The Mighty Mekong

Mekong at sunset

05-12-05

OK, I know that by posting this blog today I am now skipping much of my Lao trip, but since this is the most recent thing to happen, and it is such a ridiculous amount of travel and trouble that I thought I should go ahead and write about it while it was fresh in my mind. Sorry for the length of this posting. I guess in wanting to share the ridiculousness of this experience I tend to get a bit detailed. So I mistakenly traveled to Laos and didn’t have the foresight to purchase a plane ticket from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai for when I returned rather than trying to get back over land (or river as the case may be). That was a huge oversight, as it turns out. I am not sure what I was thinking, or, perhaps more precisely, what I wasn’t thinking. But anyway, I had it in my head to get to Luang Prabang maybe about a week before I wanted to leave the country so I could purchase a plane ticket then. Perhaps during low season this would have worked, but as the case may be this is high tourist season. So when I got into Luang Prabang, I checked into a great guesthouse (the guy who ran it, Kong, was so very sweet), took a hot shower (the first in seven days or so), then went to a travel agent. Who proceeded to tell me that all the planes were full. Great. What are my options to get to Chiang Mai? Fast boat or slow boat to the Thai border, then a mini bus (for tourists) or the regular bus. So, the fast boats get you to the Thai border in something like 6 hours, but they are notoriously dangerous and even more than that they are very loud and quite uncomfortable (mind you, this is a relative term here. After all of my transportation experiences, the meaning of uncomfortable really does change. I think they are no less comfortable than many things I have ridden on/in, but on a fast boat you can’t stand up every so often to get circulation into your legs). You can guess that my nervousness about traveling would influence me to choose the slow boat. There was just no way I would gamble that, while nearly all speed boats have no problem whatsoever, my speedboat would arrive with no trouble either.

OK, so the travel agent guy said that I could pay for the slow boat which would get to the border at around 4 or 5 the second day, then cross to Thailand and take a mini bus at 6:30, thus getting me into Chiang Mai Sunday night, giving one whole day to decompress before my wonderful pal Julia gets to town. After spending 4 days, plus an hour another day, on boats in Laos, I wasn’t particularly thrilled to have to spend 2 more days on boat, but if that was the way to get to Chiang Mai, so be it. I even purchased a place on the mini bus, the first time I have ever purposefully taken tourist transportation instead of the local option. But I really wanted to get back to Chiang Mai as planned. So thus I lost a day in Laos, but what can you do – I knew I’d be back. Then, as I was paying for my boat/bus ticket to Chiang Mai, I realized something horrible, but important – I had lost my wallet. It was nowhere to be found. I couldn’t believe it; my heart just sunk and I ran back to my guesthouse. I talked to Kong, then ran to the boat landing. Couldn’t find my boat anywhere, even after asking the other boat people who directed me to go far down the bank of the river from where I was. OK, not far, but not close. Maybe like 100-200 meters or so. Defeated, I went back to my guesthouse. I got sympathy from Kong, who promised to go back with me early the next morning (I think he was pretty sure my Lao wasn’t quite competent enough, and that I might have more success with a native Lao person. Very sweet guy). But still no wallet the next morning either, although we did find my boat and talked to the captain (who was speaking Thai from what I could tell).

Fast forward through my stay in Luang Prabang, which I think was too long, but after losing my wallet and losing a day to the slow boat, I just couldn’y quite muster up the energy to travel anywhere else just to return to Luang Prabang. Mistake, yes, probably so, but what can one do? So, I got up early on Saturday the 3rd of December, and got myself ready to go to the boat. Said goodbye to Kong, who was surprised I would go back on the slow boat after losing my wallet on the other one, but what else could I do? I was very sad to think that I was boarding the boat with the intention of leaving Laos, a country that affects me so much each time I come, but knew I needed to be getting back to Chiang Mai, not just for Julia, but to sort out my wallet fiasco as well. Luckily the boats aren’t nearly as crowded heading upriver. And then we were off. Nothing much to talk about here. Loud, slow, beautiful scenery. Sadness in my heart. I knew passing the landing for Hongsa would be particularly difficult since I had such great experiences there and for one thing don’t want them to forget about me and also can’t wait to get back. I realized that this German couple whom I had met 2 days earlier and who had talked to my Australian friends about Hongsa were going to get off there. (See what happen when I skip writing so many days? Who are these Australians and what on earth is Hongsa??) Well, I was excited after confirming with the Germans that this was in fact their plan, and I told them not only to have fun, but that they had to tell the guesthouse people that I said “Hello!” Actually, I think it was more like, “I doubt they’ll remember my name, so can you just please tell the Jumbo Guesthouse people that the crazy American who can speak Lao says hi?” I can’t even imagine what this German couple was thinking. I do admit I get a tendency to get very excited and enthusiastic about things. But then, after hopping back to my seat, I decided this wasn’t good enough, and proceed to attempt to write a short note to the guesthouse people in Lao (which I am not as comfortable writing as I am Thai). I ran back up to German couple and said “Look! I wrote them a note! Can you give this to them instead?” They wondered who on earth to give it to, and I said “Anyone at Jumbo Guesthouse or Lotus Café! They just took such great care of me there!!” Those poor Germans. I don’t know if the note got delivered or not, but I was excited at the time, and it helped my get past Hongsa without crying too much.

Got into Pak Beng, the halfway town, a bit after dusk. Stayed at the first place I found and befriended a German and a Norwegian with whom I ate dinner and shared some beer Lao. Back to the guesthouse for some sleep, then up early to go check out the local temples, something I didn’t do when I was in town a week and a half earlier (or whenever that was). Ate breakfast, then back on the boat. Not too happy to be back on the boat, but again, at least it wasn’t crowded and everyone was nice. This second day was a very long day. Going upriver (and against the current) is very slow and clearly hard on the motor. And while I was so sad to leave Laos and thought so fondly of it and the wonderful Mekong River through much of the boat journey, I began to get pretty anxious to get off that boat. Then the anxiety grew and grew as time passed and we got closer to 6 pm (when the border closes). The next thing I knew, we were pulling into dock at Huay Sai (border town on Lao side), it was already dark, and 6:30 pm. How powerless and frustrating. Needless to say, I knew then that I wouldn’t get to Chiang Mai that evening. Once the boat was docked (and it took another 10 minutes or so to get in just right and then be able to get off the damn boat), we got off and there guesthouse people trying to see their guesthouses to us. They confirmed it: no way to Thailand that night. Excellent. I was completely out of money, and then I had wasted another $10 on the minibus that was heading to Chiang Mai without me. I took off from the dock with my Norwegian friend, Lasse, but then we realized we were the only ones walking away. No we weren’t, we ended up walking with a Canadian couple from Quebec. Walked pretty darn far to the main part of town, but not without walking down a road that had no bridge and thus retracing our steps first. My god could it possibly get any worse?? We ended up staying in a very nice guesthouse for $5 and grabbing a ridiculous dinner with other people from the boat also trapped in Laos (they had taken a free tuk-tuk to their guesthouse. Great). We were all planning on the minibus in the morning because it was much faster than the local bus. The minibus was to leave at 10:30 in the morning, so I planned to sleep, then cross the border first thing in the morning and get things sorted out on the Thai side of things.

Woke up, grabbed my last delicious Lao coffee for the time being, visited the local wat, and then went back to the guesthouse. Grabbed Lasse and crossed the border with absolute ease. Then talked to the guy standing next to the “minibus to Chiang Mai: good driver with drivers license” sign and found out that the minibus was already full. NO! You HAVE to be JOKING! Lasse was having stomach problems and wasn’t sure if he was going to continue to Chiang Mai or not, but I ran up to the tuk-tuks determined to get to bus “station” because a bus was leaving for Chiang Mai at 9 am (it was probably 8:50 at this time). Of course I didn’t have anything smaller than 1000 Baht, and the tuk tuk cost 20 Baht. Lasse had not Thai Baht, and I tried to explain the situation to the tuk tuk drivers (in Thai, although at this point it was more like Lao-Thai). I explained that I had lost my wallet in Luang Prabang (they were surprisingly sympathetic) and had used all of my small Baht bills in Laos along the way. Finally it was decided that they could find the change for my large bill, and then we double checked about the minibus. Yes, full! Off to the bus stop, ran in, but the 9 am bus was full too! NOOOOO!!!! The next bus left at 11:40 and would get into Chiang Mai at around 6:30. No joke. My heart just sank. I bought 2 tickets anyway (Lasse still had no Thai Baht since we had no time to stop at an ATM) and the woman was very nice and friendly and got a total kick out my ability to speak Thai.

Fast forward to the bus ride. It was so upsetting to think that I was going to be getting into Chiang Mai nearly 24 hours after I had thought I would, after so much time on that damn boat! I can hardly describe the feeling. Lasse and I were not the only ones from the boat there waiting either. The same Canadian couple were going to take the bus, as were these 3 Korean guys who spoke hardly any English but were quite hysterical to watch and very friendly. Finally, the bus pulled up and we got on! It wasn’t particularly comfortable or exciting, but at least we were on our way. Finally. The bus filled up a bit in Chiang Khong, and more and more along the way. This day was a holiday, the King’s Birthday, and I think many Thai used the 3-day weekend to travel. Still, I was just happy to finally be on track to Chiang Mai. Then we pulled into some larger town (not quite a city, but it felt enormous after being in Laos for so long – I mean it had a real bus station) and many more people got on the bus. Standing room only! The tickets were checked, and we should have been back on the road. But we weren’t. We were just sitting there. It made no sense, and no one was doing anything. They hadn’t announced a break, which is what they normally do, so what was going on? Lasse and I both were getting increasingly upset. Then one farang (westerner) and one Korean got off the bus. Great, get back on, I was thinking, or we’ll be here forever! More time passed and slowly more and more people seemed to be getting off the bus. As it cleared out, suddenly we realized that the bus was having engine trouble. Unbelievable! No one had said anything, and it was unclear how long it would take. So I grabbed my small backpack (which I have been guarding very closely since beginning my journey since it had my laptop and camera in it) and exited the bus as well. Talked to the Canadian girl a bit, then a Thai woman came running up to us. She spoke fabulous English and told us that she had to get to Chiang Mai to catch a bus to Bangkok, so she hired a car and wanted to know if we wanted to share it. The cost would be about 200 Baht and we could get a refund for our bus tickets. She was convinced that it would take forever to fix the bus. So the Canadian girl and I waited for her significant other and Lasse and we decided to go for it. We got the refund and Lasse went to get the bags from the bus. We met behind the bus, when I realized that my basket from Muang Sing with all of my food was still on the bus! Lasse was so sorry he forgot, so tried to get onto the bus to get it. Just then 2 Thai people on the bus were giving me the thumbs up signal – the bus was fixed! Oh no!, I thought. But we had already gotten the refund. I still needed my basket! So I got past the bus driver and went to get my basket. Right then everybody else who had gotten off the bus decided to get on so they could be on their way. But I still needed off! Desperation! I was so frustrated. Apparently it was funny to Lasse and the Canadians to see me trying to fight my way off the bus. I finally did, and we climbed into the back of a songthaew (the trucks with the 2 rows in back that I have mentioned before) and were off!

It was pretty funny, in a rather tragic kind of way that can happened when you travel. The 4 farang were chatting together and having a good laugh when it started to rain a bit. Great! I thought the rainy season was over! I hadn’t seen rain in nearly 2 weeks, but timing is everything. So we realized, as did the Thai passengers, that our backpacks were on the roof, so we got the driver to pull over and we pulled the packs in with us (which made it quite a bit more crowded). And we were off again. The driver was going a bit fast, but I have to admit I wasn’t too worried until it really started pouring and then the morbidly phobic traveler in me came out. It really wasn’t too bad though. As we were driving, a small plexiglass window had blown out and one of the Thai girls was getting wet, so we pulled over again to try to fix it. Then we were off again. In the meantime, our bus came up from behind us and passed us. Unbelievable!

All in all, the songthaew ride was pretty uneventful, although a bit long. We chatted a bit and had a decent time of it, but we were all anxious to get done with the endless travel. We FINALLY pulled into the Chiang Mai bus station at around 6:30 or so, and I was home by probably 7:15. Very happy to finally be back in Chiang Mai. In fact, the absurdity of my travel between Luang Prabang and Chiang Mai did actually cure me of my moping and sadness about leaving Laos. And in fact, although I am a bit sick of boats and the slow travel, I do feel safest on these slow boats and they are sometimes about the only means of transportation to places in Laos. This journey seems rather absurd, to me and probably those of you reading this, but as it goes, this really is par for the course when traveling in Southeast Asia, even Thailand which seems so very wealthy compared to its neighbors.