Back to Laos – From Huay Xai to Luang Prabang

After leaving from Chiang Rai, we headed back to the border town so we could get from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang and it started with a three minute boat ride over the Mekong River that divides Thailand from Laos.

The boat that takes you across the quick Mekong River crossing from Thailand to Laos

This time, we wouldn’t be spending the night there as we bought two last minute tickets for the ‘slow boat’ from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang which was to leave within the hour and head further up the river.

Pictured on the bottom are the ‘slow boats’ lined next to one another that take 70+ passengers down the Mekong

The slow boat essentially takes two days before it arrives from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. Its an eight hour journey the first day and you spend the night in a small village and then leave again around 9AM the next morning for another seven hour ride down the Mekong River. There is an option to take a speed boat but its nearly twice the cost and I actually thought taking the two day tour down the Mekong may be more of an experience. Well, it was an experience… in more ways than one.

After a two hour delay leaving from the shore, we had made it only about an hour before the boat ran aground and got stuck along the bank. Part of the crew had to get out and literally try and push the boat off from the bank standing waist deep in the water.

The Laos Breakfast of Champions! Sandwiches are so common and so cheap in Laos and just about every vendor sells them and sales will start as early as 6AM, which was just a few minutes later that I had ordered this… with my morning coffee of course….

Surprisingly after just fifteen minutes of effort, we broke free and were soon on our way down the Mekong again. Things were going fine again and we made it another couple of hours when all of a sudden, one of the crew from the rear of the boat started shouting and quickly came running up through the boat towards the front. Here we go again, quickly heading for the nearest shore. Apparently their was a problem with the engine and we hadn’t seen a boat pass us for quite a while so I knew trip from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang was going to be even more of a memorable experience…

Broken down…. Again…

After twenty minutes of being stuck, most of the passengers, including myself, got off the boat to stretch their legs, get some sun and take pictures of the hot mess that was floating us down the river.

There were rocks jutting out of the water all along the shoreline down this section of the Mekong

We ended up sitting there for about an hour but somehow they repaired the engine and we were off again. The actual ride down the river though had some amazing scenery. There were rocks jutting out of the water and locals living along the shore. However, by the second day of spending so  many hours on this boat, I was definitely ready to make it to Luang Prabang. It was late afternoon when we eventually arrived.

The town we stayed in for one night during the two day Mekong River journey

Sunrise the following morning, getting ready to continue this quest down the river toward Luang Prabang

Since we were in Laos and after spending the night in a very small village, I really had no idea what to expect when we actually got into the city of Luang Prabang. I hadn’t seen any photos of the place but needless to say, I was amazed at the amount of charm the city had.

View overlooking one section of Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang is bordered by two rivers that converge together, the Mekong and the Nam Khan River

It is a city with just over 100,000 residents and has a very strong French influence. It was occupied by the French until the second World War when in 1945, it declared its independence from France. But still today, the city has kept its French colonial atmosphere which can make it almost hard to believe you are still in Laos in the middle of Southeast Asia.

One of the side streets in Luang Prabang

Starting around 5:30AM and lasting till about 6:30AM, hundreds of monks from monasteries all over the city walk the streets collecting alms. I’ve brightened the photo but this was taken just before 6AM.

There were definitely a lot of temples throughout the city but after being in SE Asia for so long, I didn’t have too much interest to run from one to the next sightseeing. The only one that seemed worth a visit for me was the one in the center of town up on the hill called Wat Chom Si. It was about a fifteen minute hike to the top but it was well worth the effort. The temple was spread out along the entire top of the mountain and you have full 360 degree views from here. Unfortunately, like many days in Laos right now, it was extremely hazy.

Part of Wat Chom Si

On another day, we left for Kouang Si Waterfall which was an area about an hour outside of town with dozens of waterfalls, some as small as just a couple feet in height with others cascading down as high as 150 feet.

Kuang Si Waterfall in Luang Prabeng

Kouang Si Waterfall in Luang Prabeng

It was truly hard to believe freshwater could be this blue out in the middle of the forest. And the water was decently warm as well even though many areas didn’t get much sun. It took about an hour and a half to hike all the way up through the falls area and it was an even tougher hike to climb up above the tallest of the falls with nothing but slick rock and hard pack dirt. There were many people out swimming in different areas and some places had swings from tree tops out into the blue waters.

The highest point of the waterfall trailing up the mountainside.

From Huay Xai to Luang Prabang, we were  going to be heading even further south into Laos from here and the next stop was Vang Vieng….