minimalist travel – Slow boat to Laos

August 25, 2018January 16, 2021

Meandering down the Mekong River

We arrived in Luang Prabang yesterday afternoon after our 2-day Slow Boat trip.

We started in Huay Xai on the Mekong River, where we spent a night at the Saibaydee Guesthouse after getting a bus across the border from Chiang Rai. The very helpful host at the guesthouse organised our boat tickets for us and got us seats near the front of the boat. The very noisy 6-cylinder truck engine which powers the boat is towards the back, so we were keen to be as far away from that as possible! There’s also a snack bar towards the back, and smokers head to the captain’s living quarters behind the engine.

It absolutely poured with rain while we were in Huay Xai. I changed some Thai baht into Laos kip at one of the local banks and we ended up waiting on their front verandah for about 30 minutes until the torrential rain eased up. And then it rained all night. We were pretty lucky that it didn’t rain very much while we were on the boat, especially as there was a leak in the boat’s roof that dripped onto my shoulder when it did rain. Not to worry, the weather was warm and my shirt dried quickly. I had taken the precaution of wearing my lightest clothes in case they got wet, but I did stay mostly dry. I also bought a raincoat from a local seller in Huay Xai – it’s absolutely huge on me and I won’t be sad if I never get to wear it, but it would keep me dry if I need it to.

On our first day of ‘slow boating’, we spent about 5 hours on the boat, which left Huay Xai at 11.30 am and docked at Pakbeng at around 4.30 pm. Most of our fellow passengers were backpackers much younger than us, with about 20 locals and their assorted bags, bundles and boxes of stuff. We made a couple of stops along the way, but most of the passengers got off at Pakbeng. There was a bit of a scrum at the boat dock amongst locals offering various levels of accommodation. We had booked a room at the BKC Villas through Agoda and the owner met us and other guests and took us the 500m up the hill in his tuk-tuk. We were given a welcome drink (butterfly pea, lime juice, sugar & water – delicious!) in the reception area and allocated to our rooms. Ours was on the top floor and had a lovely view over the river. We would have been happy to spend an extra night there if we’d been able to work out how to break up the journey. We also ate dinner and breakfast there and enjoyed both very much. Watching a couple of elephants having their morning bath on the other side of the river while we had breakfast on the deck was a bonus!

On the second day we were on a different boat and there were heaps more locals with heaps more stuff – 2 motorbikes on the front of the boat, loads of 20 litre drums on the roof, bags and bags of rambutan, longan and other fruit, assorted other bags and people everywhere! The boat ended up very full and to be honest, if there had been any problems, it would have been an absolute disaster. But as I kept reminding myself and Greg, those boats are also the captains’ and their families’ homes, so it’s in their interest to keep them running well and not sink them.

The scenery along the Mekong was spectacular. Greg’s photos and videos will tell the story better than I ever could. We loved doing the trip as we got to see part of Laos that is only visible from the river – small villages with no road access, forests of majestic teak trees and of course the mighty Mekong River itself.

The seats on both boats were originally from passenger minivans. They were not very comfortable and both of us had sore backs after sitting in them for a couple of days, but I would much rather sit in one on a boat where I can get up and move around, than be squashed in a minivan travelling the 474kms by road from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. I haven’t been able to find out how far the boat trip is, I think it’s about 300-350kms.

Buying the tickets in Chiang Rai for Huay Xai

Crossing the Mekong from Thailand to Laos

Finally we are millionaires. 1 million Laos Kip (about $160 AUD)

Our ride to Huay Xai after arriving at the bus depot

Awaiting for the 5 other people (with their bags) to get in

Working our way down the steep muddy bank to our slow boat

The seats are ex van seats bolted to pieces of wood just sitting on the deck

Lots of debris in the Mekong, that had to be dodged by the boat captain

Bamboo fences at PakBeng, we saw many of these along the Mekong

the view from our room at the BKC at PakBeng, at the end of the first day of the slow boat

During the journey to Luang Prabang we pickup about 50 more passengers (and drop some off)

August 23, 2018January 16, 2021

Chiang Rai

I didn’t post for a couple of days because we didn’t really do much of interest, and then when we did do some stuff – Hedgehog Cafe! Kayaking! Walking tour through a local market! – there was no time to post! We’ll try and do a couple of posts when we’re stationary in a couple of days. I really loved the market tour and want to get it ‘on paper’ before I forget what I did and ate.

Meanwhile … we caught a luxury bus to Chiang Rai on Tuesday, spent a night there and then caught another bus to Huay Xai in Laos yesterday. That can be a very confusing experience, so I’ll fill in more detail about how we did that later too.

And now we’re in Laos! We stayed at the Sabaydee Guest House last night – comfortable room and a very helpful owner who is organising our boat tickets for us. This morning we’re doing Day 1 of the 2-day ‘Slow Boat’ trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. It’s been pouring with rain here all night, so this might be interesting. And wet. Very wet!

Waiting for the bus to Chiang Rai at Chiang Mai

August 17, 2018January 16, 2021

Chiang Mai

We had some time before our afternoon flight to Chiang Mai on Tuesday, so we had another crack at visiting Wat Saket, theTemple of the Golden Mount. We checked out of our hotel and took our bags with us – one of the nice things about travelling light is that we can just take everything with us not leave it in hotels and have to collect it later. We hopped on another canal boat down to the Wat, but I wasn’t feeling very energetic so stayed with the bags while Greg walked to the top. He said it was ‘good’, but wasn’t enthusiastic enough to make me feel like I should do it. Back on another canal boat to the Skytrain line that connects with the Airport rail line. There’s a quirky restaurant called Hungry Nerds near Ratchathewi station. They serve salads, grilled meats, chips and all the wait-staff wear over-sized glasses. That confused me for a while because I kept thinking every waitress was ‘ours’ until I realised they were all bespectacled!

The airport train was very easy and it took far less time and cost a fraction of the taxi we caught when we arrived in Bkk. Lesson learnt – next time catch the train! We had allowed ourselves several hours, which meant a long wait at the airport, but rather that than miss a plane! The VietJet flight was fine and we used Grab again to get us to our apartment.

We’re staying in a 1-bedroom apartment in the Astra Condo complex, a very modern 2-building, 16-floor, 589 unit project that only opened last year. There are at least 3 floors of car parking and 2 of them are still being completed. We’re on the 6th floor and there’s a pool, gym, sauna and steam room on the 16th floor. The Shangri-La Hotel is next door. We found this place on Airbnb and you can see photos and more about it here

The apartment has a kitchen and washing machine, but while I may have had intentions of cooking here, the most I’ve done is pour yoghurt over my morning muesli! There are so many great food choices here that struggling with a small saucepan, tiny frypan and very few utensils seems pointless. The washing machine is handy though.

We haven’t done anything super-exciting in the 3 days we’ve been here. Walked a lot, eaten a lot, swum in the pool. There’s a (push)bike sharing scheme here and Greg took one for a spin a couple of days ago. Sam & Brianna gave us some recommendations – we couldn’t find the original Roti stall on Wednesday evening, but found one in the night bazaar. Yesterday we walked a 7km round trip to SP Chicken in Old Chiang Mai for rotisserie chicken, green papaya salad, stir fried vegies & rice and it was delicious. Last night we went back to the Night Bazaar to an outdoor food court full of stands offering what I think of as ‘the next generation of street food’ – Greg had a burger and ‘handcut fries’ which were slices rather than chips … so they could be shallow-fried in a wok rather than deep-fried. I had steamed prawn dumplings and a steamed bun filled with marinated chicken, with a coconut drink made of young coconut flesh, coconut water, coconut milk and ice. It was all delicious and I’m sure we’ll go back there again and try something different next time.

I like to follow fashion – not clothes, makeup, jewellery or interior design – and probably maybe more accurately termed ‘food fads’. In the Western world, it’s all about fermenting at the moment … sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables, sourdough breads, yoghurt and other fermented dairy products and fermented drinks including kefir and kombucha. It’s not a ‘thing’ in Thailand at all – here they are putting ‘fibre’ and ‘collagen’ in everything from drinks to foods to skincare products. But wait! Yesterday on our walk back from SP Chicken, we detoured to have a look at the An Teak Hotel, where Sam and Brianna like to stay when they’re in Chiang Mai. And what did we see advertised at the hotel’s cafe but Kombucha! Unfortunately the cafe was closed so we couldn’t try some, but the truly delicious irony here is that Sam works for Mojo, a Willunga-based company that makes Kombucha!

Shared Mobike for riding around Chiang Mai

Getting Roti from a street seller in the Chiang Mai night markets

August 9, 2018January 16, 2021

Back in Bangkok

Well, we’re not in Africa … yet. Greg has spent most of this year, and some of last year, building a camper on the back of a Toyota Landcruiser ute. We’re going to ship it to South Africa and plan to travel in it up the western side of Africa to Morocco. It’s a very long-term plan, we’ll travel for 6 – 8 weeks at a time, leave the camper somewhere while we come back home, then take up where we left off.

A couple of weeks ago we took the camper up to Burra for a few days to test it out and see what worked, what didn’t, what needed to be added and what needed to be fixed. We had a lovely time living in and out of it – there’s a small living section with bench seats on either side of a long table which folds down to become our bed. Lots of storage space beneath and above the seats, with a large separate storage area at the back of the vehicle which houses the fridge, jerry cans, tools, spare parts and other must-have items for an overland trip. We were able to drive it on unsealed roads, and had it set up in very windy and wet weather and it all worked well.

We had hoped to put the camper on a ship by the end of this month, but the end of November is looking like a more realistic departure date, which means that we won’t be meeting it in Sth Africa until late January/ early February

Seems like we can’t stay home for too long at a time, so we made a close-to-last-minute decision to come to Thailand and Laos for a few weeks. 10 days later, we’re back in Bangkok after a 15-year gap.

We’ve travelled in Thailand twice before – the first time, in 2003 I think, we brought a folding double kayak and did some paddling around the islands Koh Chang and Koh Wai, on the eastern side of the Gulf of Thailand. We also travelled north to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Mae Sai on the Myanmar border, and spent a few days in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The second time, at the end of 2004, we brought our kids and travelled again to Koh Chang, Koh Wai, Mae Sai and did a side trip to Ha Noi and Sapa in Vietnam.

This time we are travelling super-light – no kayaks, no camping gear and our kids don’t travel with us any more – nothing but carry-on bags and a couple of laptops. My bag weighs 5.5kg plus a ‘handbag’ (daypack) that weighed 1.5kg. Greg’s bag weighed 7kg and he’s got the laptop bag that weighs another 5kg. I kept on thinking I’d forgotten stuff, but we’ve been here 2 days and I haven’t missed anything yet. Plus, as I keep reminding myself, there are shops here. So many shops! And markets! And street sellers! The challenge will be to not buy stuff.

We mapped out a rough itinerary which looks a bit like this – a week in Bkk, a week in Chiang Mai, travel north east to the Thai-Laos border and catch a slow boat to Luang Prabang – that’s a 2-day trip, then a couple of days in Luang Prabang, the old Laos capital, then a couple of days in Vientiane, the new Laos capital, then home at the end of the month.

Come along with us for the ride if you want to. If yesterday, our first full day in Bkk is anything to go by, it’s going to involve a lot of eating and a lot of walking!