Mekong River Cruise: Day 1

Crossing Into Laos

This morning we had a 7:30am pick-up from our Namkhong Guesthouse in Chiang Khong (border town). The process of crossing the border from Thailand to Laos was multi-step:

• Shuttle from hotel to the Thai side of the border to get our Thai exit visa/stamp

• Bus transfer from Thai departure side of border, across Friendship Bridge, to Laos side

• At Laos border arrival we were met by another Mekong Smile representative, who walked us through the steps on the Laos side

• We filled out the required Laos forms (two that were virtually identical - seemed redundant!), handed them in at window #1, then waited to get our stamped passports back at window #2

• Passports back in hand, we walked over to a 3rd window - the Bank - to pay the required $35 USD entrance visa per person

• Border crossing official complete!

• Hop into another shuttle van with 6 other people (also on our boat) to make the 15 minute drive to the Mekong River

• There were dozens of long-tail boats docked at the river. We hopped onto ours (so nice!) and made ourselves comfy.

• We’re now ready to check out Laos, our 17th country of the trip!

Almost Missed the Boat!

There were eight of us on the boat (that came from the border crossing together). Our guide, Kae, said he needed to go get the remaining two passengers and that he’d be back momentarily. I took this opportunity to hop off the boat and look around the “port” area a bit further. Best thing I saw was one local handing off a chicken to another from his boat full of stacked crates of chicken.

I was slowly making my way back to out boat. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a boat pushing off. I did a double take and it was our boat!! What the what?! Our boat was leaving without me! And how the heck did Doug or the girls not notice that I was missing?! Thankfully I caught the eye of one of the boat staff and started pointing urgently between myself & the boat. He started giggling, totally amused that they’d just left without me!! Thankfully they were only about 10 feet out so they quickly reversed and I was able to hop on without much effort.

Turns out Doug was in the bathroom when the boat pushed off so he had no clue I was on shore. As for the girls, they hadn’t even really registered that the boat was moving, so they also had no idea what was going on. Good to know my family has my back, haha :)

Smiley Boat: Off We Go!

All 10 passengers + crew now successfully on board and off we went! Our long tail wooden boat is awesome!! It’s capacity is 30, but we lucked out with only 10 passengers for our trip. Or as our guide said “We got the VIP boat”. Works for us!!

The boat has 10 tables, 2 bathrooms and serves us buffet lunch. With only 10 passengers on board, it means we can spread out among a few tables. The water of the Mekong River is a murky brown, but both sides of the river are wrapped up in lush green palm trees, banana plantations and rolling green hills. BEAUTIFUL! Impressively, the river is quite clean. Happy to see it not littered with trash or plastic!

Local Village Stop

After about two hours on the water, we pulled off to visit a local Hmong village called Huay Nor Khom, inhabited by 36 families and 80+ children. Interestingly, it’s the same tribe (Hmong) that Doug & I visited in Sapa, the mountains of Northern Vietnam, during our 2006 honeymoon. There was a large group of young children waiting for us at the shore. Almost all were holding small handicrafts (colorful woven bracelets, bookmarks, small purses) for sale. The moment our feet touched the ground they swarmed around us, gesturing towards their small items, and putting their little hands in ours. As to be expected, they were immediately taken by the girls. Our tour guide said they were calling the girls "falang" (foreigner) and saying they were so “cute” and like a “cartoon” (because of blue eyes) and with “noodle hair” (light & long).

Sadie was overwhelmed & embarrassed by all the attention, and more or less hid behind me or Doug the whole time. Paige didn’t mind the attention one bit (or at least, she went along with it with a beautiful dimpled grin on her face) and within a few minutes she was holding hands with two girls and off ahead of us. The two girls were about her age, and just sweetly stared at Paige, and at one point even brushed Paige’s hair behind her ear. It was a moment both gorgeous & bittersweet to see. Gorgeous because here are two girls of about the same age finding a sweet connection, communicating through gestures, not words. Bittersweet for the obvious reasons; that the other girls are so starkly challenged/disadvantaged in their life versus the comforts & well being of Paige’s young life. I asked our tour guide if the children in the village have an opportunity to go to school. He said there is a government school down the riverbank, but that they only go for about 5 years. Kids are married off around the age of 14/15 years and start having families not too long after that.

The girls wrote a journal entry about the river village stop. Here’s an extract of what they each said:

• Sadie: "I felt sooooooooooooooooooooooooo embarrassing (embarrassed)"

• Paige: "Just now we were at a little town that was really charming. It was right on the river. There were about 20 kids to greet you. Also they would hold your hands! And put flowers in some girls hair! I really recommend it!"

As we left the village, the local kids crowded around us (and the other passengers). We told the girls they could each pick out one thing to buy. I was with Sadie behind the larger crowd, so she was able to buy one discreetly without a big audience. Win, win :) Paige on the other hand, was almost gobbled up by the kids when she was trying to pick out something! There were close to a dozen kids waving their hands & trinkets in her face. We encouraged her to buy from one of the two girls she was holding hands with. She picked one and we relayed to the two girls (with the help of our guide) that we wanted them to share the $1.

Paige surrounded by children as she picks out one bracelet ($1) to buy

Truth be told, I find these kinds of situations uncomfortable. It reminds me of when we hiked in Sapa through the Hmong villages. Kids would surround us selling walking sticks made from bamboo. We couldn’t buy something from every kid, and yet it was agonizing to decide which child to buy from. Even with only $1 on the line, the stakes were high; $1 can go a long way for them & their families. Doug had the bright idea of closing his eyes, spinning around a few times and then pointing. Whichever kid his finger was pointing at when he opened his eyes got the purchase. Seems like a fair (or at least not unfair) way to go about it! We have the means to give to these families, but money isn’t always the answer. Giving money to children propagates the problem because parents will keep their children out of school & instead send them to the streets to earn money for the family. We read in a guidebook that handing out books to local children in Laos is better than money. We’re going to make that happen when we get to Luang Prabang.

Afternoon Chill

Back on the boat, buffet lunch was served.

The rest of the afternoon we rotated between a number of things: watching the beautiful scenery on both riverbanks, working on blog posts, playing Rat a Tat Tat card game with the girls and just hanging out. The girls were going somewhat berserk with their daily dose of energetic sillies. We let them do their thing, as long as they were not bothering/in close range of other passengers. We took a hard line and didn’t allow them to watch any videos on the boat (which did NOT go down well, go figure); it’s just too special of an experience, with a beautiful surrounding, to waste it staring down a screen.

Kae the Entertainer

The girls had spells where they got super "squirrely" = cannot contain their energy or silliness. They normally have physical space to blow off steam. But not on a boat! Kae took interest in the girls and called them over. He regaled them with his ability to make paper airplanes and his talent for making creatures out of Beer Lao tin foil bottle wrappers. As we say in the video, Kae definitely earned his tip :)

Evening Fun

We rolled into Pakbeng for our overnight stay around 4:30pm. We were taken a short distance by tuk tuk to our hotel on the river bank. We had originally booked a huge bunk room (with 8 beds) because that was all that was available to accommodate the four of us. Instead, at check in, they gave us the keys to two rooms. Turns out a larger party had booked into the big bunk room. No problem. It’s not our preferred way to stay, but we’re used to having to split up into two rooms by now.

We were due to meet back with our guide Kae & the group from the boat around 5:30pm so that we could check out the Night Market before it closed at 6:00pm. That gave us just enough time to catch the sun dropping down and enjoy the view over a Lao beer before heading out. We had to jog up the road to make sure we were at the meeting point on time - check out the video :)

We realized we forgot our charging cords on the boat (we only took a minimal amount of stuff off the boat for the overnight stay) so Doug & Paige ran back for that. Sadie & I met up with the group and carried onto the market. Doug & Paige arrived just moments later and we all caught the tail end of the town’s very modest market. Virtually all the stalls were already packed up for the day, but we did get to try some sweet sticky rice straight out of bamboo.

Dinner Party

We ended up at a Laotian restaurant recommended by our guide. We were excited to dine as a group. We get ALOT of time to dine just the four of us; having a chance to mingle with others was definitely appealing! Turns out we were right; it was a super fun night, full of great conversation and laughs!

It’s worth me first setting the scene of who was at dinner:

• Kae: Our guide, grew up in a rural Laotian village of 14 families

• Shilpa & Trace: couple from DC (she’s Indian & he’s American), well traveled, at the start of a two week holiday

• April & Luke: British couple from Guernsey island off the UK, traveling the world for 1+ years and vlogging about it in their YouTube channel (truelovetravels)

The night started when Kae passed around two bottles of local whiskey for us to try, along with some quirky stories that made us all laugh. The banana whiskey was actually quite smooth & tasty (as whisky goes). The second, a rye whiskey was just plain foul tasting! Next up was a round of beers and our first Laotian food.

From L-R: Luke, April, Kae, SPSD, Shilpa & Trace

Dinner conversation ranged from travel styles, to which way we prefer our toilet paper (Mullet vs Beard? Beard of course!), to which roles we each play in our relationships (CEO/COO/CFO/MD - Master of Directions, etc) to household responsibilities. We had a blast! How fortunate to be placed together with this intelligent, interesting, travel-loving and fun bunch of people!!

On our short walk back to our hotel we ran into this bunch of local ladies still going strong with their drinking. I was embarrassing the girls (especially Paige) when I was dancing to their music as we approached. Oh well. Isn't that what parents are for sometimes?! :) Our lights were out by 10:00pm.

What a fantastic first day and introduction to Laos!! We were really blown away by the raw beauty of Laos. We had no real idea what to expect (common theme in our travels lately!) but its landscape is jaw dropping. Mostly I think because it’s less touched by tourism or human hands. It’s not developed; it’s literally farmers, fisherman and locals panning for gold (no joke). It’s the way it looked 40 years ago and that’s the magic in it. Today made us so excited to spend the next week learning about & exploring more of Laos in Luang Prabang.

p.s. I came up from the toilet at the restaurant and the Bob Marley song “No Woman, No Cry” was playing. It’s one of my very favorite songs and over the years & all my travels, it seems to pop up in the most unlikely corners of the world and fill me with joy & gratitude. Even the girls know about my connection to this song. It’s like a sign that someone is looking over me, tapping me on the shoulder saying, “Remember this moment. It’s a good one.” Hearing it made my heart smile :) Tonight (the whole day, really) was definitely one of those moments.