Riverboat no.1

The first town that I stopped in after crossing the border into Laos was Muang Mai. From there, I had been planning on carrying on down the road towards to Muang Xay, with the eventual destination of Luang Prabang. From what I had read and heard, Muang Xay isn’t a lovely town, but it’s one of those places that you have to go through in order to get to where you are going, so hey ho! However… as I was checking in to the guest house in Muang Mai I got chatting to a French guy who was also checking into the same place, and we ended up going out for some food and a drink a little later. Over dinner, me, him and an American guy who we also met, and who was also cycle touring, discussed the different places in Asia that we had visited, and swapped reccomendations. Intriguingly, they had both already visited Luang Prabang where I was headed, but had both bypassed Muang Xay on their journeys, and had instead taken a riverboat from the the next town along from where we were currently. “Good idea!” I thought.

So, the following day, I had a lovely short and mostly flat morning cycle along to the next town along, and spent the rest of the day luxuriating in free time, sunshine, and no longer feeling full of cold while I hung around to catch the riverboat, which would depart the following morning.

The next day, I got up feeling fully refreshed and pootled down to the Riverside to buy a boat ticket for me and my bike. The bike was loaded without a hitch – so far so good. I then hung around and chatted with the small group of people gathering at the docks (who all happened to be French, apart from one German couple,) as we waited to buy our tickets. The way the ticketing system worked, the more people were in the boat, the less each person paid. The most expensive bracket was for four people or less, the next bracket down was for 5 – 9 people, and the cheapest price was if there were 10 or more people in the boat. Annoyingly, there were 9 of us. At the very last minute a middle aged French lady with a colourful headscarf started making her way down towards us waving cheerfully at the ferryman. “Yes!” we started collectively exclaiming (not too loudly.) But no… she was just enquiring about the boat for the following day.

Once on the boat we settled in our seats, chatting, joking, and ready to go. The boat driver fired up the propeller and we were off! …and then we stopped, or rather the engine did. The next few attempts were no more successful. This began to gather a crowd of men who had been smoking, eating breakfast and mending fishing equipment near the river. They all duly came and inspected the engine, had a quick conference, and from what I could gather with my non-existant Laos, they all agreed that the engine wasn’t working. A new man was fetched, carrying with him a precision boat fixing tool – A BIG HAMMER! Supprisingly, this seemed to do the trick, and we were, at last, off.

The journey down the river was lovely. The engine was quite noisy, so conversation died down quite quickly owing to the amount of effort it took, but the views were more than enough entertainment on their own. The tranquil waters, occasionally broken by rocks that would create ripples and splashes around them, and the green covered majestic limestone hill formations rising up on either side. At various points along the river, birds could be seen skimming across the surface of the water or perching on the banks.

At some point down the river this parade of gorgeousness was interrupted by a clunk. The boat stopped. Luckily, it started again, but at the next stopping point (the riverboat was also delivering supplies to villages along the bank,) another ‘conference’ was held, and a man from the village arrived carrying a new propeller. This finally seemed to actually fix the problem, and no further unscheduled pauses were had during the journey.

The next barrier to our journey, (and when I say barrier I am being very literal,) was a damn… right across the river. When I had read about this when I was finding out information about the riverboat, it seemed to be quite a controversial subject. The damn (which is still under construction,) will be a hydroelectric damn, and is being funded and built by a Chinese power company. Lots of people are upset that the Chinese are effectively ‘coming over here, building their things, ruining the lovely river and countryside’. Looking on at the ugly, noisy, smelly construction site I could see their point, but on the other hand at least when it’s done it will produce relatively clean energy – much better than a coal power station, which with China’s track record, feels like it could have been a possibility.

As far as the riverboat was concerned, there was of course a plan for getting around the damn. We simply had to debark, get into a tuk-tuk that would shuttle us to the other side, and continue our journey in another boat that would be waiting for us. Simple, they said. Simple…

The problem was that as I have mentioned the damn was still under construction, meaning that the ‘road’ that the tuk-tuk had to drive down wasn’t so much a road as a faint and very uneven track through building rubble, dust, and debris. With my bike wedged between us, we all clung on to our teeth and for dear life as we bumped along the track. Each time a construction vehicle passed, anyone who had not been quick enough to cover their mouth collapsed into fits of coughing as great clouds of construction dust engulfed us. Then… bump! We stopped.

Looking down, it soon became apparent that the tuk-tuk’s wheel had become trapped between a previously hidden rock and a deep drift of soft sand. So, off we all jumped! This was becoming quite an adventure and we were all giggling together and joking at the absurdity of the situation. The ‘big strong men’ all stepped up to help heave and push the tuk-tuk out of it’s predicament, as did I. With a bit of gentle teasing and encouragement I persuaded some of the other women also to join in – “allez, les femmes!” (come on girls!)

Once safely settled in the second boat, we carried on down the river, marvelling once again at the stunning scenary as the sun gradually dropped lower in the sky. We arrived at our destination only half an hour late, which was quite surprising considering the amount of hold ups we had had. When we arrived, there was just about an hour left before sunset, and I thought if I was really speedy I might just about have time to hike to the top of the hill in the village to get a glimpse of the amazing views that it promised. I made it just after the sun had set but while the sky was still full of colour. Standing on top of the hill, my heart was beating fast from the exertion and my skin was covered in sweat, but I felt completely at peace as I gazed out at the beautiful sky and the twinkling lights of the village below. Happy, I made my way slowly and carefully back down through the twilit woods to the village, had dinner, and returned to my dormitory to sleep.

Walking into the dormitory, I was slightly supprised to see somebody else’s bag on the bed that I had already claimed. “Oh sorry,” said the guy doing his stretches nearby, he and his friends had just arrived and they had just quickly dumped their bags down before going off to get some food – they hadn’t noticed my bags by the side or my pyjamas on the pillow. “No worries,” he said. He moved his friend’s bags onto the bed adjacent to his, and we chatted as I got ready for bed and before he left to join his friends. I was sleepy, and soon after he left I was snuggled down and drifting off into dreams.

“Eeeekk!” I screamed, high pitched and ear splitting, as I was suddenly awoken by the weight of a body flopping down on top of me in the dark, then hastily jumping back, as confused as I was. This was shortly followed by peels of laughter, which I joined in with as soon as I realised what had happened. Whether by mistake or for a prank, the guy that I had spoken to had forgotten to tell his friend about the change of bed, and his friend had just walked into the dormitory without turning the light on and lain down, only to be greeted by my unexpected presence and loud scream. The poor guy must have had such a fright! – it was very funny. Giggling, I rolled over and was back asleep within minutes. It was just about on course for a day that had been very enjoyable, but not without its fair share of unexpected twists and turns!