We finally made it to northern Thailand travelling up the Mekong River on the slow boat (their description of the 2 day trip). Our boat actually moved at a decent clip, with reasonable comfortable chairs, and we enjoyed it much more than the long bus ride would have provided. It was a smooth cruise on the river and the scenery was wonderful........mountains in the background, hillside villages along the way, locals using the river for washing clothes, bathing, fishing, young children playing in the water, an event that looked like a garage sale, and water buffalo cooling themselves off in the 100 metre wide river. Since most tourists chose to travel the opposite way that we did, there was plenty of room to stretch out on our boat while most of the boats we saw heading down the Mekong were more crowded.
On our first day our boat experienced some mechanical problems in the afternoon. The captain lost his steering ability, called to the crew for help and we drifted over to the shore where we got off the boat while it was inspected. It turned out that a chain had snapped connecting the steering wheel to the rudder. The crew fixed the problem within an hour and we were on our way again. About an hour later there was another problem with the fuel system causing another delay which they were also able to repair without having to call CAA. It reminded us of our bus adventures in South America where breakdowns were not uncommon but always resolved so that the trip could continue. As a result we didn't arrive at our mid-way stopover point in Pakbeng until nearly 8 pm. It wasn't a major issue for us since there really isn't much to see in the small town so we found a place to stay, had dinner and retired to our room. It wasn't one of Rhonda's favourite places to stay but at $6 a night I suppose you get what you pay for. All the 'hotels' that we saw had rooms at similar prices so this wasn't a case of saving money........if it was then I would have picked another place we walked by that advertised "Clean Rooms - $6, Cheaper Rooms - $5"....who knows what we would have found.
The next morning we purchased our tickets for the second leg of the Mekong trip and boarded a different boat which was nicer than the previous day. Most of the same backpackers from day one were on the same boat making it easy to continue conversations started the previous day. No mechanical problems on this segment so we enjoyed the vistas, read our books, played cards, drank our French wine (in a box) and compared travel notes with others. Our arrival in Huay Xai was after 5 pm (as advertised) and the Thai border was closed for the day so everyone disembarked and found rooms for the night (similar choices to Pakbeng).
In the morning we took a tuk tuk to the Passenger Terminal, a couple of km's down the road, received our exit stamp from Laos, and then took a longtail boat ride across the Mekong to the Thailand side where the border officials accepted us back into Thailand (but only for another 15 days!). From there we caught a tuk tuk to the bus station just in time to catch the departing bus for Chiang Rai (2 hours) which is where we are right now.
We will spend two days here, primarily to visit some villages in the surrounding areas. More on that later.
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