I spent one day on a minibus to get from Chiang Mai to the border town of Chiang Khong in Thailand. I spent one night there and headed to Thai immigration in the morning. Immigration was cleared without incident and I collected my exit stamp. From there, we boarded a set of small ferries to cross the wide Mekong River. I got a bit muddy stepping onto Laos soil (er, mud) on the other side of the river. I had already arranged my 30 day Laos visa (cost was about CA$60) before, so clearing immigration and earning my entrance stamp was a snap. From there, we were loaded onto a truck to take us to the dock where we could board our slow boat.
We were dumped out at a cafe where I paid 5 baht (CA$0.16) to use a toilet. We all handed our passports to a policeman who held onto them. I hope he didn't do anything sneaky with them. He wasn't gone for too long, though. He returned our passports and gave us our tickets for the boat.
It would be a two day journey, seated on crowded wooden benches. Each day was about 6 or 8 hours of travel on the river. It was boring at times, but we had entertainment. We made new friends, played cards, drank beer, and chatted a lot. Sometimes I turned myself "off" and read a guide book, a novel (currently reading A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood), played DS, or listened to music and stared at the world slowing chugging by.
On the way, the boat stopped and a mob of children swarmed onto the boat to sell the passengers chips, soda, beers, and other snacks from plastic tubs. These kids couldn't have been more than ten years old each. I didn't buy anything, but someone I talked to realized that one of the kids had returned the wrong change to him. The kids were swindlers! I had to be careful in Laos.
We stayed overnight at this tiny one-street village called Pak Beng. I split a room with a Chilean man named Roberto. We Robs gotta stick together, you know. There was no electricity in the town after about 8 PM, and a big group of us ended up visiting a couple different places in Pak Beng,
First, I had dinner with Alex, Christine (from Minnesota) and John (from New Zealand). This group of people would form my group of traveling companions for the next few days (maybe weeks, we'll see). We had our first Laotian food. We were enticed into going into this bar with the offer of buy-one-get-one-free big bottles of Beer Lao. Beer Lao is the government-approved beer which has a 98% market share in Laos. It's actually a fairly decent brew, so drink it without complaint. The beer was 10,000 kip (about CA$1.10) for a 640 mL bottle. Buy-one-get-one-free was a sweet deal. Sadly, when we tried to order our second sets, the restaurant owner said he was all out. He even took me into the kitchen to show that the cupboards were bare. We felt a little conned and left. I did enjoy my meal, however. I had a Laotian fish salad called Laap.
After dinner, I hooked up with most of the rest of my travel group at some other bar. The electricity was long gone, so we sat by candlelight while the town slept around us. As soon as I got there, the guys shouted, "ROB! ROB! DRINK THIS!" and I was handed a shot glass of brown liquid. I gave it a whiff -- it smelled like whiskey. I thought... "What the hey" and downed it. Ugh. It tasted pretty foul -- more foul than your average foul whiskey. Then the guys showed me the bottle. It had a cobra curled up in it, with the tail passing through the mouth.
A COBRA.
I'm not kidding.
The guys there had been drinking from the bottle for a few hours and it was already about half consumed. They continued to drink it, and no one was poisoned, so we wasn't that bad. It still tasted foul though.
In the morning, my roommate Roberto informed me that he hadn't slept all night. He had three shots of the cobra whiskey and was feeling high and delirious. I only had the one shot, so I slept better, but my stomach was still a little off. Ugh. The bed I slept on was rock hard and there was no water pressure in the bathroom to use the sink or shower. There was no electricity in the morning, either, so I had to use the bathroom mostly in the dark. I brushed my teeth using my drinking water, lathered on some deodorant and marched down to the boat dock with my stuff.
I met up with Alex, Christine, and John on the way. When we reached the riverside, I was greeted with gorgeous views. It was really beautiful. Despite the cobras, hard bed, no shower, and woozy stomach, it was all worth it.
The second day on the boat was slightly more crowded than the first. The scenery was just as beautiful... but after two days straight of mountains, rocks, rapids, it got a little repetitive. We docked in Luang Prabang shortly before sunset. To our great pleasure, Pong, the owner of Spicythai Backpackers was waiting for us at the boat dock. We told him that we'd be arriving that day. Since there's only one boat that arrives per day, he knew exactly where to find us.
Pong helped us find a nice guesthouse to stay in. I split a room with John. It was 400 baht, divided two ways (CA$13/2) for a private room with two double beds, fan, private bathroom with heated shower. I checked that the bed was not rock hard, and that there was water pressure. It seemed like a good deal. I really appreciated Pong's help.
We got ourselves cleaned up and met Pong for dinner. We went to a cool outside bar/restaurant called Lao Lao Bar where I had more Lao food and beer. I ate a filling meal with a spicy vegetable stir fry, rice, and large Beer Lao for 43000 kip (about CA$4.70).
Laos is one of the least developed countries in the world. It's very cheap to visit, however, it is slightly more expensive than Thailand. That's because Laos has very little industry and grows only certain kinds of food. Almost everything that travelers would use or eat has to be imported from Thailand... hence the increased cost.
Another interesting thing is the currency situation. The currency in Laos is the kip. It's somewhat inflationary, and very devalued. One US dollar will buy about 8700 kip. Additionally, the Thai baht and US dollars are used here. Using three currencies is rather confusing, especially when the kip is so devalued. I need to keep track of several exchange rates in my head now, and do math involving a lot of zeros. I'm going to have to be very careful here.
Anyways... today is now Easter Sunday. HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!
This morning, Alex, Christine, John and I (who were all staying at the same guest house) met up with Pong for Easter Brunch at a great little bakery/cafe called Jomo. It was just like being at a cafe back at home, except all the prices were in kip and had lots of zeros on them. I had a really nice little ham and cheese quiche, apple cinnamon muffin, two large coffees and a lot of chocolate. My meal (minus the chocolate) was about CA$4. Not really bad, considering that much food would probably cost twice that in Toronto.
After brunch we went to the money exchange place. I'm pleased to say that I'm now a millionaire. Yes, really. I sold US$200 and was handed 1.6 million kip in a thick wad of bills... mostly 50,000 kip notes. Alex had to go to another place, and bought the same number of kip, but was paid mostly in 5,000 kip notes. Her wad of cash was literally two inches thick. So bizarre. Since I expect to live on about US$20 per day here, it should last me for a while.
That brings me to now. I'm in an internet cafe now, writing this and uploading pictures to Picasa. I'm going to the temple tonight at sunset and heading to a waterfall to go swimming tomorrow.
Ciao!
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