Thailand and Laos: Chiang Mai, the Mekong Slow Boat and Luang Prabang

Arrive in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai International Airport to the old city

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Chiang Mai
• Environ 15 min de route

Après-midi

Rest after the flight, then meet your guide and the group in the late afternoon for a short walk to Tha Phae Gate and along the moat as the light goes.

Soir

Over a welcome dinner of northern Thai dishes, khao soi curry noodles, sai oua sausage and sticky rice, your guide runs through the ten days ahead: what to pack for the border, how the boat days work, and what Pakbeng is like. If you land too late for the walk, we meet at dinner.

Compris

• Pick-up at Chiang Mai International Airport (CNX)
• Evening walk to Tha Phae Gate and along the moat with your guide
• Welcome dinner and trip briefing

Doi Suthep early, the old-city temples

Chiang Mai to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, then Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Singh and Wat Chiang Man

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Chiang Mai
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Après-midi

Back in town after breakfast, we walk the old city on foot before the midday heat: Wat Chedi Luang, whose great brick chedi was broken by an earthquake in the 16th century, Wat Phra Singh with its Lanna-style chapel and murals, and Wat Chiang Man, the oldest temple in the city, said to date from the founding. Lunch is a khao soi shop near the moat. The afternoon is yours, for a massage, a nap or, on a Sunday, the walking street market that fills Ratchadamnoen Road from late afternoon.

Compris

• Wat Phra That Doi Suthep at about 7 am, with your guide
• Old-city temple walk: Wat Chedi Luang, Wat Phra Singh and Wat Chiang Man
• Lunch near the moat

Activités en option

• A traditional Thai massage in the afternoon (price shown at booking)

A northern Thai cooking class

Chiang Mai to a local market and a cooking school outside the city, and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Chiang Mai
• Environ 1 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive to a local market with the cooking-school teacher, who shows you what goes into northern Thai food: fresh turmeric and galangal, kaffir lime leaves, several kinds of basil, fresh and dried chillies, and the pastes pounded by hand at the stalls. From there we go on to the school, a cooking school with a herb garden where we can arrange it, so you pick some of the herbs yourself.

Après-midi

Each guest cooks at their own station, usually a curry paste from scratch, a curry, a stir-fry, a soup and a dessert such as mango sticky rice, and the class sits down together to eat what it has made as lunch. Vegetarian and vegan versions are easy to arrange.

Soir

We are back at the hotel by mid-afternoon, with the rest of the day and the evening free for the night bazaar, the riverside or a rest before the road north.

Compris

• Market visit with the cooking-school teacher
• Half-day northern Thai cooking class at a school on the edge of the city
• Lunch of the dishes you cook

North to Chiang Rai

Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai by road

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Chiang Rai
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we drive north-east on Route 118 through the hills, about 185 km and roughly three and a quarter hours of driving, the longest road day of the trip.

Après-midi

We break it at the roadside hot springs at Mae Kachan for coffee and a stretch, and arrive in Chiang Rai in time for lunch. Chiang Rai is smaller and calmer than Chiang Mai, a Lanna town founded in the 13th century. In the afternoon we walk to Wat Phra Kaew, where, as the story goes, lightning split a chedi in 1434 to reveal the Emerald Buddha that now sits in Bangkok; a jade copy stands here today. The rest of the afternoon is free.

Soir

In the evening the gilded clock tower in the centre, designed by the same artist as the White Temple, has a short light and music show, and the night bazaar is a few minutes away for dinner at the food stalls.

Compris

• Drive from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai with a stop at the Mae Kachan hot springs
• Lunch in Chiang Rai
• Wat Phra Kaew, Chiang Rai, with your guide

The White Temple, then the Mekong at Chiang Khong

Chiang Rai to Wat Rong Khun, then to Chiang Khong

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Chiang Khong
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is at a riverside restaurant. The afternoon is free, on purpose: walk the river road, sit on a terrace and watch the boats, and pack for the border.

Soir

At dinner time your guide briefs the group on the crossing and the visa.

Compris

• Wat Rong Khun (the White Temple) at opening with your guide
• Drive to Chiang Khong
• Riverside lunch
• Border and visa briefing

Into Laos and down the Mekong to Pakbeng

Chiang Khong across the Friendship Bridge to Huay Xai, then by slow boat to Pakbeng

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Pakbeng
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

An early breakfast, then a short drive to the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge IV, where we leave Thailand and take the bridge bus across the Mekong to the Lao post at Huay Xai. Here you buy the Lao visa on arrival; your guide helps with the forms, and a licensed Lao guide joins us, as Lao rules require. A short drive takes us to the pier and to a traditional long wooden slow boat chartered for the group only. Then the river does the work for six or seven hours: forested hills, sandbars, buffalo in the shallows, fishermen in canoes and small villages of bamboo houses.

Après-midi

Lunch is cooked on board. We tie up at Pakbeng in the late afternoon, a small village on a steep bank roughly halfway to Luang Prabang. Porters carry the bags up to the lodge. It is basic here: one main street, a few small restaurants and patchy power.

Soir

Dinner is at the lodge.

Compris

• Transfer to the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge IV and the bridge bus to Huay Xai
• Help with Lao visa forms (the visa fee is paid by you)
• A licensed Lao guide from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang
• Slow boat chartered for the group, Huay Xai to Pakbeng
• Lunch on board and dinner at the lodge
• Porters at the Pakbeng landing

The Pakbeng market, Pak Ou and Luang Prabang

Pakbeng by slow boat to the Pak Ou Caves, then to Luang Prabang

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Luang Prabang
• Environ 30 min de route

Matin

For anyone up early, your guide walks you to the Pakbeng morning market at first light, where people from the hill villages bring in vegetables, river fish and forest produce. After breakfast we board the boat again for the longer of the two river days, about eight hours on the water plus the Pak Ou stop.

Après-midi

The river narrows between rocky banks and limestone outcrops, and lunch is cooked on board. In the afternoon we stop below the Pak Ou Caves, two caverns in a cliff where the Nam Ou meets the Mekong. For centuries people have brought Buddha images here, and thousands of them, wooden and gilded, fill the lower cave, Tham Ting; a steep stair climbs to the upper cave, Tham Theung, where you need the torch your guide brings.

Soir

We land at the pier about 10 km upstream of town in the early evening, and a short transfer takes us to the hotel. The night market runs until about 10 pm, so there is still time to wander it after dinner on your own.

Compris

• Pakbeng morning market with your guide (optional, early)
• Slow boat chartered for the group, Pakbeng to Luang Prabang
• Lunch on board
• The Pak Ou Caves, Tham Ting and Tham Theung
• Transfer from the pier to your hotel

The alms at dawn and the old town

The alms procession, Mount Phousi, the Royal Palace Museum and Wat Xieng Thong

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Luang Prabang

Soir

From there it is a few minutes to the steps of Mount Phousi, about 330 of them, which we climb to see mist lifting off the Mekong and the Nam Khan, hours before the sunset crowd. Breakfast is back at the hotel. As it opens, usually at 8 am, we are at the Royal Palace Museum, the residence of the last Lao kings, then we walk the length of the peninsula to Wat Xieng Thong, the royal monastery built around 1560, with its sweeping roofs and glass mosaic tree of life. Lunch, then a free afternoon.

Compris

• The Tak Bat alms procession, observed from across the street with your guide (optional, early)
• Mount Phousi at the start of the day
• The Royal Palace Museum and the Haw Pha Bang chapel
• Wat Xieng Thong
• Lunch in the old town

Activités en option

• A natural-dye weaving workshop in the afternoon (price shown at booking)
• An evening performance at the Royal Ballet Theatre, on the nights it runs

Kuang Si at opening

Luang Prabang to Kuang Si Falls and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Luang Prabang
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

We leave after an early breakfast and drive about 30 km south-west through villages and low hills, so we are at the gate of Kuang Si as it opens, around 8 am, ahead of the minibuses that arrive from mid-morning. Inside the entrance is the bear rescue centre run by Free the Bears, home to Asian black bears and sun bears taken from poachers and the bile trade. The path then follows a chain of turquoise pools, coloured by the limestone in the water, up to the main fall, which drops in several streams over pale terraces. Swim in the lower pools where it is allowed, or sit by the water while it is quiet.

Après-midi

Lunch is near the falls, and we are back in town by early afternoon, free for a massage, the riverside cafes or a last walk.

Soir

In the evening we share a farewell dinner of Lao dishes by the Mekong.

Compris

• Kuang Si Falls at opening, with time to swim in the lower pools
• The Free the Bears rescue centre at Kuang Si
• Lunch near the falls
• Farewell dinner

Depart from Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang to Luang Prabang International Airport

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 15 min de route

Matin

The trip ends after breakfast in Luang Prabang.

Après-midi

If your flight is in the afternoon, the morning is yours: the morning market in the lanes near the palace, where vendors sell river weed, herbs and live fish, a walk across the old steel bridge with its plank walkway, a coffee and a baguette in a cafe from the French era, or a quiet hour at one of the smaller monasteries along the Mekong. Luang Prabang International Airport (LPQ) is about fifteen minutes from the old town, and we drive you there at the right time for your flight. Book a flight leaving after about 12 pm for a relaxed morning. Flights connect via Bangkok to most of North America, and there are also flights to Hanoi and Siem Reap if you are carrying on. If you want more of Laos, the train south to Vang Vieng and Vientiane leaves from Luang Prabang, and our Laos trip covers that route.

Compris

• Drop-off at Luang Prabang International Airport (LPQ)