Thailand to Lao - The Mekong River

Mekong River separating Thailand form Laos

I’ve now arrived at a town called Luang Prabang in Laos after travelling for the past three days from Chiang Mai in Thailand. I left Chiang Mai on Wednesday morning and took a 6 hour mini bus ride to the Thailand Laos border. I had to stay at a small town called Chiang Khong and wait for the ferry the following day that would take me across the Mekong river into Lao.

View of the Mekong River from our Hostel in Pak Beng

After arriving in Laos and completing the visa formalities I took a two day boat ride down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang, this would take a further two days. This included a stop off overnight at a very small town called Pak Beng.

On the whole the journey wasn’t too bad. Both day trips on the slow boat were approx 7 hours long and not the most comfortable but I was with many other travellers who were doing the same thing so it was good to chat to all the various people.

The Mekong River

The views from the slow boat of the Mekong River were very impressive. The route was lined with large jungle mountains and small wooden hut villages. Stopping at the small town of Pak Beng was very strange as it contained one small road with wooden hut shops and one bar selling ‘Lao beer’ (the local beer for this country). Met some interesting locals at the village who joined us at the bar. Most of them had spent their whole lives in this small town.

Snake and Scorpion Whisky

One thing they have in Laos is snake whisky. This is basically Whisky with a Cobra stuffed in the bottle (see the picture attached). It looks like they also do a variant of this called scorpion Whisky.  This stuff was being sold everywhere on our arrival at the Laos border u its not something I’ll be drinking anytime soon.

I’ll be staying a total of about 3 weeks in Laos before moving over the border into Cambodia. However there is lots of see and do before this time.