It was one of those rude awakenings. You know the kind, with alarms buzzing and you’re sure that someone has made a terrible mistake. Let’s see, it’s still dark and foggy outside but somewhere in the back of my groggy mind a faint memory surfaces and I realize that we are really meant to be up now and showering.
I’d had the foresight to line up the hotel shuttle to schlep us up the incredibly steep path to breakfast on top of the mountain.
Having just finished repacking we heard the beep beep of the shuttle. I threw the duffel in the back and marveled again at the steepness of the path as we chugged up the mountain almost all the way to breakfast. We walked this way last night for dinner. That’s when I decided the shuttle would be better.
A couple of our slow boat shipmates were already eating and we started to see a few more stagger in. With military like precision the slowboat van showed up on time and breakfast was over.
Today will be our longest and reportedly the most interesting run on the Mekong, necessitating an early start. Crew used the 20 foot long bamboo poles to push us back off of shore.
We relaxed into the zenlike flow that only a river can provide.
Soon we were gliding through the exotic Laos scenery.
The fog burned off revealing craggy mountains and unusual rock formations that disturbed the swiftly flowing river current.
Our guide mentioned that if you see a person squatting beside the river, they aren’t fishing, they are panning for gold!
I started noticing many straw hatted people apparently doing just that. Huge construction projects at turns in the river are common and often created pinch points due to their encroachment out into the river.
Turns out they’re Chinese projects and they’re not making reclaimed spoil land but they’re using large machinery to sluice for gold. I suspect that Laotians don’t get much of that revenue.
For our part, we were thoroughly entertained just watching this gentle landscape slide past, but then again, we’ve spent weeks at sea watching the beautiful ocean waves roll by our Escape Velocity.
As we got to know our fellow passengers we realized not everyone finds boat travel as scintillating as we do. One pair, a mother and daughter on a year-long travel odyssey before a planned move to Ghana, brought art supplies and games along to while away the hours. They were often joined by a young English couple who work remotely, he as a writer of children’s books, and she as a remote teacher of English as a Foreign Language. Another couple lived in Berlin for many years and now in New Jersey, so we had lots in common with them. Our group was rounded out by a Norwegian-Thai family with two sweet little kids. Marce and I enjoyed talking to everyone but more than anything we were focused on the river and the journey.
I began to notice strange boxy, man made concrete structures mounted on top of rocks in the river.
They look like small stairs, maybe for times with high water.
Growing up in Pittsburgh with three rivers heavy with barge traffic, I like to think an old river rat like me could figure this out. Then it dawned on me. They are water depth gauges, and when you see all the rocky obstructions it’s no wonder. Water vortexes, overfalls, and standing waves are our constant companions on either side, as we motor past. During part of the year they can’t even run the boats due to the lack of water.
We stopped at another village necessitating another scramble up a steep slope but Marce and I were quite comfortable where we were, soaking up the river scene, thank you very much.
Back underway we came across a brand new high level bridge across the Mekong that abruptly ends against the face of a mountain. There is no tunnel yet. It’s part of a controversial hydroelectric plant under construction that will dam the Mekong about 25 kilometers upstream from our final destination, Luang Prabang. The project is a joint effort between Lao PDR, Vietnam, and Thailand. Our guide suggested that most of the power will go to Thailand.
For now it’s possible to navigate around the enormous structure but no one seems to know what will become of the river when the dam is complete. We’re glad we’re doing this trip now. Who knows if it’ll be possible in the future.
It was about this time that the first of several dead pigs floated past the boat. As any of you old time Escapees know, when a dead pig floats past the boat, it’s a sure sign that it’s time to leave.
Well actually the bloated pig was stuck circling in a whirl pool, but to us the meaning can not be denied. It’s odd because pigs are supposedly strong swimmers but with current this strong apparently they get caught out.
With images of whirled pig before our eyes we nosed into a pier with dozens of other slow boats to climb up to the Pak Ou “Buddha”caves.
For 20,000 KIP extra ($1) we even climbed all the way up to the cave at the top of the mountain and to be honest, after lazing around the slowboat for two days this had us seriously sucking air.
So it was back to the bamboo poles and a prodigious amount of reverse to get the slowboat to back up against the Mekong’s stiff current. Another hour and we were jostling for space at a small pier which led to the most outrageously steep and high set of concrete stairs.
We couldn’t believe they actually intended for us to schlep ourselves and our luggage up this monster. Turns out no, just our own cabooses. This is one of the many advantages of paying extra for the VIP slowboat; the boat crew hauled our luggage up the steps.
Feeling a little faint at the top, we were hustled into a van, bounced our way into town and disgorged at our beautiful hotel in old town Luang Prabang.
