By 8.00am, I was packed and ready, and rode around the corner to the Immigration office and departure point for Laos… The officer I had spoken to the day before was there, and laboriously changed the 11 stamped into my passport, to a 12, using a ballpoint pen…
I had managed to avoid paying any insurance in India, Nepal and Thailand... I wasn't about to bucK the trend...!!
These water taxi's are used to ferry people across the Mekong, from the Thailand border post to that of Laos...
While I was paying for my ferry ticket, Willi rode up on his scooter… We sort of nodded to each other and while he set about getting his own documentation done, I stood answering questions from a small group of Chinese engineers, who were also crossing over to Laos with their SUV’s…
My Chinese friends from the Thai border... They did their best to convince me to ride into China with them...
By 9.00am, enough vehicles had arrived to fill the barge, and we lined up ready to board… Willi and I were told to board first, which suited me, as it meant we would be first off and could begin the formalities of entering Laos before the others…
I eyed the gap between the landing ramp and terra firma, and hoped that my front wheel would not dig a hole for itself in the strip of water between...!! "Get us up and onto that barge without embarrasing me please...!!" I asked the Big Fella quietly...
Although we weren’t saying much to each other, Willi is not the kind of guy you can remain angry at for long…
We were traveling in the same direction, down the only main road that runs north to south down the centre of northern Laos, and would no doubt be seeing a lot of each other over the next few days… I thought about all the laughs we had had together, the ideas we had shared and the many tidbits of good advice he had imparted to me since we first met…
Safely on deck, we waited for the cars to roll on...
Once we were on the barge, I watched Willi as he went to stand at the front… I smiled at his back, as he stood looking out of the river, and although I would have liked to accidentally push him over the side, he was my mate after all, and had become a part of my journey around the world… A part that I could not and would not leave out of the story…
I had said my say the previous evening, and the only difference now, to my mind, was that we would not be riding together as such, but would be meeting up in the evenings if we ended up in the same town or same hotels…
The backpapckers did not have to wait... They skimmed across the Mekong and were over on the other side long before our barge set off...
The trip across the Mekong went smoothly enough, but we were not taken directly across the river as I had supposed we would be, but rather upstream for a few hundred metres to where vehicles were offloaded… Willi and I watched a ferry being maneuvered out into midstream, to make way for our own ferry to dock…
Barge Graveyard... Chiang Khong lies 3330 km from the sea, and I wondered if these boats had motored all that way...
The ferry captain came over to wish me luck as I prepared to ride off his vessel and into Laos...
We rode up the concrete ramp, past a long line of trucks and fuel tankers waiting to cross over into Thailand…
The Laos Immigration office was a few minutes ride from the jetty, and had we not stopped to ask directions to it, it would have been difficult to find… There were no signposts and initially we were just waved along the main road by people who barely understood what we were looking for…
Down a little side road leading to the water taxi-rank, we parked the bikes and handed in our passports for visa applications after filling in a few forms…
The Immigration office was at the bottom on this narrow lane, close to the water's edge...
Five minutes later, and $30.00 poorer, we were free to stay in Laos for a period not exceeding one month… I changed some Thai Baht into Laotian Kip while Willi went to see about changing money himself… I got back on the bike and then headed out of Houei Xai looking for the road to Luang Namtha…
I had been told it was a “good road”…
Lies, lies and more lies…!!
©GBWT 2011
I must be over-eager.
Hello Ronnie… here’s Poland speaking again 🙂 You don’t know how much I envy you… here the spring had not started yet and we have a wet, cold and misty semi-season :/ I wish I could be riding like you… but still have to wait for a new tyre set to arrive. Ehhh… Take care and may the roads be always flat and clear for you!! 🙂
Yes, I was over-eager. Glad you and Willi will still get to spend time together. I think he is good for you ! Enjoy Laos.
Love it when Poland speaks…!! Get those tyres and get on your bike…!! The world is waiting…!! Take care, my friend…!! R.
Hey fella,
Totally understand your comment on the roads!!! We took the bus up to luang nam tha instead of taking the slow boat to luang prabang. We took a lot of buses in our 9 months on the road and that was one of the worst! Having said that sit back and relax in luang namtha the town might only be 500 meters long but the surrounding countryside is lovely. Keep up the great work and keep enjoying all these crazy experiences, they might only happen once in your life and you won’t want to regret anything!!