Pakbeng Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

It's 7.30. We want to be at the Thai border early. With some fresh stamps in our passports, we are directed to a small boat which takes us in about 5 minutes to the other side of the Mekong. To the Lao borderpost in Huay Xai to be precise. Formalities take quite a long time here. Reminds me of good old China back in the 80's. From Customs to the harbour it's only a 10 minute tuktuk ride. The slowboat takes two days including an overnight stay in Pak Beng. Another option is a 6 hours speedboat…

Today we were leaving for our 2 day long boat trip down the Mekong. We loaded our gear on to the boat and headed off for our first day on the boat. Traveling down the Mekong we saw some amazing scenery. Surrounded by mountains it was defiantly well worth the 4 hours traveling on the boat. Along the way we stopped at one of the local villages where our guide showed us how they live. As soon as we arrived we were greeted by the local children. With all the adults at work in the fi…

Map and photos of my loop around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.

Reached dry land at half five and disembarked from the boat, groaning. The town of Pak Beng consisted of a little beach where river traffic stopped, and a single dirt road winding up the hill towards nowhere. If you followed this road far enough you'd eventually get to China but I just let a tout lead me to a simple wooden guesthouse a couple of hundred yards from the river. The owner showed me the room then closed the door behind us and dropped his voice a notch. Took a tightly-packed …

After my stint in the hospital in Luang Prabang, I decided to sleep in and take it easy the next day. I woke up at noon, walked through the rain to grab lunch, spent some time on the internet writing the previous few posts, and found an ATM. Nothing really exciting.In the evening after walking through the night market I bumped into the Toronto Two, and ended up going out to dinner with them and an Irish couple. After dinner we did what everyone in Luang Prabang does when it gets late - we wen…