Crossing the border from Chiang Kong into Laos is kind of fun. The bus from Chiang Rai drops us a couple of kilometres from the border station, a tuk tuk is already waiting. We drive another few minutes, and shortly after, we have officially left Thailand. Next step: get a bus through no-man’s land to the Lao side of the border. We share the bus with a large group of Chinese tourists, who luckily have their visa all sorted, there is no queue. Before we even can queue, we have to fill in one of the most detailed forms ever (one of the fields was “race” as open question – yikes). The Chinese group is long gone by the time we finish filling the form. 30 dollars later we proudly hold our passport with the visa and can finally enter Laos. As soon as we exit the border station, a guy starts trying to convince us to buy our boat ticket to Luang Prabang with him, which would include the tuk tuk to Huay Xai, the small town where we will spend the night. Of course, if we buy the tickets with him, we would get the best seats on the boat, and we’d also have a tuk tuk in Pakbeng, the overnight stop of the slow boat. And the tuk tuk to Huay Xai would leave immediately. If we didn’t buy the boat ticket, we could buy just the tuk tuk ticket but would then have to wait until there are 8 people for the tuk tuk to leave. There are two Spanish tourists, and us, so we are nowhere near 8 people. We debate paying double for the tuk tuk so we could leave immediately. The Spanish finally opt to buy the boat ticket with him – his price doesn’t seem too exaggerated but we don’t like the way he corners us. And soon enough, we discover the first lie/exaggeration he told: while we still debate what to do, a Lao lady shows up and buys a ticket for the tuk tuk. We decide to do like her and she immediately calls the tuk tuk driver – we don’t know what she says but we assume that three people are enough to have the tuk tuk leave. The Spanish end up in the same tuk tuk. About 20 minutes later, the tuk tuk conveniently stops almost in front of our hotel. Huay Xai has two main draws as a destination: the Gibbon experience, and being the start (or end) of the slow boat to (or from) Luang Prabang. And we are here for the latter. Since we didn’t buy our boat ticket with our friend at the border, we still have to do that and decide to buy it with the hotel. This is not much of a monetary gain, but it reassures us because in case of problems (i.e. tuk tuk doesn’t show up), at least we have someone to turn to. Also, we didn’t like the guy at the border.
The little town itself doesn’t have all that much to offer, so we stroll around, eat, rest, and eat some more. The next morning, our tuk tuk punctually picks us up at 9.30. We arrive at the pier only a few minutes later, the boat is due to leave around 11h. This is early, but we are not the first ones, yet still can choose where to sit (lie #2 of the border guy: no agency can get you a good seat, the only way to get a good seat is to arrive early). The boat itself is surprisingly comfortable. Brice has done the same trip in 2014 and apparently the boats have been upgraded quite a bit since. We slowly watch the boat fill up, and shortly before 11 one of the staff announces that about 40 people are currently waiting to cross the border and will all come on the boat. We gasp a bit, as the boat is quite full by now. Whoever counted the people though may need to re-evaluate their skills, as maybe around 15 people or so show up shortly after, and we are finally ready to leave. (The Spanish from the day before arrive quite late btw – and definitely do not have the best seats.)
Most of the passengers are western tourists, a few local people are there as well. Not all of them go all the way to Pakbeng or Luang Prabang, the boat stops a few times along the way for people to get off (or new passengers to get on). All in all, the first leg of the journey takes about seven hours. There are bathrooms on board and you can buy food and drinks if you like (though most people have stocked up on land). The journey is very pleasant – calm and picturesque. Every now and then it rains a bit, and everyone rolls down the rain covers on the side of the boat – only to roll them up again as soon as the rain stops and it gets stuffy inside.
A bit before 6pm, we can see the small town of Pakbeng ahead of us. Our hotel has promised to pick us up at the pier and they are right there waiting for us (lie #3 of the border guy: even if your hotel doesn’t offer free pick up, most hotels and guest houses are within a five minute walking radius, so you don’t really need a tuk tuk). Our hotel offers amazing views on the Mekong river and we enjoy the last minutes of daylight on the balcony. We take a short walk through the village before having dinner on the lovely terrace of our hotel – here we try Lao sticky rice for the first time, which is now one of our favourite ways to eat rice.
We go to sleep quite early (turns out, sitting on a boat all day is tiring), and set our alarms for 6am – not for the boat but because we have heard of a certain spectacle in the morning: the elephants from the elephant sanctuary across the river are coming down for their morning bath!
Full of anticipation, this is probably one of the easiest 6am wake ups for us ever. At 6.30, we are all packed and ready, so we can enjoy the elephants. But where are they? We have to wait another 20 minutes or so until the first elephant appears out of the forest, soon joined by one, two, three of his friends. The elephants bathing and the foggy hills surrounding them make quite the impressive scenery.
After all this excitement, we are ready for breakfast. The breakfast is so plentiful that we pack up half of it for the boat: eggs, fruit, pancakes, samosas. Around 8am, the hotel owner takes us back down to the pier for our 9am departure for Luang Prabang. It’s a different boat, but quite similar in comfort. Most of the other tourists are also back on the boat, and a new crowd of locals. Ready for day two!
As you can imagine, day two is not that different from day one. The weather is a little better and the views are just as beautiful. Towards the end of the afternoon, we are getting anxious to arrive and around 4pm, we are dropped at the slow boat pier of Luang Prabang, a few kilometres north of the city – a convenient business for the local tuk tuk drivers. The price to go to the centre is fixed at about 2€/person, which seems not too bad for a 15min ride, though one Lao passenger seems to find that quite outrageous and even gets off the tuk tuk before the guy in charge calls him back and lets him pay whatever lower amount. We, on the other hand, are just happy to arrive and get to our guesthouse, which is only a short walk away from where the tuk tuk drops us.
We really enjoyed the slow boat – a great way to travel if you have time. Once you got your ticket it’s hassle free and all you have to do is sit and relax.
How it works
The slow boat goes from northern Laos, Huay Xai, to Pakbeng, and then to Luang Prabang. The journey takes two days, you stay over night in Pakbeng (you have to organise your own accommodation). You can of course also stay longer in Pakbeng, you can buy the ticket from Huay Xai to Pakbeng and from Pakbeng to Luang Prabang separately. The slow boat leaves Huay Xai around 11am every morning, and Pakbeng around 9am. The full trip costs 200k Lao Kip, which is around 20€. This is the price if you buy it directly at the pier. If you buy with an agency or your hotel, it will be a bit more expensive and include your tuk tuk to the pier. At our hotel we paid 230k Kip. The guy at the border wanted 260k Kip, which is not too bad either, given that it also includes the tuk tuk from the border to the village (20k Kip). However, remember that 1) there is no seat reservation (you need to come early if you want to pick a seat) and 2) you don’t need a tuk tuk in Pakbeng, so you shouldn’t pay more for a ticket because of these ‘services’. If you sleep in Huay Xai, it is nicer to stay in the centre, so you will be a couple of kilometres from the pier – you can walk but it’s probably around 20min. In high season particularly we would recommend to buy your ticket the day before and to go the pier at least one hour before departure. If you don’t want to stay in Huay Xai, you can take an early morning bus from Chiang Rai – you can buy the ticket from Chiang Rai to Luang Prabang, so the agency will make sure that you make it to the boat. You can of course also do the trip up north from Luang Prabang – this is the less popular direction so the boats may be less crowded.
The boat seems to be a very popular choice for backpackers and long-term travellers, and the atmosphere is quite fun. If you’re looking to make friends, it’s a good place! It’s advisable to stock up on food and drink before boarding, it’s cheaper. Also, especially in rainy season, don’t forget to bring a sweater and scarf. Your luggage is stowed in the belly of the boat, so you won’t have access during the trip.
There are also speed boats that do the trip, but they have a bad safety and accident record, so we don’t recommend this. If you wanna splurge, there are some fancy cruises that cost several hundred dollars.
Where to stay in Huay Xai
When you start looking for a hotel or guesthouse in Huay Xai online, you may get a bit desperate. There are a bunch of options but none really look appealing and the reviews are not encouraging either. Then again, you’re only staying here for a night, so it doesn’t really matter. We stayed at Taveesinh Hotel (15€) and were happy with it. The building is actually really nice, and the common areas are filled with beautiful teak furniture. The owners are lovely and helpful. You have amazing sunset views from the roof. The room itself was old fashioned and dated – which seems to be common for most if not all hotels in town. For one night it was just fine. It was close to a bunch of shops and restaurants, including the Dream Bakery, where we picked up some delicious sandwiches for the trip. There is one hotel right next to the pier if you don’t care about going out for dinner or errands.
Where to stay in Pakbeng
There are fewer hotels in Pakbeng, but they look overall more appealing than in Huay Xai, there are even some really fancy ones. Our hotel, the BKC villa, was lovely (18€ with breakfast). The room was quite modern and the views on the Mekong were spectacular. Breakfast was good and plenty, the restaurant is also nice. They picked us up and dropped us off for free at the pier, though it would have been fine to walk. Whatever you choose, we highly recommend getting a hotel west of the pier with a view on the river and the elephants. We think that in Pakbeng it might be useful to reserve in advance in high season.
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