Into northern Laos at Huay Xai

A large sign overhanging the boat launch at the Thai border of Chiang Kong says “Entering Indo-China.” But, Huay Xai, Laos seems more like a dusty town from America’s wild west.

Although not much more than a stopping point for wooden transport boats and Russian-made cargo trucks, Huay Xai is a great jumping off point into Northern Laos by truck or to catch a boat down the Mekong, onto Pak Bang, and beyond.

As more and more tourists find this new-ish route, Huay Xai will undoubtedly offer more modern amenities, but may lose the grittiness that makes it a much more interesting way into Laos.

One highlight: the ubiquitous populations of mangy dogs found throughout Thailand are far less here. Which might be good or sinister, depending on how you want to think about it.

As far as highlights go, there are few. But, if you want to say, “We went downriver,” Huay Xai is the place to go.

Since downriver takes you to the UNESCO World Heritage city of Luang Prabang, it is absolutely worth the slow boat (two-days, crowded, cramped, great scenery) or fast-boat (6-8 hours, crowded, cramped, and great scenery – albeit fleeting) trip down the Mekong.

Quick Tips:

Beginning in October, when the raining season begins to slacken, the water level in the Mekong drops; so it may be better to do this trip in the early part of the season.

You need a visa to enter Laos. You can get one in Bangkok for about .00 or from your home by mail. Check out www.visit-laos.com for info on visas and other general information.

Best Way To Get Around:

Within Huay Xai, there are some open air taxis (song thaews) that are good to use to get your bags down to the launch area for the boats, but walking everywhere else is fine.

Getting across the river to or from Thailand is quite simple. Just go to the riverbank – remember to stamp out with the border guards – and ask a boatman to take you across. Sometimes the border guards will hail one for you. The trip is no more than 5 minutes and costs about one dollar.

The paucity of housing options here leaves little from which to choose. Although, this will probably change as more people use this route to enter Laos.

The Hotel Thaveesign is surprisingly pretty good given the dusty look of the town. A large, white, stone hotel, a short way up the way street from the Customs check-in, it has comfortable rooms. There are balconies at the front overlooking the street.

Mine came with a bathroom, but did not include breakfast. The cost was about $5.00.

As Huay Xai is small, no address is really required. I don’t know if the street on which it sits even has a name. Go up to the main road from the customs entry, turn left, and the hotel is about a block up on the right.

Huay Xai has one city-center attraction, “The Temple on the Mountain.” Entering from the customs entry point, you can’t miss the dragon-painted steps and handrail – many, many steps, in fact, that lead up to it’s perch over the town.

Definitely low art, when compared to most other temple complexes you will find in Laos, there is a certain hand-made charm to the complex of wooden and white plaster temples. The temples are further complimented by the garish colors and the faintly pornographic paintings that form the temple walls art work.

The main reason to go here is for the sunset and views looking back across the Mekong River and into Thailand.

The town market to the south of the temple is a good place to find anything you need for the two-day trip to Luang Prabang. Mainly modern clothing and footwear, there are some fun toys, as well as Lao style clothing.

You have two choices: slow and fast. Slow takes two days and stops at the village of Pak Bang overnight, where there are a few, what can be loosely termed, hotels. I did this.

Fast is one day and takes about 6 hours. If you decide on taking the slow boat, you will see the fast people wearing crash helmets occasionally speeding by in really small, noisy, aluminum boats. Some fast people will wave. The slow boat is better.

I spoke with someone who took the fast boat. Apparently, it is fast but painfully cramped and very bumpy. The two-day slow boat seems more romantic, but really, it is just cramped and slow. The only caveat is that the price is a lot less--about $15 versus $50 (depending on the exchange); and you are actually able to see the scenery.

The scenery is great. There is dense jungle on both sides of the river, an occasional mountain, and some very small thatched hut villages.

For the speedboats take a taxi (song thaew) to the landing south of the main market.

For the slow boats, go north to the end of the main street where there is a stone gateway. The launch area is behind the house here, on the right. There is also a good restaurant further off to the right, closer to the shore.

Do not miss the spiders on the way to the boat launch. Walking down the street to the boat landing, look up and check out the huge spiders and webs strung between the power lines that crisscross the road from time to time.

The boats leave in the morning, and I was told, only when there are enough people to fill it. This is not a problem, as far as I heard. Every traveler I met on this route got on the river when they wanted to. The boats hold about 30 passengers at the start. They pick up others at villages along the way, along with chickens, 50lb sacks of rice, tractor parts, gasoline, and assorted other freight.

The long, thin wooden boats are simple transports. The boats seem fairly safe – no scary rapids or anything – and are covered with a wooden or zinc roof and open-air side windows. You sit on hard wooden benches packed in with your luggage, and freight. As there is really no bathrooms, it is advisable not to drink a lot before you get on, because once on, there is no getting off until Pak Bang about ten hours later.

The boat I was on had a small deck on the rear. This was where there was a hole in the deck that served as a sort of bathroom.

You basically sit and play cards, write letters, or whatever and enjoy the scenery, which is really the best part. The Mekong River passes through gorges, and flats that are surrounded by jungle, or limestone cliffs, and makes one feel that they are in the middle of nowhere – which you are. There are some birds to be seen. Although, I am not an expert they looked like hawks or eagles, and there were some others that resembled large parrots. The boat makes occasional stops, but just brief ones to pick up or drop off at villages along the way.

At the end of the first day, the boat stops at Pak Bang, a very small village with stone, and concrete buildings and electricity. Once off the boat, all the foreigners rush up the hill to get a room at the few hotels. Don’t be fooled by looks. The more modern structures are, according to people who stayed there and told me, not that nice. I heard stories of rats and bugs in the night. Basically, the entire town is really bare bones.

The hotel I stayed at was on the left going up the main street (there is only one). About half way up the hill, on the left is a small, two-story hotel made of thatched bamboo. The sign in the front said “Rooms.” The cost was .50¢. My second floor room, in a futon bed with a mosquito net was great. No windows or heat, but no one else in the stone buildings had them either.

There is a bathroom across the street, and the manual shower was in the bottom floor. Manual shower means a 50-gallon steel drum of rainwater and plastic pail.

The best restaurant is the first one on the left up from the boat landing. They serve Lao food and fairly good egg sandwiches. Fruits were better. Needless to say this town has even less, in the way of ammenities, than Huay Xai. Electricity goes off in the town at 10 pm when they shut down the generator.

Day two on the river is about the same. I was really glad to get off the boat when we reached Luang Prabang after another 8 or 10 hour ride. In Luang Prabang, the mad dash of foreigners to find hotels starts again. Because Luang Prabang is much bigger, in minutes, everyone disappears into Song Thaews.

You have arrived in one of the best cities in all of Laos.