Cruising through Laos down the mighty Mekong River

If you're thinking of travelling to Laos from Thailand or visa versa, then I'd strongly suggest taking the slow boat down the Mekong River. It's a beautiful way to see rural Laos whilst chilling on a boat for 2 days.

This post includes:

• how we got to the border town, Chiang Khong
• how we chose our cruise
• what the boat was like
• what we did over the 2 days
• overall impressions

Docked at Pak Ou Caves

Getting to the border town, Chiang Khong

We took a massive mini bus trip from Pai to Chiang Khong, a town on the border between Thailand and Laos, where we stayed the night before our cruise.

The bus trip took about 9 hours and we didn't feel totally safe or comfortable during it. The driver was on his phone constantly, overtaking people and was generally rude. When we reached Chiang Mai we changed mini bus and unfortunately I got the middle seat at the front, which had no seatbelt.

Anyway, despite this they did stop a few times, which included a short stop at the White Temple in Chiang Rai. We were suppose to stay over here, but we loved Pai so much that we decided to skip it, hence the massive bus trip.

Our mate Dave chilling by the White Temple

There's loads of mini bus trips from hostels in Thailand where you can get packages that include: taking you to the border town, 1 night accommodation in a hostel, then a 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang. We went for a bit of fancy slow boat (a gift from the family) and boy were we grateful for it!

Our cruise

We booked our cruise with Nagi of Mekong. 

What you get:

• pick up from your accommodation in Chiang Khong and transfer to your place in Luang Prabang
• border assistance in Houy Xai
• 2 days on the boat with lunch and breakfast provided
• 1 night accommodation in Pak Beng including breakfast
• a stop off at tribal villages along the Mekong
• a stop off at Pak Ou Caves
• an amazing tour guide throughout the trip

In all it cost us £107 each. This isn't bad when you tally up everything you get - it's totally worth it!

The Mekong River

The Mekong River is a trans-boundary river, that's the 12th largest in the world and the 7th largest in Southeast Asia. The majority of the lower basin of the river runs through Laos, where it gives life to the surrounding farms, villages and wildlife.

As you're cruising on the boat you see the swirls and the currents of the river swallow up bark and all sorts - it really is a strength to behold. The captain of the boat obviously knew the river like the back of his hand as he meandered through large rocks poking out of the river.

The mighty Mekong

Once we had a good chat to everyone on the boat, I decided to sit with my legs dangling off the side to take in my surroundings. I started to see the odd hints of civilisations in the mountains with wooden huts rising out of the mass foliage. I saw families of goats and water buffalo going about their day by the river bank. With each corner we turned we were greeted with more dramatic mountains with overhanging clouds surrounding them.

A family of goats by the river

The boat

The boat was owned by a Laos family who lived and worked on the boat. You could tell they took great pride in it as it was immaculate. The interior was made in a beautiful, varnished wood that had stunning attention to detail.

The tour company hire it from the family for these particular trips - so they must get a good cut of the money.

It had about 50 seats with tables and a place near the front for you to lay down and dangle your legs over the side.

About 10 times bigger than my London flat

It had 2 toilets onboard, which were actually the best loos we'd seen since starting our trip - that's saying something! All coffee, tea, water and fruit was free throughout the day. Plus you could buy big or small bottle of Laos' own beer, Beerlao.

Our trusted captain

Tribal villages

Over the course of the 2 days we stopped at a couple of tribal villages along the river.

It was an amazing experience to see how these people lived. They hardly had anything, but were totally self-sufficient. They grew peanuts, rice and sweet potatoes.

Peanuts and sweet potato plants

It's hard to believe that people still live like this. I had mixed feelings about it: on one hand I felt sorry for them, then the other I felt amazed and a little envious that they could live with so little, but be so happy. One little kid from the boat actually asked if there was Wifi in the village - says it all really ha!

I got to try some homemade rice whisky. I was a bit dubious about it to start with because it was in some bamboo hut where 3 men were crouched around a small pot with straws coming out of it. Not the typical bar I'm used to. The American guy from the boat had some so I thought well, why not! It was really sweet, not like normal whisky, which I actually hate the taste of. It was rather nice!

The main source of income for the village is rice

All the homes were skilfully built with bamboo. The school though was build with concrete, which showed you how much they valued education.

They had 2 teachers for 4 classes, which all happen at once. The teacher would have to run into the classroom next door, do some maths, then back to the other one to teach English. Talk about multi-tasking! I was surprised they taught English too. One of the teacher came out and showed us his teaching book for English - it was really interesting to see how they taught it.

If a family had babies, the child who went to school would have the baby strapped to them. The reason they did this was because the parents had to work in the rice paddies all day to provide for the family.

One of the tribal villages

One of the villages we went to was renowned for its crafts.

The villagers must have known we were coming because as we arrived all the women had their beautiful scarfs and clothes out on show to sell to us. They made beautiful, colourful and intricate napkins that depicted their life in the village.

The village's weaving machine

Pak Beng stopover 

Pak Beng is the usual stop for all slow boats when going to between Houy Xai and Luang Prabang. There's not much to the town, but it has some lovely places to rest your head before you hit the river again.

Our cruise included a night stay at the Mekong Riverside Lodge.

We didn't expect much, but it was really good. We each got our own room that was typically made in the dark wooden finish you see all over Laos. We had our bathroom and a balcony, which offered an amazing view of the Mekong River.

Not a bad view to have after a long day on the boat

When it came to ordering our dinner we were delighted to see some Indian food on the menu. We got the dhal, fried rice and some garlic naan, which we ended up eating in the dark on our balcony because the power had cut out ha! None the less it was delicious.

In the morning we were awoken to the sound of trumpets as there were elephants on the other side of the river.

Pak Ou Caves

We stopped at Pak Ou Caves, which is about 30 mins away from Luang Prabang.

View from inside the cave

We got this included in our cruise, but normally you'd pay 20,000 kip entry fee. There's boats going from Luang Prabang everyday, but I wouldn't go out of your way to see this if it's not included on a cruise trip as there's not much to see. There's also a tribal village close by that you can visit too, so might be worth tying that in with visiting the caves too.

There are two caves to visit, the lower cave called Tham Ting and the upper cave Tham Theung, both boasting thousands of gold painted Buddha icons, some very old and some new.

Overall impressions

As I only spent a week in Laos, I'm glad this slow boat trip did it justice because otherwise I wouldn't have experienced much of what beautiful Laos has to offer. That being said, I would greatly recommend the Nagi of Mekong because it was amazing and you don't have to worry about anything  - it's all sorted for you.

A couple we met in Luang Prabang, who were actually on our mini bus to Chiang Khong, told us of their experience on the backpacker boat. It didn't sound as good, only because there was a group of drunk Irish drinking the whole time. But still, if you're doing to do it it's worth forking out some extra cash for comfort and a really good guide.

Next stop: Luang Prabang!

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