Mekong River Cruise

January 24^th-25^th, 2025 

It wasn’t until a week or so before I arrived in Laos that I found out that there is a high-speed train running from the capital, Vientiane, all the way north into China (who was a big-time investor in the rail line).  What a pleasant surprise.  I had expected hours of bumpy van rides to get from A to B, but no, that wasn’t going to be the case.  I even splurged and spent the extra $8 to have a first-class ticket!

The Vientiane train station.

I had read online that the security measures in the railway station were over the top, comparable if not stricter than airport security.  However, I didn’t experience that.  My backpack went through an X-ray machine, but that was it.

It was a big building.

Getting on the "high speed" train.

The ride itself was comfortable and I sitting beside a 60 something year old woman from Australia and her husband was sitting across the aisle.  We chatted for the majority of the train journey which made the two hours fly by.

The countryside got better and better.

Arriving in Luang Prabang.

A shuttle took us into Luang Prabang, and I checked into the Dear Villa Guesthouse that I had found on Booking.com.  One of the main reasons that I picked it was that it looked like it had an amazing deck overlooking the Mekong River.  Well, this turned out to be a fallacy.  Those were restaurants across the street that were not affiliated with the guesthouse.  My room was pretty shitty too.  It was right near the entrance, the windows had wooden shades over them, the mattress had springs poking in my back…I was thankful I was only staying for one night.  I later gave them a bad review on Booking.com and then received an email from Booking as to whether I had stayed there as Dear Villa had cancelled my booking.  Cheeky.  That’s how they tried to prevent my review from being posted…but it didn’t work in the end, my review was posted.

A gorgeous sunset on the shores of the Mekong River in Luang Prabang.

The next morning, I had booked a cruise on the Mekong River with a company called “Shompoo”.  I was going to head upriver to a small town called Pakbeng and then return the following day.  Most travellers cruise downriver, coming from Thailand on a two-day journey from Chiang Rai where they are bussed to the border, cross over to Huay Xai, and then begin the boat trip.  I just wanted to experience the Mekong, so my only option was to go upstream for one day and then return the following day.

 

After being picked up at my guesthouse, we arrived at the dock and the boat looked massive.  I later found out that it was 45 meters long, and there were only 9 tourists on it so there was a lot of space to spread out.  Also, they need a minimum of 8 passengers to make it viable to run the boat, especially upstream, so we just made the cut.  Our guide, Vong, introduced himself and we set off around 7:30 am.  We had 160 kilometres to travel to arrive at Pakbeng around 5 pm.

The big Shompoo Cruise boat.

Travelling in style!

A map of the Mekong.

This cruise wasn’t cheap ($130 USD upstream, $150 downstream), but it was more spacious and luxurious to the public boats where they would have packed 100 people on this size of a boat.  Therefore, the clientele were not backpackers, but older travellers/tourists and I noticed right away that I was the youngest passenger…which isn’t a bad feeling when you are 53 years old!

Starting off...

Approaching a big train bridge.

Hard to see in this photo, but there is a train on the bridge.

There it is...

It was a bit chilly for the couple of hours, but the scenery was beautiful. 

We had a stop at the Pak Ou Caves, which wasn’t stellar, but alright.  Our slightly geriatric group slowly climbed up the stairs to the first cave that was filled with hundreds of Buddha statues of all shapes & sizes (seven shapes in fact, as there is a Buddha pose to represent each day of the week).  We sat down on some chairs as Vong explained the history of the cave, which has been an attraction for Buddhists for a few hundred years.  The cave itself was not that big in size. 

 

The dock to the Pak Ou Caves.

Our boat.

Getting up into the first cave...which was more of a hole in the wall.

But it was filled with hundreds of Buddhas.

There was an upper cave, which was about 150 steps up from the lower one, so I climbed up to check it out.  It was a bit more of a cave, about 50 meters deep with a high ceiling that also contained Buddha statues, but not as many as the lower cave did.

The upper cave entrance.

It was a bit more of an actual cave.

But also had its fair share of Buddhas.

Heading back to the boat.

The captain.

And his steering wheel.  I had no idea that this was a Toyota!  ;) 

Back on the boat, we continued upriver.  We passed the construction of a new dam that is slated to be finished around 2028.  Vong explained that Laos already has an electricity surplus, thanks to a number of hydroelectric dams, but they still plan to make more.  Sadly, this means the loss of some small villages by the river, and a change to the lifestyle of the local people.  The government has offered new houses to those who will be displaced, higher up on the riverbank.  But the people will not own the land and even though the concrete, square homes would be an upgrade for some, I’m sure it’s a tough pill to swallow.  If they decide not to take the house, they will receive a one time payout.

I wasn't sure what this was at first...but it's a dam under construction which should be finished in the next 3 years or so.

That's a lot of cranes.

Believe it or not, this is a gold mining boat.  There is some gold in the Mekong River.  It has scoops on the front of the boat (on the left) to pull up sand from the bottom and then sift through it to try and find gold.  Looking at the state of the boat, it doesn't look like they have found much.  We also saw some locals trying their luck at panning for gold the old fashion way, like they did in the gold rush in North America in the 1800s.

The river will be 15 or so meters deeper once the dam is completed so a lot of what you see at the start of this video will be under water.

This bridge is part of the same route that I was on from Vientiane to Luang Prabang, but this part continues to China.

These are houses that the government is building for villagers whose homes will be flooded once the dam is completed.  The guide on the boat said it's a one time offer, they can take a house (but not the land) or some cash.  For some it might be an upgrade as they are brick buildings, but what a change in their lifestyle.

While standing out on the foredeck, I had a conversation with Vong.  I asked him why the cruise line was called “Shompoo”.  He said that is meant “pink” in Laotian, which explained the colour of the cushions onboard.  But he as stated that “shom” means “enjoy” and “poo” is “mountains”, seems appropriate.  Additionally, he thought that it was easy for Westerners to remember since it is so close to “shampoo”.  I also found out that the boat costs about $50,000 USD and the captain lives aboard it with his family.

Vong our guide.  Super nice and informative guy.

The new road being constructed to Pakbeng since travel by boat may be interrupted by the dam.  It's unclear yet whether they will put in locks or not at the dam for boats to pass by.

A little later, a buffet lunch was served as I continued to enjoy the scenery.  It was a decent spread but not mind blowing.

It was a lovely boat to chill out on, and watch the world pass by.

Heading against the current.

One of the sister Shompoo boats passing by.  There were a lot more tourists on it than our boat.

Some water buffalo on the side of the river.

A fast longtail boat passing by us.

A very basic house in the background...and some serious rocks on the river in the foreground.

It was a peaceful cruise.

A boat at our stern.  There was an Asian tourist at the front taking photos or a video with his big iPad.

About 45 minutes after our meal, Vong gathered all of the passengers around a table and he demonstrated how to prepare a dessert, which consisted of sticky rice and some slices of banana rolled up in a banana leaf.  Each guest had a chance to “roll one up”, and then they were sent to the kitchen to bake for 40 minutes.  I have to admit that the finish product was…okay, too much rice and not enough bananas in the two rolls I received, and even though we occasionally had rice pudding as a dessert when I was a kid, I don’t believe rice should fall into the dessert zone.

The finished product.

I tried to capture some aspects of Laos...like this boat, flying the Laotian flag with a tiny village in the background.

The sun was starting to get lower as the afternoon progressed.

Approaching Pakbeng.

The ladies who cooked our lunch and served drinks.

The boat docked in the small village of Pakbeng about 45 minutes before sunset.  A “public boat” filled with over hundred backpackers coming from the Thai border arrived around the same time and there was a bit of chaos as trucks and tuk tuks were arranged to shuttle everyone to their respective accommodations.  There were at least a couple of young British backpackers who were in “happy moods”…I think some beer was flowing on their boat.

Docked at Pakbeng...along with other boats coming the other way, from the Thai border.

I couldn’t help but think of how strange it must be for the locals in this town.  Every day around sunset, one to two hundred tourists show up on boats, spend the night, and are all gone by 8 am the following morning, and it’s all due to the fact that Pakbeng just happens to be halfway between Huay Xai and Luang Prabang.  It’s a good situation for guesthouse and restaurant, cafe & bar owners, but if you don’t benefit from this influx of tourists, it must be annoying.

After checking in at my guesthouse, I was just in time to grab a Beerlao and sit to enjoy the sun setting over the hills with the river reflecting the light.  The concrete deck was odd though, it slanted at about 10 degrees from left to right and surely that wasn’t on purpose, I think it had some structural issues…but it survived for the next hour so all good.

Sunset from my guesthouse...wow!

That evening, I walked about 50 meters down the road to a little bar/restaurant called “The Hive” (I don’t know why, but this is a popular name in Laos for bars).  It was an outdoor place with a crappy pool table underneath a covered area by the bar.  Most of the clientele were the young backpackers from the public boat, and they were having a good time.

The next morning, I decided to walk down to the pier since it was only about a kilometre away, and mostly downhill.  I wanted to arrive early to try and secure a decent seat on the boat as I expected there to be at least three times as many passengers heading downstream today compared to the upstream journey yesterday.

Walking to the dock in the morning through the sleepy streets of Pakbeng.

The boats are straight ahead.

I was able to secure a table on the port side of the boat, which was mostly in the shade but as expected, I was joined by a couple of other tourists.  Mike and Tony, originally from San Francisco but now living for many years about 3 hours northeast of Mexico City were friendly and nice guys.  Mike was a retired IT project manager in his mid-60s and Tony was a bit younger and ran a couple of barber shops and some other side business that I forget.  They’ve been together for 25 years and have done their fair share of travelling.

Leaving Pakbeng.

I should have asked for a better photo from my table mates, but that's Tony on the left and Mike on the right.  Super nice guys.

There was a low fog in the morning which took a bit of time to burn off.

That's better!

And it turned into a beautiful day.

One of the railway bridges again...it is some impressive engineering.

It was definitely faster cruising downstream and in order to make it a full day so that tourists felt like they got their money, we not only stopped at the Pak Ou Caves (I didn’t bother getting off of the boat since I had seen it yesterday) but also “Whiskey Village” afterwards.

Heading back to the Pak Ou Caves.

I just stayed on the boat since I had visited the caves the day before.  Gave me time to get some blogging done.

The boat docked at this small hamlet, and we disembarked on a narrow bamboo dock. Up some stair, there was a covered area where a table with rows and rows of filled bottles (which were for sale) and a whiskey still were situated.  The still was radiating some heat from a recent fire underneath it.

Looking back at the boat from "Whiskey Village".

This is the still they use to make the Laolao whiskey.

Our guide explained the process of creating Laolao Whiskey.  The resultant product was either 15% or a whopping 50% alcohol.  We were each given a small sample to try…and a number of us couldn’t help but remark that this was the one thing we weren’t supposed to do in Laos: shots of alcohol from an unknown source!  If you’re wondering why, 6 young tourists died in Vang Vieng in November (just 2 months ago) after drinking free shots offered at a hostel.  The shots contained methanol, which is deadly.  Very sad.

Getting our explanation of the process.

And of course there were products for sale.

I didn’t really care for the taste of the whiskey, the strong stuff was pretty foul so needless to say, I didn’t buy any.  After a quick wander up and down the nearby street that was lined with shops flogging typical tourist souvenirs, I headed back to the boat.

Looking towards Luang Prabang.

Forty-five minutes later we arrived in Luang Prabang, and I was only a 400 meter walk away from my guesthouse, a different one from the place I stayed at before the cruise…I was hoping it would be a better one.

Another gorgeous sunset in Luang Prabang.

Out for dinner at an Italian place, I was impressed by their pepper grinder.  I carry one around when I travel as a number of places don't have pepper, and I joke that I'm a "seasoned traveller"...but this thing is ridiculous!

Tomorrow will be a chill out day in Luang Prabang.