The Slow Boat to Luang Prabang

23rd-28th September 2012

After leaving the stunning scenery around the Bamboo Nest, we made our way by bus up to the Thai-Lao border at Chiang Khong. Our research had already told us that there were a number of options for getting the boat to Luang Prabang, so we decided to spend a day or two investigating them. We quickly ruled out the ‘fast boat’ (too dangerous) which left us with a couple of variations on the slow boat. We could either take the public boat – cheap but reputedly crowded – or one of the more expensive, but more comfortable options.

After reading one too many scare stories about the amount of people they cram on to the public boat, and hearing one first-hand account from Sheena and Adam, we plumped for a slightly more expensive trip but one which included some stops at points of interest along the way (run by Nagi of Mekong).

The boat we chose only runs three times a week (Sun, Wed and Fri) so first we had a couple of days to kill in Chiang Khong. There’s a couple of nice walks you can do along the river and, it being the weekend, we managed to find a bar showing the football: Liverpool vs Man U! To take our minds off the football (and the less said about that game, the better), the bar owner - a big Liverpool fan with tattoos to prove it - had various bar games at our disposal. These included board games, a putting mat (which I was useless at) and best of all, Duelling Hammers!

“What’s Duelling Hammers?” I hear you say.

Dead simple: two men, one tree stump, two nails, two hammers and a pile of drink. The first to hammer their nail flat wins. To make it more difficult, we were playing the peen-only variation (we were using tournament-approved cross-peen hammers, since you asked).

I just need a couple more drinks to get my eye in...

We should totally play this game outside pubs in the UK. What could possibly go wrong?

Having exhausted all the fun to be had in Chiang Khong, it was time to go to Laos. We got up bright and early and were taken by the tour company to the jetty to be whisked across the Mekong and into Huay Xai in Laos. Getting our visas on the other side was quick and easy although it helps to have dollars to hand: for some reason paying in baht or Lao kip is more expensive. We then grabbed some of the local currency and were shepherded onto our boat.

The seats are all lifted straight out of old minibuses - not as comfy as they look!

The boats are built for about 40 people; the tour we were on regularly take 20-plus but this time there were only about a dozen of us, including the crew, so there was plenty of space for all.

The boat

On day one, we stopped mid-morning for a visit to a typical Lao village.

Small Lao village

Village school

Lunch was served on the boat at around midday. The food was simple but delicious. My favourite was the spicy papaya salad which is fast becoming an addiction of mine: crisp, juicy and refreshing but with a chilli-kick that could fell a shire horse.

We arrived at Pak Beng quite early at around 4pm. Despite having read various less-than-savoury descriptions of Pak Beng, it’s actually quite nice. One of the perks of booking the trip this was was our hotel was pre-arranged and whoever chose it did a very good job: the view from our balcony was stunning.

View of the Mekong from Pak Beng

About an hour after we arrived, we saw the public boat pull-up next to the jetty. If we wondering whether we'd made the right decision booking the tour boat, any lingering doubts were quickly dispelled as we watched at least 60 people pour off the public boat (designed for 40) and make the dash up the hill to try and get a good hotel.

The next morning we were up nice and early to find clouds clinging to the surrounding hills in quite a picturesque manner.

Early morning in Pak Beng

The second day was punctuated by two more stops. First at another Lao village.

View of the village from the river

The village school

Bath time

Chillies drying in the midday sun

Our second stop was at the Pak Ou caves, only an hour or so short of Luang Prabang itself. To be honest, they were nothing special, just a couple of medium-sized limestone caves stuffed with Buddha statues. Because they were on our way, it was nice to see them and it made sense to stop. But, as we found out later, you can visit them as a day-trip from Luang Prabang which would have been a bit of a disappointment. They're certainly not worth going out your way for.

Entrance to the Pak Ou caves from the river

Buddha statues in the dark

View across the river from the Pak Ou caves - nicer than the caves themselves

Then, finally, we arrived in Luang Prabang.

If you're considering going to Luang Prabang and if you've got the time, I can heartily recommend taking the slow boat from Huay Xai. If you've got short legs and a teflon bum then I'm sure the public boat would be fine, but I think we got more out of the journey by taking the tour boat. We had the space to properly relax and appreciate the wonderful scenery, and also the opportunity to stop along the way and experience how some of the local Lao villagers live their lives.

Life in the slow lane

Mekong river

View of the Mekong from the upper cave at Pak Ou

Heading into the sunset

Greyscale hills

Arriving at Luang Prabang

Next up: Luang Prabang, sunsets and more fun with waterfalls...

Current location: Kuala Lumpur until tomorrow
Next stop: Kochi, India

Relaxing at Bamboo Nest de Chiang Rai

14th-23rd September

After waving off my parents back to Bangkok, we had a few more days in Chiang Mai waiting for our Indian visas to arrive. Having had enough excitement for one week, we spent the time relaxing and arranging the next leg on our journey: Chiang Rai.

With relaxation very much the order of the day, Karen found a great place 30km or so west of Chiang Rai called the Bamboo Nest (or Bamboo Nest de Chiang Rai to give it its full title). We arrived in Chiang Rai by bus at about 4pm and were picked up by the owner, Noi, in his small 4x4, squeezed in like sardines beside the incumbent Kiwi couple. We knew the place was up in the hills but weren't quite prepared for quite how steep the approach was. Lucky it wasn't raining!

When we finally arrived, shortly before sunset, we were not disappointed.

What a location!

What a view! That's our hut, by the way

The place has only been open a few months and is run by the incredibly hard-working Noi and his equally hard-working wife, Nok. There are five bamboo huts perched on the side of the hill and three more on the way. None of the huts have aircon or fans, in fact the only electricity is the solar powered lighting although you can recharge your gadgets during the day at reception. Temperature-wise, it’s not a problem because it’s quite cool at night in the hills. There is a hot shower which was most welcome but the sink had yet to be plumbed in. It's a work in progress!

At night you’re protected from the local wildlife by a mosquito net, but unfortunately our soap wasn't protected and got stolen twice by the local rat or mouse population – I'm not sure exactly what it was (or why they needed soap) because I never quite caught them at it, despite a 3am torch hunt one night!

The bedroom

The balcony

Catching up my blogging. I'm not hogging the hammock (sounds rude) - Karen can't use them because they make her seasick

As you can see from the photo above, we were sharing our environment with the local wildlife. Noi and Nok have a couple of dogs and a pile of cats and kittens. The big dog (called Khaao which is Thai for ‘white’) is the boss and defends the property. He also pees on your bed if you mistakenly lock him in your hut for the afternoon.

Naughty Khaao

His partner in crime (Nam Dtaan: Thai for ‘brown’) is just 6 months old and loves play fighting. Most of all he took great delight attacking the colony of kittens, biting their necks and and dragging them around by their ears. Strangely, they didn’t seem to mind too much. I think Brown is going to get his come-uppance once their claws start to come in…

Biting kittens is very tiring

As is being bitten by dogs

Nok and Noi run tours for guests that want to get out and about during the day but we decided to amuse ourselves, mostly playing cards, reading, catching up on blogging or just relaxing in the hammock with a glass of Johnnie Walker Red. We did go for a couple of walks (accompanied both times by Khaao – at least up to the edge of his territory), once to a waterfall, which we didn’t find, and once down the hill through the village as far as the main river. The climb back up was enough to make us feel like we weren’t being too lazy!

In the evenings, the guests would gather in the main reception area for dinner and chat (that's talking, not a French cat). The food was good and so was the company – there was a middle-aged Kiwi couple, an Aussie couple, a Northern Irish couple (who we are still bumping into in Luang Prabang!), a Thai couple, an Israeli family, a lone English girl and a Malaysian mother and daughter – quite a cosmopolitan crowd!

From the left: Petra the German Kiwi, Aussies Tim and Kim, and Karen

After dinner, we would navigate via torchlight back to our hut, only pausing on the clear evenings to look up at the stunning night sky – no light pollution here!

To be honest, we could have spent longer there, it was a perfect location and really cheap, but we were as relaxed as we could get and I had a pile of blogs to upload, so it was time to move on. We said goodbye to the dogs (the cats ignored us) and Nok gave us lift down the hill, back into Chiang Rai and to the bus station.

There was just time for one final, wistful look at the beautiful view.

View from the reception/dinner area

Next up: Chiang Khong, pub games with hammers and the slow boat to Luang Prabang.

Current location: Luang Prabang until tomorrow
Next stop: Vientiane

New videos uploaded - get them while they're fresh

If you're following me on Twitter or Facebook, you'll already have spotted that the new videos have uploaded. The link to my YouTube channel is down on the right side of this page. For those of you too lazy to scroll, here are the direct links:

My Channel (watch ALL the videos here)
Cruising the Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta - Tra Su Reserve
Tuk Tuk to Cheoung Ek (near Phnom Penh)
Bangkok - Silom Thai cooking school
Bridge over the River Kwai trip
Thai man doing his exercises on River Kwai trip
Koh Samui
Chiang Mai elephants
Chiang Mai waterfall

Enjoy!

More videos coming soon...

Just a quick note to say that I've got a pile of short videos ready to upload (the first one went up earlier) which cover the last month or so. We're currently in Luang Prabang (which is lovely by the way) but the internet is kind of slow here so it's proving difficult to get them up on YouTube.

I'll get some kicked off tonight before I turn in so hopefully by tomorrow they'll have arrived in internet land by tomorrow and you'll have an excuse not to do any work on Monday morning.

Hopefully by then I'll also have a couple more blogs finished and ready to upload. 

Don't go far...

Current location: Luang Prabang until Tuesday

Next stop: Vientiane

Chiang Mai – Elephants and Water Sports

10th-14th September

While taking the train is all very well, when you’re on a tight schedule and you need to get from Koh Samui to Chiang Mai, planes beat trains by about two clear days. It’s just as well we did fly because we arrived to reports of severe rail delays due to flooding north of Bangkok. But events were to prove that it was way too soon to be laughing in the face of the water gods...

We stayed in Chiang Mai for about a week, waiting for our Indian visas to come through, but my parents only had four days. Some of that time was spent relaxing in our nice hotel.

Fresh coconut water

Manathai Village hotel

The main event for us in Chiang Mai was the visit to the BaanChang elephant park, split over two days: day one, the elephants and day two, a walk up to a waterfall and then some white-water rafting.

There are dozens of elephant parks around Chiang Mai. We chose BaanChang because it doubles as a sanctuary for domesticated elephants (as opposed to wild elephants) and is funded by tourists like ourselves. Apart from a couple of new births, almost all the elephants have had to be bought from the original owners (sometimes costing as much as £50,000!) Sadly, some of these animals have been abused in their previous lives and bear scars from elephant hooks and machetes. Unfortunately, like all domesticated animals, they’re no longer capable of fending for themselves in the wild so BaanChang (which means 'Elephant Home') gives them a safe place to live and work.

We arrived at the park around 9am and were told to don our blue denim ‘Mahout’ uniforms.

Lookin' good in blue

A Mahout is what they call the elephant handlers – there’s one permanent Mahout for each animal. The uniforms were dual purpose: to protect us from dirt and scrapes but more importantly, the blue colour is recognised and trusted by the elephants – the last thing you want to do is annoy an elephant.

Our first job was to give the animals their mid-morning feed – sugar cane and bananas.

Feed me

Feed me now!

A thank you kiss from the baby elephant

Then it was time for lessons on how to command the elephants. Before you ride them it’s good to know the commands for ‘stop’, ‘go’, ‘left’, ‘right’ and ‘sit down’ ('hao', 'pai', 'kuay' and kick right ear, 'kuay' and kick left ear, and 'non loong', in that order.) Then we all got the chance to take an elephant for a quick trip round the tree to practice what we’d learned.

"Non loong, er, I mean hao!"

"I can see my house from up here"

After lunch, it was time to take the elephants for their daily walk through the jungle.

Elephant train

Hello Mum

Mum, Dad and Nellie

How to get on an elephant - easy!

Trekking through the jungle

If you’re wondering why there are no photos of Karen on an elephant, it’s because she opted out. Apparently she used to work in a cake shop in Nuneaton when she was a teenager and had a bad experience with some buns and an elephant that wouldn’t take no for an answer. She’s not trusted one since.

Sad but true.

Finally, after an hour or so gallivanting through the forest, the elephants needed a drink and a wash. A Mahout’s work is never done.

Washing the elephants

Remember to clean behind the ears

Bath time's over

Perfectly balanced

Getting close to and spending some time with these magnificent beasts was a truly wonderful experience. They’re huge animals – you really get a sense of their raw power when you’re sitting on the back of one – and yet they’re very graceful and have distinct personalities. It’s hard not to get completely enchanted by those huge eyes and long eyelashes!

After we’d showered, we had a delicious dinner and as the sun set, gathered round the campfire for songs, magic tricks, dancing and laughter fuelled by some vicious-tasting rice spirit (which got better as the night went on…) These Mahouts sure know how to party.

Before we all retired to our rooms, our hosts brought out some floating lanterns for us to release into the night.

Dinner at BaanChang

Fly, fly!

Then next morning, after breakfast, we were bundled into the back of a jeep for our ‘adventure’ day. It turned out to be more of an adventure for me than I’d imagined.

The morning’s activity was a hike up to a waterfall. It was slightly more challenging than we’d expected due to the fact that the waterfall feeds a river, which the path followed and at various points, crossed. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem for a young and fit specimen like myself but I’d only brought a pair of Crocs (or cheap Chinese copies) to wear on my feet. These had no grip. This was fine stepping on rocks and sand, but some of the crossings were on wet logs which for me might as well have been sheet ice.

I was 90% across one particular log when my left foot slipped. “Not a problem,” I thought as I fell, “I’ll just stick out a leg and stop my fall in this no-more-than-shin-deep water.” Shin-deep turned out to be James-deep.

I went completely under.

Luckily I’d had the foresight to wear my swim shorts that morning so after rescuing my bag and avoiding being swept downstream, I clambered out with nothing hurt but my pride.

I didn't slip on this log

Walking to the waterfall

Walking to the waterfall

Although I was now soaked from head to toe, I bravely carried on. I guess I'm just that kinda guy. 

When we got there, the waterfall was well worth the effort.

On a hot day, the breeze and spray from the falls was most welcome

Now I'm wet

I somehow managed to make it back down without falling again. I wasn’t safe yet - the water gods weren’t done with me. After we had lunch it was time for the white-water rafting…

Apparently, September is the best time of year to go rafting in Chiang Mai, because the monsoon season guarantees the best white-water conditions. In hindsight, perhaps not the best time to try the sport for the first time. The first bit of water was exciting, but nothing too strenuous. Because the waters were so high, they made us disembark and walk between jetties because one section was just a bit too mental. I should have noted the warning signs. The second section was slightly more challenging, but nothing too difficult until our boat captains steered us straight into our first medium-sized wave.

Completely unprepared for it, I was unceremoniously pinged pung launched out the boat like a champagne cork. Suddenly I was experiencing white-water rafting ‘sans-raft’ which is quite exhilarating, let me tell you. Unless you’re my wife and parents, who were treated to the distressing sight of their husband and eldest son disappearing (albeit briefly) under the frothing waves.

Luckily, due to the recent rains, the river was quite deep, so I wasn’t in much danger of hitting any rocks. Although it felt like longer, within seconds the boat captains had brought the raft around and I was being hauled back aboard by them with the help of my Dad. Panic over!

Kept hold of my paddle though.

For the record, I’d like to state now that I hold the water gods, whoever they might be in the highest esteem and if they ever got the impression in the past that I was somehow mocking them, then I unreservedly apologise. Point taken.

Back to Chiang Mai and we made sure the next day was explicitly excitement-free. Then, finally, it was time to wave good-bye to Mum and Dad.

I think they enjoyed their holiday – it was a bit hectic as we’d packed loads in, but it was lots of fun and it was great to share a piece of our travels with them.

Next time we’ll do something a bit less exciting, I promise!

Queen of the jungle

King of the jungle (and Dad)

Current location: Chiang Khong until tomorrow

Next stop: Laos and the slow boat to Luang Prabang