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- Apr 9, 2025, 10:00 AM
- ⛅ 30 °C
- Altitude: 351 m
LaosDonsaat19°53’35” N 101°7’54” E
Mekong River

Country #7 unlocked: we've entered Laos 🇱🇦
A few weeks ago we learned that you can get a boat from the north of Thailand to Luang Prabang in Laos, following the Mekong River. We weren't originally planning to come this way, but the boat sounded very compelling so we changed our plans to include it.
Crossing over the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge at the border, the first thing we noticed was: they drive on the right! We've somehow managed to make it a quarter of the way through the year without leaving any left-hand drive countries. But now we've finally entered true alien territory. The minibus drivers here also use normal gearsticks, instead of the gross, customised, phallic ones they used in Thailand, which is a big plus.
Once we were on the boat, our job was to sit back, relax, and enjoy cruising along he Mekong for two days. We read, napped, and played many hands of Caracole with newly met Sydney-based friends Elodie & Felix (there cannot be any French people still in France, they all live in Sydney). Chelsea continued her spectacular Caracole losing streak from New Zealand, taking impossibly high scores international.
The Mekong river is one of the longest in the world, starting in the Chinese Himalayas and running through Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and emptying into the sea in Vietnam. We're traveling in the dry season, so the level is fairly low, exposing a lot of terrifying looking rocks. At one point in the river, a rather worse-for-wear Hello Kitty plush doll has been tied to one of these crags, like an anime Prometheus.
Our overnight stop was in the small riverside village of Pak Beng, where we took out some currency and bought SIM cards. The currency in Laos is Kip, which is roughly 28,000 to £1. However, USD and Thai Baht are also widely accepted. We have all three currencies, but have come up with a foolproof way to decide which one to spend: shag, marry, kill.
1) Kill the Thai Baht, as we don't need it any more. Spend it as soon as possible.
2) Shag the Lao Kip. Extremely transactional, we'll use it heavily in the short term, but it doesn't have a future with us.
3) Marry the USD. Feels icky to marry an American right now, but we may need dollars in Cambodia and beyond, so we're keeping this for the long term.
On the second day we had two stops along the river, at the Pak Ou caves (only accessible by boat, full of hundreds of Buddha statues brought in by worshippers) and at Xang Hai village. Xang Hai specialises in distilling Lao whiskey, which is made from fermented sticky rice. This can hit 50% ABV, and they boost the flavour by adding various small animals to the bottles. We bought one to drink along our travels — no spoilers, but expect to see a picture of that in future updates.Read more
Traveler
Dan’s enjoying his whisky here.
Traveler It’s the break from many many Beerlaos
Traveler Definitely want to do this boat trip, looks better than Simon's suggestion of sitting on a wooden pallet for a 8 hour crossing. Lovely Laos 🇱🇦
Traveler It’s great, definitely worth it!