2 Day Slow Boat - Thailand to Laos🛶

Does travelling from Thailand to Laos by boat for two days sound like fun? Well I’m going to be sharing our experience and if we think it is worth it!

Getting to Laos:
Firstly, there are multiple ways of getting to Laos from Thailand. You can fly, get a bus, train or boat. Flying is the easiest and quickest way, but we decided to do the 2 day slow boat, completely for the plot! Your journey from Thailand to Laos starts in Chiang Mai, the cultural capital of northern Thailand.

Who to book with?
Multiple hostels in Chiang Mai will offer this service, we booked the entire 3 day, 2 night trip with Family 2 Hostel. A friend of ours did the same journey and highly recommended them. They are also a really sociable and fun hostel to stay at whilst you are in Chiang Mai. For the whole trip, it cost us 2,900 baht each (£62) and included everything but the ticket to the White Temple, food & accommodation for the second night.

The 3 day itinerary included:

Day 1:
9-9:30AM
1. Pick up at hostel
They will pick you up at your hostel, or the accommodation that you book the trip with. Only three of us booked through the hostel, but we had seven other people from other accommodation.

12-1PM
2. Drive to the White Temple in Chiang Rai
After pick up you will drive two and a half hours to Chiang Rai to visit the White Temple, which is one of the most famous temples in Thailand. You will get to spend 40 minutes there to explore and grab some food before the next leg of the journey. The White Temple ticket is not included in the trip, so you will need to pay for it yourself.

3. Drive to Chiang Khong
After the White Temple, you will drive another hour and a half or so to Chiang Khong, which is where you stop off to fill in your Visa Application. It is a little stall on the side of the road, with a few tables and chairs. It looks a bit dodgy but it is legit!

You will fill out two forms, which are pretty straightforward. The forms just ask where you are entering Laos from and how long you are staying for etc. You will also need a passport photo each and 40 USD. For a passport photo, you can pay 100 baht to get one done there and then, but they aren’t the most professional pictures. The 40 USD is for the Visa, if you don’t have 40USD, you will need 1900 Thai baht in cash. At the Visa stop, they will change your 1900 baht into 40USD.

You will also get the chance to change any Thai money over, I would do this and also get a Laotian SIM card. Your Thai one will stop working whilst you are on the boat so it is easier to have a sim already sorted for when you arrive in Laos. It is more expensive here, but we personally found it overall easier, rather than having no signal arriving in Laos and then trying to find our accommodation and a SIM card after the long journey.

3PM
1. Arrive at border
2. Immigration Process
3. You will be taken across the border by shuttle bus
4. Immigation Process at Laos border
5. Will be picked up & taken to the hotel in Huay Xay for your first nights stay
6. Check in / Enjoy one night in Huay Xay

The whole process of crossing the border is also fairly straightforward, and funnily enough, once you have crossed the land border by shuttle bus, you are technically in Laos. However, getting to the main tourist areas, you will need to get there by boat, hence the 2 day boat trip.

After arriving in Laos, you are then taken to your first nights accommodation, which is already organised for you and included in the price. Once settled in, you can find a local place for food before going back to the hotel and socialising with the other backpackers you are doing the boat trip with.

Day 2:
8:30-9:30AM
1. Pick up at Hotel
2. Slow Boat pier / Enjoy the boat trip along Mae Khong river

You will get given your ticket in the morning, do not lose this ticket, you will need it for both days and if you don’t have it you will need to prove that you bought a ticket otherwise they might kick you off the boat!! Try and keep the receipt you get from the hostel that you book the trip with in case you lose your ticket, this will prove that you booked the trip!

The tickets will say you have assigned seats but no one follows them, everyone just sits wherever they want first come first serve, so try to go early to get the best seats, if you are late, you might have to sit on the floor for 8 hours, which is not ideal!

For the first boat day, they provide a sandwich for lunch, but you will definitely need snacks, so don’t forget to stock up before you leave!

4:00PM
1. Arrive in Pakbeng and spend the night here

Accommodation in Pakbeng is NOT included, so make sure to book your own. There is a hostel called Mekong Backpackers, but they only have around 10 beds. If they are fully booked or you would rather have a private room after the long journey, I would recommend booking Janh Ya Phone Guesthouse, which is next door to the hostel and what we did.

Afterwards, everyone from the boat goes to Happy Bar, which is the only bar in Pakbeng and where you get the chance to socialise with other backpackers on the boat.

Day 3:
9:00 AM
1. Boat trip to Luang Prabang
We got up very early to secure good seats for the second day. We got up, grabbed some breakfast and lunch for the boat and was on the boat by 7:45AM. We didn’t leave till 9AM but it was worth it to get seats.

The only downside to going early is that your big bags will be put underneath the boat first, meaning you will be last off the boat in Luang Prabang. Keep your big bags on your seat until it starts getting more full and once full place your bags underneath the front of the boat.

03:30 PM
1. Arrive Luang Prabang
Once in Luang Prabang, you will have to pay a ticket for a tuktuk into the town. It costs 40,000 and they annoyingly only drop you in town, not your accommodation. This meant some people had to pay for another tuktuk to their hostel. I would recommend staying at Sunrise Riverside Pool Hostel, it was only a 7 minute walk from where we were dropped off. However, Mad Monkey Hostel was a 25 minute walk out of town.

Overall, it wasn’t the worst trip we’ve done! The slow boat was sold to us as more like a party boat with a lot of drinking and socialising but ours wasn’t like that, so I do think it depends on the people you are with. Even though ours wasn’t boozy, we still ended up travelling the whole of Laos with the people we met on the first day, so it is an easy way to make some friends. The journey did get a bit boring and long though towards the end, but that’s understandable as you are on a boat for 8 hours. But if you think you can hack it, then I’d definitely recommend doing it! Not only was it fun, but it is the best way to see true Laotian culture.