Two days down the Mekong

At a glance

Length

2 days, 1 night

Group size

1 to 8, or private

Starts

Huay Xai, Bokeo

Ends

Luang Prabang

Effort

Easy - two long days seated

From

USD 165 per person

The route

This is a one-way transfer that happens to be one of the best two days in Southeast Asia. It is almost always the opening of a longer trip rather than a trip on its own, and it works equally well in reverse if you are leaving Laos for Thailand.

The boats are 30 metres of narrow wooden hull with car seats bolted to the floor, an engine that fills the last four metres, and a toilet you should visit optimistically rather than urgently. They are not uncomfortable. They are basic, slow and completely without drama, and the six or seven hours a day pass more easily than anyone expects.

What we add to a journey you could book yourself at the pier is threefold: a numbered seat rather than a scramble, a room in Pakbeng that is booked before the boat docks, and someone in Huay Xai who meets you at the border. On a busy December day, the difference between those three things and their absence is the difference between a good memory and a bad one.

Day by day

Day 1

Huay Xai to Pakbeng

The last hour before Pakbeng, when the light drops behind the hills and the river goes the colour of milky tea

We meet you on the Lao side of the Friendship Bridge at Huay Xai after you have cleared immigration, and drive the 10 minutes to the boat pier. Departure is around 11:00, though it moves with the water and the number of passengers, and boarding an hour early is how you get the seats at the front where the engine noise is lowest.

The river runs between forested hills for the first two hours, then opens out. You pass villages that have no road, buffalo standing in the shallows, and men panning the gravel bars for gold in the dry months. Lunch is a packed box we bring on board, plus whatever is being sold from the boat's own galley. The boat pulls in to Pakbeng somewhere between 17:00 and 18:30 depending on the current.

StayRiverside guesthouse in Pakbeng, private room with hot waterMealsLunch, dinnerTravel15 minutes road, 6 to 7 hours riverOn foot500 m from the pier up to the village, uphill

Day 2

Pakbeng to Luang Prabang

Arriving in Luang Prabang from the water rather than from the airport road

Pakbeng is a single steep street of guesthouses and a morning market that starts at 06:00 and is worth the alarm. Boats leave around 09:00. The second day is the better of the two: the gorge narrows, the hills get steeper, and the villages come closer to the water.

Around 15:00 the boat stops at the Pak Ou caves, two limestone caverns at the mouth of the Nam Ou packed with several thousand discarded Buddha images. Twenty minutes later the hills flatten, the first temples appear, and you dock at Luang Prabang pier between 16:00 and 17:30. Our driver takes you to your hotel.

StayNot included - your Luang Prabang hotel, which we book if you askMealsBreakfast, lunchTravel7 to 8 hours river, 15 minutes road at the endOn foot300 steps at the Pak Ou caves, optional

Prices

The private charter column is a real boat with your group alone on it, leaving when you want and stopping where you want. It is expensive because the boat is the same boat either way - you are buying the other forty seats. For four people it is worth thinking about; for two it rarely is.

What is included

Pictures

Who this trip does not suit

• Anyone who cannot sit for six or seven hours with limited standing room. There is no way to make the boat shorter.
• Travellers with back problems that a cushion will not solve. The seats are car seats on a wooden floor and the hull vibrates.
• People in a hurry. The flight from Chiang Rai to Luang Prabang exists and takes an hour. If two days of river is not the point of the exercise, fly.
• Anyone expecting a cruise boat. There is no cabin, no bar and no guide narrating. The comfortable Luang Say-style cruise is a different and far more expensive product, and we can book it, but it is not this.
• Families with children under about six, unless you have a very clear idea of how your child handles a long day with nowhere to run.

The one warning worth reading