Going Down the Mighty Mekong River

Note: Just found this blog ready to go and with all the excitement of the trip never posted it so here it is. Better late than never!!!! Written on February 21, 2019.


I can’t believe how lucky we are going down the mighty Mekong River. We cruised downriver for 6 hours to Pakbeng in a flatboat. They packed us in like sardines but hey that’s part of the adventure. The first thing you do is take off your shoes before getting on the boat. Forget about your assigned seat, it doesn’t matter. The younglings have already started to drink their beers and walking around the boat and as old-timers, we were a bit envious. We all know that our bladders wouldn’t be able to handle all that beer this early. BTW - we departed at 11:30am. 

One of the interesting parts of this journey is that there are probably about 20 life jackets for around 150 people and the boat is cracking away as it is made out of wood. Yikes. The smoking section is in the back of the boat where the locals are sitting on wooden benches and the roar of the engines is very loud and relentless. We had the luxury of sitting on old car seats, somewhat comfortable. It’s still all very exciting and the weather is absolutely perfect and the Mekong is a delight to see. Small villages, local fishing, and a varied and different landscape.

It’s funny how when you travel you take chances that you never would back home, trust the way things are done, and just accept safety standards that wouldn’t fly back home. In a way its almost liberating.

Going down, Thailand is on our right and Laos on our left. What a difference! Thailand is spending money on its shorelines most likely because of the flooding from the monsoons, and the towns we passed seemed a little more affluent. Their villages had nicer temples and newer structures. By contrast, Laos looked poorer, their villages and farms a little more primitive. We saw large banana plantation farms along with other crops on both sides of the river. Some parts are very rocky and the current is powerful and can swirl with a lot of force and in these places, the boat slows down. We’re seeing goats and cows on the beaches and you have to wonder about sewage but the Mekong moves a huge volume of water so maybe it’s relatively okay by their standards. We often saw many children in the water although I’m sure I would not put my foot in it. There are no treatment plants anywhere. It’s easy to be judgemental but these areas are many years behind the west and at one time we had many towns and cities dumping untreated waste into our rivers and oceans.

We made stops in the middle of nowhere on the Laos side to pick up cargo and more locals-or drop them off. This boat was a lot like a bus as it is the only way for locals to get to larger towns. The boat always made room for them which is only right. Now the vegetation has changed to more jungle-like and beautiful large palm trees. We are seeing small mountain ranges which are beautiful. A wonderful experience.

Ed is still very feverish and I am quite worried about being out in the middle of nowhere with such high fever and no medical facility. We arrived at the town of Pakbeng where we reserved a nice guesthouse for the night. We started to disembark from the boat and what a “shit show” as they say. There wasn’t even a ramp to get off from the boat. We had to disembark from the bow where the boat was tied with ropes and we had to step on sharp ragged rocks with our suitcases and backpacks in hand. I had to ask someone to help me otherwise I would have fallen. As for Ed, with his high fever, he felt disoriented and unsteady and with no ramps, handrails, no steps, actually fell on those sharp rocks. You have to understand that we are in the middle of nowhere with no medical. Now on top of his high fever, he has a long deep gash at the base of his thumb, a very badly scraped knee and a few other scratches. It was obvious that his thumb would need stitches. Not a good situation but it could have been worse, he could have ripped his head open or broken a bone. We had a gracious host who picked us up at the docks and found us some gauze and a basic first aid kit to help deal with the cuts until we reached Luang Prabang the next day. Meanwhile, Ed still had his fever. Such is life on the road.

The second day before getting back on the boat, we had our breakfast on the outside terrace while watching a couple of elephants from the other side of the river. Priceless! 

The boat ride was again beautiful with pretty much the same scenery as the day before. Except for this day, we made many stops along the way to pick up and drop off people who got off and simply walked into the jungle, you have no idea where they lived. Sometimes they dropped them off on the rocks.  Each time we stopped, because the boat was long and narrow, the boat had to turn sideways, let the current take the stern around and then manoeuvre into the current bow first. The pilot had this down pat.

We arrived in Luang Prabang around 5pm and we had to hurry and get to the only English doctor before 6pm. I had communicated with him on Facebook to let him know what was wrong with Ed and he was waiting for us with his medical staff. Ed had his thumb sewn up, blood work done, given antibiotics, and had his knee bandaged all within 1 hour. I was now relieved that Ed was on the mend. Things were looking up for The Travelonians.

Stay with us for our next blog on Luang Prabang, Laos.

 ~Travel like nobody’s watching~