Over hundreds of kilometres, the Mekong forms the border between Thailand and Laos, crossing Laos at various points before flowing through Cambodia to Vietnam. This makes it possible to reach Luang Prabang, Laos' old royal city, from the Thai border on the Mekong by so-called slow boat in two days. A possibility that we are happy to take advantage of.
With the bus from Chiang Rai the border crossing between Thailand and Laos is very easy. The bus stops at both checkpoints and waits until all passengers have completed the necessary formalities. In our case this goes fast, because there are only four foreign couples in the bus. A small obstacle is that at the Laotian border only absolutely flawless dollar bills are taken for the visa fee. After the officer has intensively examined all the presented bills, we have to search our stock again completely, as two slightly crumpled bills do not find any favour with him. In return, after we have exchanged money, we become millionaires in no time at all. One Euro is around 10, 000 Laotian Kip, so each of us puts a million in our pockets after we have handed 200 Euro over the bank counter. Then we cross the Mekong on the "Friendship Bridge" and are in Laos, where we drive again on the right side of the road, because here the French were the colonial masters and not the British. We spend the night in a simple guesthouse in the small border town Huay Xai.
The next morning we enter the traditional wooden boat that will take us to Luang Prabang. It is much more comfortable than we expected. Well padded benches with a table in the middle, a sun deck and plenty of room. But the best thing is that the engine is hardly to be heard contrary to all descriptions.
So we sail 7 hours a day down the Mekong, which winds as a brown river through a green, mountainous landscape. In many places rocks rise out of the water, which have to be skilfully avoided and the Mekong gets really narrow again and again. High sandbanks form the shore and in some places one can guess that the water here rises several meters during the rainy season. Altogether there are much fewer boats on the way and also the settlement is much thinner than we expected. Everything is very contemplative, a very pleasant and relaxing way to view this beautiful landscape.
Our trip is interrupted by an overnight stay in Pakbeng, a place at half distance that apparently lives primarily from the boats mooring there. Another stop is the visit of a village. At the river peanuts are cultivated and there are woven fabrics and scarves to buy. On the one hand interesting and a source of income for the villagers, on the other hand the visit leaves us with a strange feeling. Imagine that at our house there were several groups of people every day, who sometimes photograph everything without any distance and then leave again. At least the children had their fun with us and we with them.
Shortly before Luang Prabang we visited the Pak Ou cave, which can only be reached by boat and is filled with hundreds of Buddha figures of any size. Up to here there was no other bridge crossing the Mekong on the approximately three hundred kilometres since the Friendship Bridge. But this will change very fast. How could it be otherwise, China invests strongly in Laos and so there were two big bridges under construction, to which also the complete road and railway network is built. Especially the construction of the railway line seemed absolutely unbelievable to us in view of the landscape structure, but it is true. 63% of the 400km long line is to run in tunnels, 176 bridges are planned. And since Laos as one of the poorest countries in the world cannot finance such a project, it now pays 20% of its national budget in interest and vouches with its mineral resources for the Chinese loans.
Just in time for sunset we arrive in Luang Prabang. With a chilled beer Lao we sit on the bank of the Mekong, which now flows without us as a brown river.
