| Jun 6, 2005 - Over the river and through the woods to Laos town of Luang Prabang we go!
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 | | show all 4 | | Getting ready to cross to Laos. | | Ferry boat | | Mekong river catch! | | |
| We have been in motion covering I don't know how many miles between Ko Phangan and Laos. I'll spare you the majority of the ferries, taxis, airplane and bus that got us to where we are now. We made very quick pass thrus of Northern Thailand cities, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. Both cities are typically Thai in that tuk-tuks (motorcycle rickshaws) scooters, buses and taxis all chaotically compete for road space. The city centers have endless carts of street foods and open front restaurants which are usually painted mint green with flourescent lighting and serve the standard Thai fare.
Chiang Mai is a bit of a "jumping off point" to see hill tribes via jungle trek. We opted to check out the night market there which is essentially a Thai handicrafts flea market at night. There is a designated section of maybe 2-3 blocks where locals sell from tenuous booths (made of plastic tarp and metal) silver and beaded jewelry, woven purses, rainbows of Thai silk scarves and ties, intricate teak carved figurines and wall hangings, and faux brand watches. The following day before catching our bus out of town we enjoyed a khan toke lunch at a 120 year old teak mansion. Khan toke is similar to a sampler. We had stirfry sweet and sour vegetables, stir fried pork crusted with sesame, green curry soup with chicken and fried noodles with sticky rice. This meal had a lovely presentation on palm lined tray with orchids and the sticky rice came in little wicker baskets. The only problem was the meal cost more than our night's accomodation!(about $15 and our room was about $6.)
We made it up to the tiny Thai border town of Chiang Khung about 10pm June 4th just in time for local karaoke! Chiang Khung is a village of probably less than a mile of paved street with nearly no traffic, very few restaurants and guest houses (to cater to those travelers crossing the border to Laos) and, of course, an ornate wat (Buddhist temple.) Throughout the village you could hear the screech of local singers butchering lyrics to American hits (as well as Thai tunes) on an inferior sound system.
We dropped our bags and headed over to this outdoor spectacle which consisted of a warm keg of Chang beer (worse than Bud) a large stage and a few plastic table and chair sets on the grass. There were as many farangs (foreigners) as Thai people competing for air time. You can imagine this caliber of entertainment over bad beer.
The next morning we woke up early at 7 and walked the paved road to the Laos border. The herd of us foreigners took turns hiring long skinny boats (which I was sure our luggage would sink) to cross the Mekong River which is the actual border of the two countries.
Once in Laos, despite the language barrier and relatively short amount of time this has been an open border crossing, the Laotians seemed to know just what we were there for and how to move us through the logistics to land us on our boat which would take us down the Mekong to our eventual destination, Luang Prabang.
Our ferry boat was a narrow wooden boat painted "third world green, blue and red" (this is a Paul credit and funny for those who have experienced it) and as is the case on all transportation thus far (save for airplanes) the seats are made for people half our size and who apparently sit at severe 90 degree angles. Nevertheless, we took residence on our tiny wooden bench with thin cotton cushion in the intimate company of about 75 other passengers (nearly all of which were travelers.) The trip was 2 six hour days with an overnight in a place called Pak Beng.
The Mekong River's muddy waters travel fairly swiftly and turbidly (with frequent and unexpected toilet bowl swirling pools that our captain seemed comfortable navigating--thankfully--and Paul was impressed.) The valley walls on either side of the river are lush brilliant green. The banks are often sandy with fractured craggy gray rock formations that jut from the side (at times we began to see elephant trunks in them and other sculpture but perhaps the cramping in our seats was also cramping the brains.) The banks are also relatively uninhabited except for occasional grazing herds of water buffalo, Lao fishermen with triangular hats in long skinny boats and occasional clusters of thatched roof huts. Other sightings included 3 Asian elephants hauling timber down hillsides under direction of Lao men (you could hear the elephants trumpeting in protest. -a little sad.) groups of Lao children splashing on the muddy riverbanks and patchy fog pockets grazing the peaks of the hilltops. A not-so-natural site was the "cigarette boats" of the Mekong as I called them: yellow pointy boats with helmeted passengers that scream down the Mekong looking like Speed Racer. (This is the 'fast boat' for about six passengers and takes one six hour day instead of our two day slow boat.)
Our overnight at Pak Beng was interesting. It is a little hillside spot with only a few guesthouses and restaurants and the local generators shut off at 11pm. Seems pretty obvious this place exists for the travelers. Now I've talked about the less than idyllic conditions of some of our accomodations but our second floor room overlooking the Mekong was epic. Imagine the largest bug you have ever seen and multiply it by at least 3x! We had three giant grasshoppers, one very large "beetle" (although I'm still not convinced it wasn't a roach and this was a psychological coping mechanism I used at the time) and also two or three huge moths. Unfortunately neither Paul or I are the biggest fans of bugs but he really stepped up and did a great capture and relocation effort for our bug cohabitators (the Buddhists would have been proud.)...I think we were actually afraid to kill them!
I know this has been a little long but internet access was a bit sparse and slow so pictures will be forthcoming...stay tuned for the camera next to the entry once I get to the next city.
Hope all of you are doing well :) |
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