Cruising down the Mekong

• Meg82skylark's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from From Huay Xia to Pak Beng to LP, Laos

Trip Start May 05, 2005 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 2005 Next
Entry

  From Huay Xia to Pak Beng to LP, Laos, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Monday, May 23, 2005

The cruise down the Mekong was a memorable journey. On our first day, we had to pick up and move our bags a total of 9 times on our way to the boat, afterwhich my back hurt quite a bit. Of course, the seats on the boat were so comfortable that my back didn't hurt for long.... ha! The pictures don't lie... there was barely enough room to sit up straight with your legs bent in front of you. There were about 50 people on the boat, bags and arms and legs squashed into whichever position they could fit. At least it rained for a short time and cooled everything off.

At night, we landed in Pak Beng, a tiny village on the way to Luang Prabang. We stayed at Phonetip Guesthouse, where the proprietor's daughter thought we were 17 years old. We walked through the town in about 5 minutes and ate at a little house by candlelight: pork laap and papaya salad. Quite yummy! I love laap, did I mention that? Laap is a minced meat salad, with green beans, mint, cilantro, green onion, lemongrass, and lots of other great stuff. You can make it with fish, pork, beef, chicken, or tofu. Fish is the best. After dinner, we met a group of laotian teenage boys in the street, singing songs and passing around a bottle of lao-lao, the local whiskey. We had a couple of sips and went to bed early, but not before we chased out a spider from our room: our first spider-as-big-as-your-hand! It walked out on its own quite happily.

The second day of the boat trip was a bit better. The boat was larger, so we were all able to stretch out and get a little more comfortable. It was hotter too, though, without rain. Once again, the scenery was amazing: rocks, jungle, river life, cows, and a few elephants. After about 7 hours, we pulled in to the small landing at Luang Prabang, and got a beautiful little guesthouse next to the river, with a balcony: View Khem Kong Guesthouse. It was a tad luxurious ($15 a night!) but it has a nice bathroom and is in a pretty wooden house in a great location near the Royal Palace.

-Laurel

Slideshow Share

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

Cave near Luang Prabang	Crossing the Mekong from Thailand to Laos	Easy does it	Lao-Lao in Pak Beng
Loading some cargo	Rocks!

Previous Entry Next Entry