Journey On The Mekong - Laos

Update May, 2018
This update is most disturbing due to the fact that the Chinese hydroelectric dams being constructed along the Mekong River are having a serious impact and if all the dams are constructed as planned, then the river journey down the Mekong from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang will no longer be possible. According to a recent report as of 14 May, 2018, there is to be a dam constructed on the Mekong River some 100 kilometers away from Pak Beng which is the stop the boats make for the night before continuing to Luang Prabang the next morning. Click here to read the news report because this will not only effect Laos and Thailand but have terrible implications for Cambodia and Vietnam.

If this comes true and they do construct the dam near Pak Beng, then I am afraid that this once in a lifetime river journey will no longer exist for travelers even though the news article does state that the Chinese still want the ability to move cargo down the Mekong River.

This issue is not a new one. The Chinese have been constructing dams along the upper Mekong for years and at one point the Laotian government put a stop to these projects, however, the Chinese money is difficult to turn away, so, government officials in Laos put their greedy hands out to accept more of this Chinese money.

Original Post Below:

Traveling the Mekong River is one way to see and experience the country of Laos. As a travel writer and photographer, I venture all around the globe and have been on many river boat journeys. Some are better than others but what I am about to write comes from first hand experience.

The one thing that I will not do when writing about any subject matter is to make it better or worse than the actual experience. I will write from a factual standpoint and unlike other writers, I will not color an experience with more beautiful paint than is the truth.

Therefore, the following is written, not to burst any bubbles but instead, to provide an actual account of this journey. Yes, I could write this in such a way that you would believe it was the most spectacular event of your life but that event has already taken place, it was on the day of your birth.

So now, come with me down the Mekong River but remember, what you read is an unbiased account of what you will probably experience.

Many travelers come to SE Asia and some of these intrepid travelers will decide to visit the county of Loas which neighbors Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China and Vietnam.

For many of these travelers, they will choose to follow the tourist route along the Mekong River and this route begins either in the north of Thailand after crossing the border into Lao or up from the south of the country beginning in the Laotian city of Luang Prabang.

Regardless of the starting point or direction, the experience is in most cases the same. You will experience the same river, landscapes, villages, and people along the river as well as the boat ride.

I will write about starting from the north of Lao in the small city of Huay Xai but first let me relate to you what the city of Huay Xia is like then I will detail the journey.

Huay Xai, which is just across the Mekong River and is an official border crossing between Thailand and Lao, is a somewhat unremarkable place. There are a number of guesthouses, hotels, limited number of restaurants and it had relatively poor internet connectivity.

The travelers coming from Thailand will experience a bit of price shock in Huay Xai as most products are more expensive than in Thailand which includes beer, food and internet access.

For the most part the sleeping accommodations are concentrated in a smallish area of the city close to the "old" arriving immigration post and this holds true for eating or internet.

There are limited banks in Huay Xai and a limited number of cash point machines so accessing local currency is a bit problematic but it can be done at the bank so bring your passport.

I have written about the border crossing from Thailand starting in Chiang Mai in an earlier post so I would suggest you read that if you are coming from Thailand’s north to go down the Mekong River. Click here to read that post.

However, to simply put it, Huay Xai is the starting point for the river boats going south and can be considered in two ways.

One is to see it as just that, the starting point due to a lot of travelers having made arrangements with a tour group in Thailand and they have attempted to make the journey from whatever Thai city to the border, pass through the Thai immigration post, cross the river, enter Lao through their border crossing post and arriving in Huay Xai in time to catch the boat down river. (I will note here that doing it this way is an extremely hard way of doing things).

The other way of seeing Huay Xai is again as the stating point but instead of attempting the transit from Thailand and crossing over the Mekong then hopefully arriving in time to catch the boat, use the city is a rest stop before beginning the very long two day journey down river. (I will note here that as someone highly experience in river trips, making the stop and resting prior to getting on the boat is the best option.)

I am not going to detail costs as they are always changing but I am going to detail the basics of the journey itself.

Going down the Mekong from Huay Xai is a two day event broken down into to two sections with each section lasting between 8-10 hours.

Section one is between Huay Xai and Pakbeng where you will stop and overnight. Section two is between Pakbeng and Luang Prabang.

Pakbeng is an even smaller city than Huay Xai, more of a village than a city and it has limited resources for sleeping and eating but you will not be sleeping on the streets or eating out of rubbish cans because the tourist trade is very important to this place. There will be the many hawkers at the arriving jetty offering the traveler rooms for the night, some of which are very basic and some are more upscale from basic. However, the prices will of course be inflated and can in some cases be negotiated.

Now that I have detailed to some extent the starting point, mid point and other information, let the journey begin.

When you see a photograph, click that image and it will open the lightbox viewer for a larger view of all the images so you can see more details.

There is only one departure every day down the Mekong from Huay Xai. This departing time has a tendency to fluctuate but for the most part it leaves around mid day (sort of). That being said, even though there is a stated departure time, it rarely holds as the boat will not usually depart until it is full or time runs out forcing the boat to leave so it can arrive in Pakbeng at a certain time.  In some cases, depending on the time of year and number of travelers, there could be two boats departing together.

After the boat departs from Huay Xai you will be traveling with the river current which does assist the boat speed but this only means that the boat operator is using less fuel and does not always translate into a shorter ride.

Oh yes, one thing I should mention, bring a good book with you in the event you find yourself a bit bored after about four hours into the journey.

Since most travelers will be going up or down the Mekong during the dry season, do not expect to see overly lush rain forests, jungles or green vegetation, it will be hot, dry and usually sunny.

As you proceed south out of Huay Xai you will pass a lot of long boats which look like the tourist boats but these are used for other purposes and many of the locals live aboard. You will also pass derelict boats and more until you are well out of Huay Xai and the river banks give way to nothingness then mostly the river itself.

A note here, the Mekong River is one of the longest rivers in the world and in some lower sections it is very wide but not in the case of this run. The river is coming from the mountainous and rocky regions between Burma and Lao and it is not very wide for the entire two day run.

Friendly locals

After about half an hour out of Huay Xai you will be seeing very little in the way of villages or people along the river banks. About an hour after departing there will be people along the river banks and some small villages along the hill sides.  You will also see the locals in their long boats going about their daily lives either fishing, going from place to place or other normal daily life activities, especially washing.

Chinese style fishing nets

You will see poles jutting out from the rocks over the river and these poles are how the locals fish using nets in a similar way to the Chinese fishing nets but are not as sophisticated in design or detail as the Chinese nets.

This part of the river is not very mountainous but the river bank consists of rocky outcroppings and sand. The locals will be on the riverbank either washing, fishing or collecting the sand for sale to use in construction.

At some point the river will become shallow and the boat will pass over the fast running but very small rapids and the river itself also narrows in these areas. There will be small plots of land which are for growing corn or other crops but these areas are limited in size and not seen very often.

The locals you will see range between small children to monks, all of which seem to be bathing in the river. You may also see the locals on their motorbikes which will be at the jetty or on a long tail boat so they can either crossover or go up/down stream to another location.

Motor bikes waiting to cross the river

There will be the typical water buffalo along the river banks as well as cattle but again, depending on timing you might see a lot or just a few.

The small villages are scattered along the river and mostly constructed of the local materials which will be bamboo. The walls and majority of the construction will be interwoven bamboo which is produced by pealing the outer layer of the bamboo stalk off then cross weaving this into whatever desired shape is required. Some use wooden planks in the constructions.

Typical house

Your journey in the first section will not take you through any high mountainous areas but mostly smallish ones and hills and this will be what you encounter all the way to Pakbeng.

If you are looking for local wildlife, put that idea out of your mind as there is not much to see with the exception of birds and because of the high temperatures, the bird population will be in the trees. Birds tend to be seen early in the mornings and very late in the afternoons when things are cooler and the insects are buzzing about more.

Sand erosion effects

There will be some unusual erosion effects in the sands along the river bank but these are not to be seen everywhere. The people you see will be friendly and if you wave at them, they will usually wave back.

High water line during monsoon season

The rocky formations along the river can be interesting and in some cases highly unusual and as you will see in the images, there are two white lines in the rock formations along the river bank. The upper white line is the high water mark when the Mekong River rises during the monsoon season and you will note that there is a marked rise in the water levels during this time of year. Later in the journey you will again come to another area where the width of the river narrows and the depth is shallow. This will again cause small rapids of faster moving water but these boats are not going to be affected by this and the ride will still be smooth.                                                                   

Sunset at end of day 1

Toward the end of the first section the sun will begin setting over the hills and small mountains but depending on climatic conditions, it can be from nothing special to spectacular.

By this time, you will be nearing Pakbeng and the boat usually arrives just before dark where you will be offloaded at the jetty and begin the process of locating sleeping accommodations for the night.

If you were one of those who booked everything from a tour company in Thailand, made the transit from either Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai, crossed over the border and made it to Huay Xai in time to catch the boat, my friend, you will be extremely worn out.

If on the other hand you rested in Huay Xai the night before the boat journey, then you will still be worn out to an extent but not as bad.

Either way, I suggest that you find some food then go to sleep because you have another day of this journey ahead and the boat departs rather early in the morning. There is an excellent Indian food restaurant on the right side of the main road which has been there for years and serves high quality meals.

Day two begins when the sun has just come up and there might be some low lying clouds or fog when you depart. You might not be on the same boat either and since the boats are different in certain ways, this could be an improvement or not, but it will be the same basic layout with the same old car seats of which some may recline and then the side of the boat may be higher or lower as well.  The problem with leaving Pakbeng, especially if two boats arrived from Huay Xai, is that they may combine passengers from both boats onto only one boat.  I have experienced this and also experienced the fact that by combining two fully loaded boats of passengers onto one boat ends in an over crowded, very cramped and potentially uncomfortable journey depending on where you are able to locate a seat.

My recommendation for the Pakbeng departure is to be at the departing jetty early to get a seat, the later you arrive, the less selection of seating will be available, usually in the rear of the boat near the engine.

Once back on the river, you will proceed on the second full day of fun but this time your arrival point will be Luang Prabang which is a large city full of guesthouse, restaurants, tourists and other delights.

View of rapids on the river.

However, the boat journey on this section is not much different than what you experienced during the first part. You will see the locals doing the exact same thing, the villages will be the same, the water buffalo are the same, the fishing is the same and you have 8-10 hours of this before arriving in Luang Prabang.

There will be changes to the landscape but not too much. The rocky outcroppings along the river will be a bit more interesting and on the right side of the river there will be some very unusual formations but photographing these will be problematic because you are photographing into the sun which will have an effect on the outcome of the image.

Waterfalls close to Luang Prabang on day 2.

Again you will encounter areas where the river narrows and is shallow producing more of the small rapids as the day prior.

Basically, it will be same-same with not a lot of difference in what you will see. This is where that good book comes in handy.

Finally, after two long days of going down river you will arrive at Luang Prabang and this will occur before darkness has come giving you that precious time to locate a place to sleep.

For you readers who actually finished reading this and still decide to venture down the Mekong, I sincerely hope that your experience during this journey is filled with fun, excitement, happiness and adventure. Not everyone you know does this kind of journey and if you do go on this river adventure, you can tell your friends and family about it.

If after reading this, I have swayed you in one way or the other, then that is not the intent. I am here to relate to you as the reader what to expect on this two day river journey and hopefully not effect your choice on whether you do this or not.

I do however suggest that if the opportunity presents itself and you have the chance to travel the Mekong River in Lao, go for it. Never allow something to interfere with your quests for discovery and adventure even if it turns out to be a bit less that what you expected, at least you will have stepped out and done what others only dream of doing.

Travel Safe, Travel Happy