Perhaps the best known ways to see Laos as a tourist is to take a slow boat. I’d never heard of it before either, but it’s a long boat with benches, able to seat about 100 people, that travels down the Mekong River. There are private slow boats that are for tourists and public ones that also cater to locals. The private ones guide you through the border crossing, serve lunch, are much more comfortable, come with guides and make several stops along the way to see local sights and villages. The public ones are a little slice of Laotian culture. It’s up to you if you want it to be easy and comfortable or cheap and a bit more edgy.
A compelling reason for taking the Laotian slow boat is the way the visas work in Thailand. As of this writing, a tourist visa in Thailand is only good for 60 days, so if you want to stay for longer, you have to do one of two things – you can go to the Immigration office and renew it for 30 days for a cost of 1800 BHT or you can cross the border and re-enter the country.
The immigration offices are at the airport and at Festival Mall, if you want to take that route. However, going to Laos was probably the highlight of our trip to Chiang Mai.
On recommendation from a local friend, we contacted Mr. Adisak who runs the slow boat tour group Nagi of Mekong. His two day trip down the Mekong River starts at Chiang Khong, Thailand and ends in Luang Prabang, Laos. At the time of writing, the price was under $200/person, which included lunches on the boat and lodging for the one night on the river. La, our guide, picked us up at our hotel in Chiang Khong, guided the group through the border crossing into Laos and was with us for both days. He was informative and thorough and highly recommended. The tour stopped at several villages along the river and also a cave that was filled with Buddha statues. It also included a ride from the boat to our hotel in Luang Prabang.
Mr. Adisak can arrange a driver from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong, who will stop at sights along the way if you wish. He charged $150 and it was in a very comfortable van. We highly recommend stopping at the White Temple in Chiang Rai. You might think you’ve seen enough temples in Chiang Mai (we thought so!) but the White Temple is unlike any other. It was (and still is being) built by a very eccentric artist who has incorporated pop culture, a bit of goth, glitz and lots of frogs into a temple unlike anything you’ve ever seen. It’s not to be missed. We also asked him to stop at the House of Opium Museum by Chiang Khong. It’s a bit touristy and not that big, but very interesting in learning about the history of the area there. It was once known as the Golden Triangle because it was responsible for pretty much the world’s production of opium. Across the river from the museum, as you stand in Thailand you can see both Laos and Myanmar from the shore.
We stayed at the Baan Sukuna Resort in Chiang Khong which we would highly recommend. Run by Mai, who is gracious and lovely, it’s a simple place at the edge of the jungle with huge, beautiful air conditioned rooms and a breakfast included. We got the largest room which had two bathrooms and was significantly larger than our apartment in Chiang Mai and cost $56/night. More standard rooms were about $35.
Mr. Adisak gave us choices for the hotel that we stayed at during the river cruise and we chose Le Grand Pakbeng Resort. It was a series of lovely cottages on the top of a mountain overlooking the river, with an infinity pool. Very comfortable and beautiful, although the food in the restaurant was just average.
During the cruise, we stopped at two local villages. One of them was a village of weavers with goods for sale. The poverty in both villages was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. One of the people on the tour knew what to expect and he brought a bag full of little gifts for the children there – pencils, crayons, chalk, little keychains and the like. The children were thrilled and we all wished we had known to bring something ourselves. I overbought at the weaving village – partially because they had lovely things for dirt cheap prices but also because I wanted to help support them. They accepted baht and dollars (as long as they were new and unmarked) as well as Laotian currency.
Luang Prabang is a resort town, especially for Chinese tours. It’s lovely, but the prices are at least that of Chiang Mai, and it’s very geared for tourism. But we were very lucky because our stay timed with the Dragon Light Festival there, which is during the first full moon in October. I would highly recommend trying to coordinate your trip so that it falls during the festival. The town was beautifully decorated and there was a very festive and fun parade through the center of town where they towed their dragon boats, which they then launched into the river.
We stayed at a very beautiful resort hotel in Luang Prabang called The Satri House. It used to be the palace of a prince, and the grounds were stunning. It was priced much more like you’d expect for a hotel of that caliber, but we really enjoyed our stay. We flew back to Chiang Mai after the festival and got our passports stamped for the rest of the time in Thailand on the way back home.