Entering Laos - Huay Xai

I crossed the border into Laos at a little town called Chiang Khong… I planned to stay in Thailand for a day or so and get to know the feel of the town, but I when I got off the bus in the morning, I got in a Tuk Tuk and pointed on the map to the guesthouse I wanted to stay in, which happened to be quite close to the immigration point. Convenient for when I wanted to cross the border I thought. But the driver took me directly TO immigration, and my bag is so heavy I could not be bothered walking the 500 metres or so to the other side so decided I may as well cross over the river and enter Laos straight away... So I piled into a little longtail boat that crossed the Mekong river to get us to Laos, and went through immigration… The visa on arrival fee for Australians is $30 US… I didn’t have US dollars so paid Baht instead and paid a horrible exchange rate of over 40 Baht to the dollar (actual rate 33 baht to the dollar!). There were a whole bunch of people there about to get on a boat to Luang Prabang straight away, so if I wanted to I could have arranged to get on the slow boat then and there, but I decided I wanted to sit and enjoy the town on Huay Xai and get the feeling for Laos. I walked every inch of the very small town before settling in to a restaurant for a quick feed, where I met the Burmese guy from my last post.

My favourite experience in Huay Xai was without a doubt the traditional Lao Herbal Sauna. The Laos Red Cross runs a sauna and massage service, and so I decided to check it out. I thought it would be full of foreigners, especially because I read about it in the lonely planet, but to my pleasant surprise, there were none in sight. Just me and a whole bunch of local people who thought I was hysterical. I tried to communicate, but with absolutely no Lao language ability it was quite difficult, so basically had to play charades in the steam bath in order to communicate at all! I learnt my first Lao word – ‘hon’ means ‘hot’! The Lao ladies in the Sauna rubbed yoghurt into their skin while in the Sauna… I assume it was some kind of moisturiser or something. They offered me some too, so I tried it, but it was very weird. I could almost smell it going rancid on my body the longer I stayed in the heat of the Sauna! But the signs say that you have to wait at least two hours after getting out of the Sauna before showering in order to let the herbs sink in properly, so I left the rancid yoghurt on along with the herbs until just before bed… It did make me think, though… If the herbs sink into the skin and have a positive affect, how many other things that we put on our bodies have an equally strong negative affect? Surely the amount of DEET I have to smother on in order to prevent mosquito bites can’t be good for me? But at Huay Xai I didn’t worry too much about that question. I figured the natural herbs (and yoghurt) had balanced out the chemicals for at least one day.

The slow boat to Luang Prabang had absolutely stunning scenery, but was certainly an experience not to be repeated, for me at least. There were hundreds of tourists, all crammed on a very small boat, and I felt distinctly like we were cattle being herded onto the boat… As I got there rather late, there were few seats to be had. The only one left was on a wooden bench that had no cushion, and after a couple of hours it was quite painful. I couldn’t lean back, couldn’t shift my butt any which way that let it get comfortable. I guess it was good for meeting people, and there were some nice conversations on the boat. But there were a hell of a lot of the type of people that I try to avoid as well. But on the boat, I was stuck with them and could do nothing to avoid listening to whiny voices talking about getting drunk and boozing in pretty much every town in Thailand…

But the worst was yet to come. Day two on the boat was a disaster. I got there early enough to reserve a prime position on the floor, which was comfortable, but you couldn’t see anything from inside the boat, so I missed much of the scenery that I was supposed to be enjoying in the first place. Also, in presumedly a money-making enterprise by the boat company, everyone from the TWO boats that had made the journey from Huay Xai suddenly found themselves of the ONE boat going onto Luang Prabang! If we felt like cattle day one it was nothing compared to day two. Everyone from both boats had to be squeezed into the one boat, and then we continued to stop and pick up locals on the way! There was barely room to move, and I really felt like I was in Asia, despite the hundreds of foreign faces and chattering in English everywhere.