shuttle bus taking us across Friendship Bridge No. 4 to Laos. Lots of backpacking students from the US & the UK are also heading to Laos. The Laos side was a different animal – slow and not at all easy. It’s an odd process. First you fill out arrival and departure forms that are quite opaque in meaning. There’s no one there to provide guidance. Then you get in line number 1, handover your passport, paperwork and a 20 Thai Bhat (each) ‘convenience fee’ that’s not documented anywhere. Then you wait. Eventually, a different person starts calling out names and gives your passport back. You then get in line 2 and give them your Passport and $40 (USD) each. You must pay in US dollars. And, not just any dollars. Very crisp, very new dollars – no tears even if miniscule and no ink markings. They are quite picky about your dollars and will reject them for no reason. We were getting worried we were going to run out of acceptable bills even though we had picked through the money before we left the US.
Once we have our passports stamped & paid for, our guide (Fhan) for Laos takes us in a shuttle van to a dock on the upper Mekong. He’s an interesting guy who was a monk for over eight years and has an interesting perspective on things. We booked a private ‘slow’ river boat up the Mekong River for the two-day journey to Luang Prabang with an overnight stop in Pakbeng. The boat is a converted wooden rice barge and is quite comfortable with a Western style toilet. A husband-and-wife team are the crew. He pilots the boat; she prepares lunch and gives us drinks. Their son (about 16) is also on the boat, he suffers from Down Syndrome but is quite happy and helps with the boat duties.
Fhan traveled with us and provided history and commentary about this section of the river. With all the rain, the river is high but it doesn’t look like the typhoon will impact us too much. It’s really muddy from the rains. Things are very peaceful along the river and it is surprising how many people live on the water. There are few roads in this part of Laos and many villages are only accessible by boat. We saw cows, goats and water buffalo along with crops of corn and rice being cultivated and fishing as well. Some villages were quite large and provided schooling for villages in the area.
A few hours down-river, we visited a ‘Kmu’ tribal village on the banks of the river. The children were home from lessons for lunch taking care of themselves while the parents were out working in the fields. The children and some of the elders were curious, but they knew Fahn well and didn’t pester us for sales. They had an amazing number of chickens with beautiful coloration, most followed by a clutch of young chicks running around. The villagers also tended to pigs. They had vegetable and herb gardens, and a community building where the tribal elder(elected) lived and held meetings. The housing was built on stilts, which is not surprising given the proximity to the river.
Pakbeng is the only place to spend the night on this part of the Mekong and travelers must stop there as the river is not suitable for night travel. We arrived in Pakbeng around 5:30 for our stay at Le Grand Hotel. We disembark on the muddy riverbank and many local men hurried over to help get our luggage from the boat to the hotel ‘transport’ (an open Jeep like vehicle).
The hotel is in a spectacular setting. It is built into the upper hillside in traditional Lao architecture and has many sections and lots of steep outdoor steps. A bit of a challenge with everything wet from the rain. I have been having knee problems and stayed at the lower level of the hotel while Dick managed the check in process. The staff offers a traditional greeting of a cool compress, a flower lei and a welcoming drink. When the girls realized I was staying at the bottom of the hill, they came down to offer the welcome to me as well, so nice.
After settling into our room, we headed to the hotel lounge for a cocktail. The staff raced there before us to open the place. Dick orders a beer and I try to order a glass of white wine. After much consternation and calling in additional resources, it appears that they have no glasses of white wine — they have no white wine at all. It is still the rainy season and their inventory is low. It appears that we are the only guests at what is a very large hotel for the evening. The song ‘Hotel California’ kept running through my mind.
We had a great conversation with the three waitstaff in the lounge. My ‘blue margarita’ (as replacement for wine) was perfectly prepared. One of the young ladies and the young man were from Myanmar and had immigrated to Laos for a better life. The woman had been here for 8 months the young man for 3. Apparently, it is almost impossible for young people to leave Myanmar. To get out, you have to ‘pay’ a sympathetic military official the sum of six hundred US dollars. If they accept, you will get a passport and official paperwork to allow you to leave and come to Laos. $600 is a lot of money over here. To work at the hotel, you sign a one-year contract. The hotel provides dormitory housing and a food allowance but the place is very remote and there is not much to do in Pakbeng. They work 6 days a week, 2-four hour shifts a day. They both spoke excellent English, and we wish them well in the future.
We headed over to the restaurant for dinner and enjoyed the same scenario as before with staff rushing to unlock the building and get the lights on. We have a very nice traditional Laos dinner and headed back to our room. The skies opened during the night as aftereffects of the two typhoons passed through.
Mary