Mutiny on the Mekong

Sunset on the Mother of all rivers

Finally we left the Kingdom of Thailand and entered the Lao People's Democratic Republic, via a 2 day boat ride down the legendary Mekong River. At almost 5000 kilometers in length (the world's 11th longest river), this big brown giant runs through 7 countries - Tibet, China, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Suitably Mekong means the 'Mother of all Rivers'.

We hitched a relaxing two day ride on a slow boat from the top of Thailand/Laos through the jungle to Luang Prabang, a beautiful French colonial looking jungle town 15 hours downstream. Most of our journey was navigating the actual border, with Thailand to our right and Laos to our left.


Between Laos and Thailand

This boat ride was rather more eventful than planned, as the unscrupulous boat operators had oversold the seats by a long shot and, as they apparently do all the time, tried to squeeze on more than 150 people on a boat meant for something like 90. And that's not counting the hundreds of colossal backpacks, mopeds, chicken cages, beer crates etc.

As we stood on the dried up river bank (it's dry season and the river is a good 10 meters lower than at wet season) ready to board, with a massive group of travellers, something amazing happened. Like Albert Finney in 'Network', people demanded change. The people on the boat refused any more passengers and the people on the river bank refused to get onboard, causing a huge stalemate. What would otherwise have been just another daily occurrence of an overbooked, unsafe river boat cruise, suddenly turned into loud mass protest.


Peaceful protest

Spearheaded by a particularly vociferous Dutch middle aged woman, and a few other ring leaders, the handful of tiny Thai boat operators got heckled by hundreds of foreigners into chartering two river boats that day. It's that awkward phenomenon when lots of people think something, but everyone is rather too polite to say it and everyone just obliges to get on with their own business. Like when one sees a loud drunken man on the London underground, bothering someone. A whole bunch of people very nearly get up and go over and tell him to stop, but somehow no one quite does it.


Moored for the night

This loud Dutch woman, motivated by the entire crowd of safety conscious people, managed to get what she wanted. A second huge river boat, at an extra expense to the operators, eventually materialized and that day on the Mekong, the daily boat downstream was not one but two boats. To make this even more memorable the exact same thing happened the next day too. Perhaps this was the tipping point. Who knows?


Wooden long boat

As the journey continued and we settled into our spacious boat, we played backgammon and drank Lao beer as endless cascading valleys passed us on either side.


Port Out Starboard Home

Every now and then jungle villagers, fishermen and bathing children would wave at us. The young captain navigated his giant wooden ship down narrow rock formations and strong currents as if he'd done it a million times. For a brief but exhilarating 30 seconds Sami got to have a go at it.


Riverside locals

Halfway on our journey we spent the night at a Lao Village, Pak Beng, where we had an expensive dinner (guess every item on the menu is shipped for days on the river and therefor comes at a high premium).


Coconut helmet

So far on the Mekong, we've met some interesting people. Take Virral, for example, a Thai retiree, biking across Thailand with his wife. As a man who clearly takes things in his stride, he'd carved his bike helmet out of a coconut. Wow. It seems not only can a coconut crush your skull, a coconut can also prevent your skull being crushed. Nice one, Virrel.


Lunch time cigarette

Now we're in Luang Prabang and probably will enjoy a few days of rest. After this we may head further down river or perhaps go east. Not sure yet. Our main issue right now is what's for lunch. And what a great feeling that is.