DAY 2, HUAY XAI TO PAKBENG
The 3 Day Slow Boat From Thailand to Laos, Pt 2. The next day we made our way to the Thailand-Laos border. Two English fellas overstayed their visa in Thailand. The guy at passport control played a little joke on them and said what they did was very serious. Their faces dropped, but in the end, they just had to pay 500 baht (10£). To give you an idea of how lax this is, in America, you would face a 10-year travel ban!
IMMIGRATION JOKES
After immigration, the guy responsible for the trip gave us a talk. He said he got us the best seats on the boat at the front, away from the engine. Result! We boarded quickly, but they sent every one of us straight to the back of the boat where the engine was. The noise was horrific. The good thing was that the bar was also at the back, so we didn’t even need to get off our seats to get a beer. Although the scenery is pretty much the same for the whole journey, it’s like nothing I have ever seen.
The boat is a bit of a mess but what do you expect in such a remote place, it was never going to be first class which would just defeat the purpose of travelling to these areas. Occasionally we headed past people washing themselves in the muddy river and the kids couldn’t appear to be any happier, different world!
The boat is also used to transport locals, food and parcels. Sometimes the boat wouldn’t even stop and would just slow down to allow someone to throw the parcels off onto the bank and continue on. The company certainly helped make it the experience it was with the 3 American guys and a few girls from Derby and Aberdeen so the craic was decent (for a 3 day trip it would need to be). That night we docked at Pak Beng and couldn’t believe the scenes – check out tomorrows post to see why.
SAFE TRAVELS, DS x
This episode is part of The South East Asia Series, click to see episode 1.
To watch the video of my trip, head to my highlights on my Instagram.
