Mekong River trip
The trip from Luang Prabang in Laos to Chiang Khong in Thailand. This proved to be one of the most fantastic journeys I've taken.
The monks were doing their begging round when I walked to the boat landing. Mostly older local people have cooked rice ready which they add to the begging bowls which the monks carry. There were 100 monks (young and old ..) so that is a lot of rice. Some enterprising local tribal women tried to sell me rice to give to the monks but I did not think it was appropriate. This is an interesting custom and while I am fairly sure it is not their sole source of food, it keeps the monks grounded and well connected to the local population .. I wonder how well priests or Church or England vicars would do if that were the custom in England?.
The boat is nice .. it was designed for 34 people and as there are only 14 of us, there is a lot of room to spread out. We had breakfast after setting out .. enjoying dawn on the Mekong River. The haze in nearby mountains makes it look very much like one of those Chinese paintings. Our plan is a two day trip to Thailand – 160 kms ( 99 miles) the first day, overnight at a hotel which belongs to the boat company, then 140 kms ( 86 miles) the second day.
We were going 16 to 20 miles an hour and were being passed by the high speedboats which carry 6 passengers. These are long narrow boats with an auto engine mounted at the rear (usually a VW engine, I was told) with a propeller welded to the driveshaft . The noise from these high speed boats is deafening. They travel at nearly 45 miles an hour and have a poor safety record.
I was expecting something special from this trip and certainly was not disappointed, This is a remote part of South East Asia; there were no towns of any size and only a few villages. The river has rugged rock formations on each bank (and sometimes rugged rock rapids), with steep hills which often turn into mountains. There is a great deal of white sand forming banks and when the rocks protrude from the sand, it looks like a Japanese garden (OK .. before you complain .. I should say it looks like my idea of a Japanese garden). Some of rocks are a rose colour but my attempts to catch this in a photo failed. An hour from Luang Prabang we stopped at the Buddha caves .. I was hear last year but this time it was not so overrun with people. I noticed a statue of Buddha with hand folded across his stomach ; this was new to me and the guide said it represented reflection. I wonder if this one is a Lao invention, cannot recall seeing it in Thailand.
Back on the river there seems to be another boat every 20 minutes or so including a cargo boat carrying logs which had a huge satellite dish on top .. somehow I suspect that this is not for picking up CNN or Lao television .. I smell nefarious activity, We met the sister boat in our fleet and it was packed .. this made me realize how lucky we are to have so much space.
We stopped at a ‘Whisky Village’ where hill tribes make some local hooch. This firewater is sold in cities as Lao Lao (I had some at Gary’s birthday party last year). The village has 36 families – mostly agricultural workers (or possibly poppy growers?). They had clean drinking water from several communal taps in the village and there is a primary school ; the adjacent village has a secondary school. This place did not have the 'human zoo’ feeling that I have seen in similar places in Thailand, but it still makes me uncomfortable. These people set up tables and perhaps 20 women are trying to sell handicrafts or antiques, but none of my group is interested … I donated to the school fund which I felt justified taking up their time but basically I think these people might be better off not getting involved with these boat tour groups.
I never tired of watching the river, the rock formations and marveling at the skill of the captain to negotiate some very tricky rapids – quite treacherous in places. There are many narrow gaps to negotiate and he did this for 10 hours with only the occasional break. We arrive at our overnight stop (Pakbeng) at 6:30 pm. The hotel is very atmospheric with rattan and bamboo huts with all mod cons, smart design, lovely linens on the bed. Probably best described as elegant rustic if that makes any sense. We were the only guests there and had a nice dinner .. I chatted with several people from the boat and especially with a French speaking Canadian mother / daughter team who sang the praises of Montreal in summer … music festivals all summer long...
Early to bed but the countryside is so noisy that I did not get to sleep until late. It was a shame that we had so little time to enjoy this hotel .. lovely setting and well designed. It was dark shortly after we arrived and we had to be up for 6:30 breakfast.
No electricity when I got up at 6:00 and I had to shower and shave with aid of a torch (flashlight) but of course, the power came back on just before I left the room. Breakfast a weird affair .. too sweet! The drink which looked like apple juice was very sweet – could it be diluted honey? Mango was OK but accompanied by rice with coconut .. more sweet!
Back on the river .. I wish I knew more about the geology of this region. Most rivers (and certainly places like the Grand Canyon or Copper Canyon) look as though water (and possible wind) have eroded the soil and cut through layers rock and soil. This river has such jagged rocks that it looks more like the fissure of an earthquake which then filled with water. Extraordinary landscape. There were very few rounded rocks (the type you normally see in a river).
Every mile or so we saw people fishing or working in plots along the river. It was odd to see small (say 6 or 8 years old) kids playing right at the edge of this fast flowing river without an adult nearby. I guess these kids can swim by the time they can walk. This got me to thinking about the quality of life issue – although these people are poor, the kids have a freedom which is lost in the ‘civilised world’ where parents do not let children out of their sight.
We passed a logging camp with working elephants – very picturesque until you look up and see how the mountain side has been gouged with no apparent attempts at replanting. Surely this will mean more erosion, more mud in the river. More silting up, etc.
We stopped at another village which really set me to thinking about the effect of tourism on these people. Much of the stuff they are selling is brought in, they dress in their tribal costume to create some sense of authenticity (most of the people in the village who were not selling wore normal western clothing). Why can’t I just travel and not start analyzing everything? Reminds me of the New Yorker cartoon .. lady to a travel agent ‘ We just want a vacation – we don’t want to learn anything’.
4 hours from Pakbeng and the landscape changes .. the mountains are now off in the distance and the river banks flatten out to a broad plain. The rugged rocks are not as frequent and the whole effect is less dramatic. There is still interest because now there are more towns and eventually we reach the Thai border on the left … quite a contrast in posterity to the Lao side on the right.
I spoke to the guide about my one disappointment – we saw no giant catfish (Mekong catfish are huge .. 2 to 3 meters long and up to 300 kilos in weight). He said they are bottom feeders and are rarely seen and it is no longer legal to catch them so very few people have seen any for years.
We arrive a Housie Xai around 5:15 pm. There as a fairly hectic trip through Lao immigration , a ferry across to the Thai side and entry procedures there. Two days of being coddled has its effect – it was a rude shock to have to deal with reality again. The Canadian lady (Gisele) and her daughter (Catherine) and I had agreed to take a minibus to Chiang Mai. Catherine organized it and 5 of us shared a pickup truck for the 125 km (77 miles) journey. I was in the jump seat in the cab with some lightweight luggage piled on my legs .. Catherine in the death seat, the others on the planks in the back which constitute seats in this part of the world. We started off OK but the driver kept going faster and driving more recklessly until Gisele had a word with him. She had never been in Thailand before and was appalled by the driving – I supported her and the driver did slow down and drive more sensibly. Within two hours we were at the Golden Triangle Hotel in Chiang Rai – nice enough rooms for under £10 a night ($17). Gisele and Catherine stayed there too – I picked it because it was close to the bus station and that was convenient for their get away the next morning. We had dinner together and had a great time. We gossiped about the boat trip, some of our co-passengers, travel, etc. A huge thunderstorm hit around 9:30 pm so we had to stay in the restaurant for another hour.
Birds and the Mekong
One of the odd things about the river trip was that we saw and heard almost no birds. It seemed odd to be in such a remote spot and not see birds (especially vultures .. even in urban parts of Mexico there were lots of interesting birds). The guide said they had been scared off by the noise along the river. I suspect that the Laotians are a bit like the Isaan Thai people, they kill and eat everything .. no bird is too small, no lizard too meatless for them to ignore. So I was very interested to read this comment from a journalist's travel along this same route:
I was struck by the absence of bird life ; I saw none, and only occasionally did a bird’s cry filter from the forest above me to the left. …. It was eerie that one hears more birdcalls in New York’s Central Park than outside a Laotian village.
Pages 149 - 150. The River’s Tale by Edward Gargan.
The fine print
Date of travel : March 2005
Country information : https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/la.html
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