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

1. Day 1: Arrive in Chiang Mai

   Chiang Mai International Airport to the old city

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Chiang Mai
   Day 1 details

   Your trip starts at Chiang Mai International Airport (CNX), about fifteen minutes from the old city, where a driver meets you and takes you to your hotel. Chiang Mai was founded in 1296 as the capital of the Lanna kingdom, and its square old city is still ringed by a moat and the brick remains of its walls and gates. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Free until the late-afternoon walk

2. Day 2: 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

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Chiang Mai
   Day 2 details

   We leave at about 6:30 am and drive the winding road up Doi Suthep, the mountain west of the city, so we reach Wat Phra That Doi Suthep at about 7 am, when monks are chanting and the tour buses have not arrived. A staircase of about 300 steps, its rails formed by two long naga serpents, climbs to the gilded chedi; a small tram runs alongside for anyone who prefers it. From the terrace, Chiang Mai spreads across the valley below. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

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

   Easier option: Take the tram up to Doi Suthep instead of the steps, and ride between the old-city temples in the van.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot on flat streets, plus the Doi Suthep stairs. Cover shoulders and knees, and take shoes off where asked.

3. Day 3: A northern Thai cooking class

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

   • Drive about 1 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Chiang Mai
   Day 3 details

   A slower day. 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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   More active option: Rent a bicycle in the free afternoon and ride the quiet lanes around the old city with a map from your guide.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Tell us about allergies and diets when you book so the school can plan your dishes.

4. Day 4: North to Chiang Rai

   Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai by road

   • Drive about 3.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Chiang Rai
   Day 4 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: One suitcase and a day bag from here: the next three nights are one night each, ahead of the border and the boat.

5. Day 5: The White Temple, then the Mekong at Chiang Khong

   Chiang Rai to Wat Rong Khun, then to Chiang Khong

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Chiang Khong
   Day 5 details

   We are at Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple, about 13 km south of Chiang Rai, as it opens at 8 am, before the coaches from Chiang Mai arrive. The artist Chalermchai Kositpipat began rebuilding it in 1997, and it is still unfinished: a white chapel set with mirror glass, reached by a bridge over a pit of reaching hands, with murals inside that mix Buddhist teaching with figures from films and comics. Allow an hour; your guide explains the symbols. Then we drive east through rice fields and rubber plantations to Chiang Khong, about two hours, a quiet market town on the Thai bank of the Mekong with Laos directly across the water. 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. At dinner time your guide briefs the group on the crossing and the visa.

   Included

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

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: Cover shoulders and knees at Wat Rong Khun. Have your passport, photo and US dollars ready for tomorrow.

6. Day 6: Into Laos and down the Mekong to Pakbeng

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

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Pakbeng
   Day 6 details

   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. 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. Dinner is at the lodge.

   Included

   • 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

   Free time: Evening free in Pakbeng

   Activity: About 6 to 7 hours on the boat. Bring a warm layer and a book; the morning river can be cold and misty. The walk up from the landing is steep.

   

7. Day 7: The Pakbeng market, Pak Ou and Luang Prabang

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

   • Drive about 30 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Luang Prabang
   Day 7 details

   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. 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. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay at the lower Pak Ou cave, a short flight of steps from the boat, and skip the stair to the upper cave.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About eight hours on the water plus the Pak Ou stop; we land in the early evening. The stair to the upper cave is steep and uneven.

   

8. Day 8: The alms at dawn and the old town

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

   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Luang Prabang
   Day 8 details

   For anyone who wants to see it, we walk out at about 5:30 am to watch the Tak Bat alms procession: lines of monks and novices in saffron robes walk barefoot in silence while local people kneel to place sticky rice in their bowls. We watch from across the street, quietly and without flash, as the monasteries ask, and we do not buy rice from street sellers to hand out. 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.

   Included

   • 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

   Optional experiences

   • 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

   Easier option: Sleep in and skip the alms and Phousi; join the group at the Royal Palace Museum at 8 am.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 3 hours on foot on flat streets, plus the Phousi steps. Cover shoulders and knees for the palace and temples. The Royal Palace Museum is usually closed on Tuesdays; if day 8 falls on a Tuesday we visit Wat Xieng Thong in the morning and move the museum to another day it is open, which we confirm with your dates.

   

9. Day 9: Kuang Si at opening

   Luang Prabang to Kuang Si Falls and back

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Luang Prabang
   Day 9 details

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

   Included

   • 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

   Easier option: Stay at the lower pools and the bear centre, a gentle path of about 1 km, while the others climb.

   More active option: Climb the steep, often muddy trail beside the main fall to the pools above it and come down the other side, about 45 minutes.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: Paths are wet and slippery near the falls. Bring swimwear, a towel and water shoes.

   

10. Day 10: Depart from Luang Prabang

    Luang Prabang to Luang Prabang International Airport

    • Drive about 15 min
    • Breakfast
    Day 10 details

    The trip ends after breakfast in Luang Prabang. 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.

    Included

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

    Free time: Morning free until your airport transfer

    Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 12 pm for a free morning.

    

Wildlife and weather: November to February is the cool dry season: clear days around 25 to 30 C, and early mornings in Chiang Mai, on the river and in Luang Prabang that can be misty and as low as 10 to 15 C in December and January, so bring a warm layer for the boat. From about March, smoke from field burning hazes the views across northern Thailand and Laos and the Mekong runs low; from May to October the rains swell the river and turn Kuang Si brown.

• Chiang Mai3 nights
• Chiang Rai1 night
• Chiang Khong1 night
• Pakbeng1 night
• Luang Prabang3 nights