Mekong on way to Pakbeng

Village near Pakbeng

I expect everyone is in the midst of Christmas preparations. It is hard to get in the mood in this warm climate, but every once in a while someone has a Christmas tree decorated with lights for the tourists. We are enjoying Laos and taking our time travelling from Huay Xai in the north to Vientiane farther south. In fact we changed our reservation to fly to Hanoi on 21 Dec 1999.

Do we know how to travel first class or what! We left Thailand on Friday 10 Dec and found out that if you are just a little older than the average backpacker, you blend into luxury tour groups, no problem.

To enter Laos, you take a 2 minute dugout boat trip across the Mekong river, check in with Immigration, fill out forms and change baht to Laos kip (5000 kip to 1 CAD). Then you walk up a short hill to the waiting tuk tuks that take you 1 1/2 K upriver to the slow boat for the town of Pakbeng. There was a large French speaking tour group waiting for the tuk tuks when we arrived and we were ushered onto one tuk tuk along with 2 other women. I spoke to one in my bad French & was told she was from Geneva. We continued talking as we left the tuk tuk & proceeded to the boat. Ray thought it was strange that the tuk tuk driver left without being paid, but he was concerned more with finding the right boat. He just kept asking 'slow boat?' and was directed to one waiting at the river edge. He called to me & I said goodbye, we boarded, stowed our luggage on the deck & chose our deck chairs for the trip. We were followed on board by the rest of the tour group & as the boat started to pull away, Ray asked a young Lao man acting as tour guide if this was the slow boat to Pakbeng. He asked 'are you part of the tour group?' and when we said no, he informed us we were on a private chartered boat and that the local slow boat was still waiting to leave. We asked if we could stay as we were going to the same place but we wanted to know what it would cost. The young tour director said he would ask the captain & hurried off & returned with the good news that we could stay for the same price as the slow boat, 200 Baht. Do not tell any of the tour group, he said, as they are paying 100 USD for this trip. So we decided to just keep a low profile & enjoy ourselves.

It is a very scenic trip with mountains on either side. The captain had to follow a careful line down the twisting river as there were frequent sand bars, small rapids and strange rock formations projecting from the water. After a few hours, we stopped at a Hmong village, where we were met by a delegation of small children in various stages of dress or undress. We were invited through to see typical village life. Women sat in circles doing colourful embroidery, mostly cross stitch, and chickens, pigs and even turkeys ran free. We followed the guide to a large compound that included a small store and several buildings surrounded by a stick fence. A man, who was introduced as the chief of the village, demonstrated a strange local musical instrument called a flute. It was made of at least 3 bamboo sticks bent in a J shape. It sounded like a cross between an accordion and a bagpipe. The chief invited us into his home that he shares with his 3 wives and 12 children. It was quite large by usual Lao standards, consisting of one main room, complete with decorated altar for daily observances, and one other room. All cooking, eating and storage of food takes place in the main room or outside.

We returned to the boat and set off again while the staff prepared a large buffet lunch for the group. We were invited to join them, for it would have aroused suspicion if we didn't, so of course we did. At about 4 o'clock we approached a resort on the side of the river and we were told this was the tour group's destination for the evening. The tour director assured us that the village of Pakbeng was only 15 minutes walk from there and that the captain would lead us. Just before leaving, the husband of the woman I had been speaking with earlier asked if we would be joining them for the rest of the tour. We said no, we were only there for that part of the voyage. He wanted to know how we had arranged this and what we were paying. Ray said we had arranged the trip privately and that the payments were still being discussed!

The tour group was met by several resort employees, so we waited until they had disembarked, retrieved our bags and gave the captain 500 baht for our trip. We decided not to join the others in the welcome drinks being handed out, and walked on down the road to Pakbeng.

We found a decent place by the dock, checked in and had a beer on their patio to celebrate our day. This pre-dinner beer has become a daily routine, thanks to the precedent started by our trekking group in Nepal! Enjoyed a good evening with 2 young couples, one from NZ & one from Australia, who are currently working in London, England on visas that allow them to work only 6 - 8 months out of the year, so they take trips the rest of the time. They had traveled on the long tail speed boat to Pakbeng & didn't recommend it. It is faster but very noisy as it is a car engine with no muffler mounted on the back of a narrow boat & is a bumpy 3 hour ride. Sort of a Lao cigar boat.

The view in Pakbeng was so pretty at the junction of the Mekong and another river & steep mountains all around, that we decided to stay another day. The next day we watched our friends leave on the speed boat, then took a walk on the only road out of town. About 1-2 K past the limits of the sprawling 1 street village we followed a path up a hill and eventually into another village. It was obvious that they don't get many tourists coming through as they all stopped to look at us as we walked through. A young girl was coming towards us carrying a pail as we approached the end of the village. She took one look, dropped the pail & went screaming to hide behind her mother. I didn't think we looked that bad. We tried to reassure her & continued down to explore the river beside the town, then retraced our steps back to the main road. We explored further down the road into more villages & then returned to Pakbeng for late lunch. We did learn how to say hello in Lao and wherever we went our 'Saaba-dee' was returned with lots of smiles.

Back at the hotel we met a couple from Vancouver who were in a local bus that had passed us on the road. Denys took an early retirement 9 years ago and ever since they have been spending 4 months each year traveling, mostly in Asia. We are getting all kinds of ideas for further trips.

The next day, Sunday, forewarned by our Vancouver friends, we took the local bus north to Udomxai. We had originally planned on making a trek out of Udomxai, but found out this is not possible as no one is willing to guide tourists in this area. We decided to take the trip anyway to enjoy the countryside, if not the actual ride. We left at 8 AM on a large truck converted to a bus with benches along each side for seats. We picked up a few other passengers as we left the village, then not far down the road we had to slow down for 3 elephants working hauling logs for the villagers. There is only one road, built by the Chinese some time ago and rapidly reverting to its original state. The truck driver had to wend his way between the craters in the road, so it was not a quick trip.

About 10:30 we reached the village of Muang Houn, passing by a large military post just south of town. This was to be a 15 minute stop, so Ray & I rushed around the busy outdoor market buying buns, drinks & fruit for lunch on the bus. The break turned into an hour while the driver chatted to several townspeople & more passengers got on. Finally we set off again at 11:30 only to refuel and return to the market, where we were met by a military jeep. Two soldiers jumped out, one carrying a machine gun, and the unarmed man talked to a young boy sitting next to Ray in our truck & tried to take his luggage from him. The boy obviously didn't want to go, so the soldier got into the truck & finally dragged him out. A woman next to me told the driver to go & we did to our relief. The last we saw, the soldier had his arm around the boy's shoulder & was leading him away. Ray speculated that he was a new recruit who was disenchanted with military life & was returning home. Thank goodness weapons were never used.

The rest of the trip was uneventful as we passed through several villages with simple bamboo houses set on stilts. Women in several villages were drying cotton they had picked, spinning it and weaving on looms setup under their homes. Other villages had trays of chilies and other herbs drying in the sun. Whenever we passed through a village, the children would spy foreigners on the truck & wave and call Saaba-dee, so like the Queen, we returned their greetings. All this way, we picked up more & more passengers until we had about 35 people sitting on the floor of the truck, on the roof & hanging on the back. Luckily Ray & I kept our seats in relative comfort next to the cab of the truck.

We arrived finally in Udomxai, a town of no beauty, and found a guesthouse at the end of a side road thinking that it should be quiet. We spoke with a young man working at the hotel who told us the hotel had been owned by the Chinese but was taken over by the Lao government. It had definitely seen better days, if there were any, but it would do. He offered to guide us around the area the next day to see a Hmong festival, but we were non-committal. That night we were treated to music and speeches that came blaring into our hotel compound. When it didn't let up by 10:30, first I, then Ray, went to see if we could turn it off, but couldn't. We got our earplugs out & went to sleep, only to be awakened at 5:30 AM by blaring sound again. Ray had traced the sound to loud speakers setup on a hill overlooking the hotel and figured this was political propaganda. We packed up & left on the bus to Luang Prabang.

That's all for now folks. Stay tuned for episode 6!