It rains again in the morning, so I get damp preparing breakfast.
Today we are driving to a town where some of us have elected to catch a boat from Huay Xai* to Luang Prabang, our next destination, while the others go on the truck. When we get to Huay Xai, I am somewhat dumbstruck to find a backpackers haven emerge from the jungle roads. The dirt track roads of the town are lined with souvenir shops, restaurants and adventure activity operators.
We are later than planned and we are not sure that we will have the time to get to Luang Prabang. It is supposed to take six hours by fast boat (or a couple of days by slow boat), so we go straight to the river after stopping for some sandwiches.
After spending over an hour sorting out paperwork at the riverside boat booking office, it is pretty clear that we will not get there before sunset, but Laurie, Shay, Joost, Belgian Sam, Caz, Barbara & Stephen, Doc Louise and I decide to go for it anyway.
The boat is about 30 metres long and is a narrow boat, so it doesn’t look like it can go that fast. It is made of nothing more than plywood and bamboo. Louise asks if we are going all the way to Luang Prabang. I am not sure where else she thinks we will be going, as otherwise we will be stuck in the middle of nowhere, but it doesn’t look too promising. Moving manually out of the mooring, we are soon surprised to find that the boat moves along at fifteen knots or more. We are moving faster than they would normally go, I think, because of we are leaving after 1pm and the sun will go down by about six.
Starting from the Nam Khan River then joining onto the Mekong River, the water is flat in most places, but it’s a wide river. At some places it is sea like with small waves, and the shallower parts have small white water rapids. Given the build of the boat, it is a rattling uncomfortable ride, but the scenery is spectacular. The jungle rises from the river, and there are many geological highlights such as marbled & striped cliffs and yellow limestone like rocks like huge cracked skull-tops.
This is a working river, and we pass many villagers fishing with hand reeled lines. Some are digging holes on the bank, which I think is a fishing technique I saw Ray Mears demonstrate once. Or it could be a cooking / preservation technique. There are also people bathing and washing, with the women in Saris to cover their blushes, although not all are that demure.
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| mooring at Luang Prabang |
We arrive at Luang Prabang at about 6pm with no idea what hotel we are staying at and, as we don’t see the truck on a quick walk around town, we stop at a riverside restaurant for beers and dinner. When we finally get a text from Lu, it turns out that the truck arrived an hour before our boat did, but that JC has been fined for illegal parking. Nowhere in Luang Prabang is really suitable for truck parking. He had a two hour wait at the police station before they gave him his licence back and a receipt. In the meantime, he has left the truck outside the hotel. The police hassle him again to move it in the evening, but as he has now been drinking he refuses to move it anywhere. The police here would not seem to mind him driving drunk, but his employers back at home probably would.
The group are split into two hotels, one of which is elegant looking. However, tonight Laurie and I are on the truck as guard.
*I did not know the name of the town at the time, but after researching I decided that this must be where we were
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