Travel Guide and Transport Info for Pak Beng, Laos by Hobo Maps -

Travel Pak Beng
- Although Pak Beng isn't much of a travel mecca these days the future may bring better days and more travel options. Highway 2 connecting to Oudom Xai in the north has been improved and is a decent paved road. A new ferry service allows vehicles to cross the Mekong about 10 km upriver from Pak Beng and connect to the border with Thailand and on to Nan. A new bridge over the Mekong is in the works. At the moment there is no public transport available connecting Pak Beng to the Thai border 40 km away at Muang Ngeun but when it comes a nice shorter route to Bangkok will be available on good paved roads. No need to go thru Huay Xai any more or endure the dusty dirt roads from Tha Suang on the Mekong to the border via Hongsa. But for now the main claim to fame for Pak Beng is it being the one-night-stand stopover place on the two day Mekong boat trips between Luang Pabang and Huay Xai. The typical visitor to Pak Beng stays only 15 hours from 18:00 to 09:00 the next morning and the town goes thru a daily cycle of frenzied activity once the boats arrive to a lazy quiet feeling after they depart the next morning. Some nice opportunities to explore the remote area around Pak Beng exist for those who opt to stay an extra day. A new bypass road has been built to take truck traffic on Hwy. 2 above and around Pak Beng and it can be explored on foot or by bike offering nice views down to Pak Beng and the Mekong below but unfortunately there still are no bikes for rent in town. Hwy. 2 heads north out of Pak Beng and offers a nice cycling route along the Nam Beng river with good views and access to this clear and clean river. There is a cave to explore north of town. The area just across the Mekong from Pak Beng has an elephant camp and watching an elephant tear into vegetation for his morning meal beside the Mekong is a treat for boat travelers waiting to depart. The whole area around town is still quite remote and visitors who venture out of town are likely to get surprised reactions from the locals.

Public Road Transport
- There is a small bus station along Hwy. 2 about 2.5 km northeast of the Mekong boat landing in Pak Beng that has mid-sized public buses travelling to Oudom Xay at 09:00 and 12:00. Look for it just south of the bridge and across the street from a gas station - it is clearly marked on the Pak Beng Hobo Map HERE. There is no public bus transport the other direction out of Pak Beng towards the Mekong ferry crossing and on to the Thai border crossing near Muang Ngeun 40 km away but it may be possible to arrange a trip to the border by joining with one of the locals who make weekly trips to Nan, Thailand on Saturdays for shopping. You might contact Hassan at Hassan's Indian Restaurant in Pak Beng for further info on such a trip as he made arrangements for me to do this trip in 2010. Minivan buses run from the Thai side of the border to Nan, Thailand but maybe only in the mornings or at mid-day so try to do a border crossing trip as early as possible in the day.

Slow Boat Transport from Pak Beng
- the cost for both upriver and downriver Slow Boat trips from Pak Beng is the same and as of Sept. 2011 it was 100,000 kip for foreigners (Lao citizens pay less). In Pak Beng you can buy your ticket after boarding the boat and after you have found your seat as they will come around just before departure to check for tickets. We have had problems with overcharging by locals who sell tickets the night before as well as from an unofficial "ticket office" near the boat landing.
- once-a-day upriver Slow Boat trips to Huay Xai are scheduled to depart each morning at around 08:30 from Pak Beng with actual departure around 09:00. The trip takes about 9 hours with arrival in Huay Xai around 18:00 which makes it too late for passengers to make the border crossing to Chiang Khong, Thailand the same day. Sadly, this seems intentional as I have been on arriving boats that could have come in early enough to allow us to get thru immigration before the 18:00 closing but it seemed that the boat captain intentionally slowed down, presumably so we would spend another day in Laos and support the Huay Xai economy. This may all change once the new bridge over the Mekong is completed about 10 km downriver from Huay Xai in 2013 when we may have the chance to disembark there and pass thru immigration at the bridge where they may even have extended immigration hours and there will no longer be a need to pass thru the town of Huay Xai.
- once-a-day downriver Slow Boat trips to Luang Prabang are scheduled to depart each morning at around 09:00 from Pak Beng with actual departure usually at around 10:00. The trip takes about 8 hours with arrival in central L. Prabang around 16:00.

Slow Boat Mekong River Transport
- for some strange reason the Laos authorities and some transport schedule signs refer to the big long boats that carry passengers between Luang Prabang and Huay Xai with an overnight stop in Pak Beng as "Express Boats" even though they plod along at a slow pace. These boats make a few stops en route which also belies the term "Express". This webpage and most travelers refer to them accurately as "Slow Boats".
- the Slow Boats are family-owned and operated boats and since they only stop at Laos landing places and never in Thailand they are all licensed in Laos and proudly fly the Laos flag. Each boat is powered by an inboard combustion engine that seems to be a converted truck engine which creates a loud noise when operating at full speed. The typical layout of the boat from front to back is the captain and driver sitting at the very front of the boat, a long narrow passenger section immediately behind them, then a snack bar selling drinks and cold snacks, then a single enclosed western-style toilet, then the loud truck engine, then the family room & sleeping place (which has hot exhaust and noise from the engine during the trip and may serve as a storage place for passenger baggage) and finally at the very end a cooking section for the family's personal use. It seems that many owners and their families live on the boat most of the time and possibly all of the time.

There is only one scheduled morning departure each day for these boats from each of the 3 towns. A curious phenomenon exists in that the downriver boats going with the flow of the Mekong from Huay Xai to Pak Beng and on to Luang Prabang often carry about 4 times as many tourist passengers as similar boats do in the other direction going against the current and upriver from Luang Prabang to Huay Xai. On my last few trips from Luang Prabang to Pak Beng on the Slow Boat there were always less than 20 of us tourists on the boat when it arrived in Pak Beng (after most locals got off at other places) while the crowded boats coming into Pak Beng from Huay Xai often have 100 or more passengers on them. A good example of the "Herd Mentality" generated by a certain well-known travel guide which advises passengers to do the trip in this direction and go with the flow of the Mekong. It's true the downstream trip is about an hour faster but the upriver boats depart an hour earlier so the arrival times are about the same. Spending an extra hour of travel time is unfortunate but is more than made up for by the boat not being crowded and having so much extra room to spread out and relax and to avoid the mad rush when unloading at Pak Beng.

- Buying Tickets - we advise passengers doing the 2 day trip to buy single-day tickets instead of a 2 day ticket before beginning the trip. There's no need to pay for both days in advance and once you do that you may not have the option to change your plans and stay another day in Pak Beng or change to a speedboat for the 2nd day. They don't make seat reservations or limit the number of passengers on these boats so all you need to do is show up at the boat landing an hour before departure to be sure of getting on the boat and be pretty sure of getting a seat. You'll still get on the boat by arriving 2 minutes before departure but may find all the seats taken and will have to spread out on the floor. At Pak Beng you can simply buy your ticket after getting on the boat but in Huay Xai and Luang Prabang you buy your ticket at an office near the boat landing and you need to show your passport. We see no reason to ever buy a Slow Boat ticket the day before departure or from a travel agent. On a recent trip I took, a small group of "clever" passengers arranged for reserved seats on a slow boat by paying the boat owner the night before but when other indignant passengers took over these seats the next morning and removed the seat reserved signs the owner refused to move them out and wouldn't give a refund, probably because a village tout had already been paid and was "unavailable" to refund his commission. Best to just arrive early and take your chances.

Passenger Behavior on Slow Boats
- One of the most interesting aspects of these slow boat trips is passenger behavior. There is usually a very nice mix of travellers from all over the world on these boats including more and more Asian travelers and local people each year. I never tire of watching how modern-day travelers deal with the slow plodding pace of these boats where time seems to lose its normal meaning after hours of the same routine. The most curious thing for me is observing that the vast majority of young travelers seem oblivious to and uninterested in the area they are passing thru. They do a number of things to "kill time" such as sleeping, reading, chatting in small groups, playing cards or video games, pouring down Beer Lao or just seem lost in a bored trance but seem uminterested in the passing landscape or the local people. Older travelers have the same tendencies but not nearly as pronounced. But regardless of age virtually all passengers are polite, well-behaved and nice to be around which includes those drinking more than their fair share of Beer Lao. In the old days of slow boat travel passengers were allowed to climb up onto the roofs of these boats and soak up rays as they cruised but rooftop travel is now forbidden. On a trip I took in 2011 a few young western party animals snuck up onto the roof during the trip when afternoon naps were being taken by the crew only to have one young man fall into the river when he tried to come back down. Quite a scene watching him swim a couple hundred meters behind our boat as the captain made frantic efforts to go back and get him. Luckily he was a good swimmer as he had to stay afloat for a while but all turned out well and that night in Pak Beng his escapade was a hot topic for local people and visitors alike. Some rules are necessary, even in laid-back Laos.

Pak Beng Scramble
- There seems to be fear among some slow boat passengers of not being able to find a decent room for the night in Pak Beng which causes a sort of scramble on arrival to be one of the first to get off the boat with all your baggage and find a room. This does have some logic to it and I try to keep all my baggage with me near my seat on the boat and not let them put anything in the rear boat storage area or under the floorboards. If you do this and also have a seat near the front of the boat you can relax and be at the forefront of the scramble. Other more experienced travellers do just the opposite and wait around a while before looking for a room to enhance their bargaining position. A guest house owner knows that once all the passengers from arriving boats have found rooms his chances of renting more rooms that night is slim indeed and is more likely to give a big discount to late arrivals. The only times I've had problems finding a preferred room was when a boatload group of Thai visitors had arrived earlier in the day. I did find a decent room these times but had to pay more than I usually do. More new guest houses are being built while the number of visitors remains about the same.

Speedboat Transport from Pak Beng
- the cost for both upriver and downriver Speedboat trips from Pak Beng is usually the same and as of Sept. 2011 it was 160,000 kip per passenger assuming there is a full boat of six passengers. But the cost to Luang. Prabang may be a bit more at times and we have unconfirmed reports of the cost as 180,000 kip. Tickets can be purchased at the Speedboat Pier in Pak Beng which is a floating platform near where the Slow Boats are docked and down a long flight of steps. If you have a group and charter the whole boat the cost would be 960,000 kip as of Sept. 2011 and you probably can depart when you want. But if you don't have your own group then you normally have to wait until about 14:00 (2:00 PM) for the boat to depart as they like to wait for all passengers to arrive from both Luang Prabang and Huay Xai before going. The trip in either direction only takes about 3 hours nonstop but they do have to stop for some passengers to disembark and to check in at government checkpoints which adds to the travel time. Most of the time you can assume the boat to Huay Xai will arrive at around 17:00 which should give you enough time to take a songtaew bus from the speedboat landing 4 km south of central Huay Xai town to the immigration checkpoint but it's not guaranteed you'll be able to get across to Thailand the same day. I was on a speedboat a few years ago that wouldn't take me past the checkpoint at Pak Tha because all other passengers had disembarked and he would lose money for the final section with only me. Fortunately another speedboat came by to take me in but if it hadn't, I would have had to take a songtaew bus from Pak Tha to Huay Xai and would have missed the crossing to Thailand that same day.
- because Speedboats are not allowed to travel on the Mekong where it passes thru either central Huay Xai or Luang Prabang (due the loud noise I presume), the speedboat landings in both towns are not withing walking distance of the central areas and some sort of public transport is required to get from town to the boat landings. Please refer to the web pages we have on this website for Huay Xai and L. Prabang to find these landings.

Mekong Speedboats
- Whenever these small fast colorful boats are mentioned on internet travel forums it elicits extreme views from opposite directions. Many people are appalled by the noise they make and view them as extremely dangerous, vowing to never consider taking one. Others view them as an exciting and fast travel option where they can cut a two day trip down to a single day with fond memories of shooting down the river at breakneck speed while the scenery comes past you like viewing a movie in fast forward. I still recall the thrill of shooting over big whirlpools on the Mekong in a speedboat and looking down into the swirling funnel hole below as the driver took us directly over the middle, surprising me as I would have expected us to go around them. I suppoose there's no danger of hidden rocks inside a whirlpool. These boats all seem to be owner-operated and they have a lot to lose by taking unnecessary risks. But it can't be denied there have been several tragic speedboat accidents over the years and people do die from these accidents. For me, I think they are safe enough when river levels are moderate and when there is almost no floating debris but I won't take them when the river is rising and picking up debris or when the river is high in the wet season from July thru October. Most speedboats do pass out floatation jackets and helmets to passengers which I think are required by law but in Laos rules are often relaxed. Another thing that gives me a little comfort with the full day route from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang is that we always change speedboats at Pak Beng which seems to indicate that the drivers only cover one section of the river and should have quite good knowledge of that section. This seems necessary as the Mekong is constantly changing from day to day as the flow goes up and down. The first couple times I took speedboats for the single-day trip between Huay Xai and Luang Prabang I was annoyed that we took a 1.5 hour lunch break at Pak Beng when the weather was nice and we should be heading out but now I realize that since we always change boats there, they are waiting for any late departing boats to arrive so all the transfers can be done at one time smoothly. This long lunch break presents an opportunity for those who have never been to Pak Beng to have lunch and go for a walk around town as well. With moderate river levels there are no big rapids between Luang Prabang and Huay Xai, just a few smaller rapids, and when the river is high almost no rapids at all. The big whirlpools tend to appear when river levels are low as the water swirls in behind big rocky obstructions. These whirlpools can be quite large and I've watched branches disappear into them without seeing them pop out again. I wouldn't try to paddle a canoe or kayak on the Mekong over any distance and would never float down it on a raft. Going for a swim in the muddy reddish-brown Mekong is not a pleasant thought.

The Pak Beng - Hongsa Bike Loop Trip
- Although I have not made this trip yet, some day I hope to do a 2 day cycling trip from Pak Beng to Hongsa and back when I have my own cycling transport. The trip would start early in the morning with a 10 km leg to the Mekong ferry crossing southwest of Pak Beng where I'd get onto one of the vehicle ferries to cross the Mekong. This should be easy in the early morning when other vehicles tend to make the crossing but not so easy later in the day when most have made the trip as it's unlikely these big ferry boats would make the crossing just for a single biker. The 30 km biking trip from the other side of the Mekong to Muang Ngeun near the Thai border is on a nice asphalt road that rolls up and down hilly terrain but doesn't go over big mountains or present any difficulties. After lunch in the small town of Muang Ngeun (Ban Ngeun) I'd head out on a dusty dirt road for the 30 km trip to Hongsa where I'd spend the night. Hongsa has a few guest houses and at least one decent restaurant but not much else to do so the next morning I'd head out on another dirt road for an up and down 25 km trip to the village of Tha Suang on the Mekong where I'd wait for the arrival of the Slow Boat at around 16:00 (4 PM) from Luang Prabang to stop and take me and my bike back to Pak Beng. Tha Suang is a standard stopping place for the Slow Boats heading in either direction and I wouldn't worry about the boat passing by without stopping as there always seem to be a few local people getting on and off the boat there. If I somehow missed the Slow Boat I'd just have to spend a few hundred baht to charter a Speed Boat to take me to Pak Beng which should only take about 30 minutes.

My Loney Planet Thorntree Posting re my Pak Beng to Nan Trip Oct. 2010
About 10 days ago I was finally able to make a travel connection from Pak Beng, Laos to Nan, Thailand via the border crossing at Muang Ngeun (Nam Ngeun) Laos and Ban Huak (Huay Kone) Thailand. I caught a ride on the back of a truck with a family from Pak Beng that goes this way each Saturday to get weekly supplies from the markets in Thailand, thanks to Hassan of Hassan's Indian Restaurant in Pak Beng who made the arrangement. They only took me to the Lao border checkpoint but there is now a minivan service that connects from the big hut near customs on the Thai side to the bus station in Nan directly for 100 baht. Not sure of the schedule (no English signs and nobody there spoke English) but it had at least 2 departures that Saturday at 10:00 and 11:30. Look for a white minivan parked at the road junction by the big hut. What a joy to visit Nan for the first time and avoid the 2nd day of the slow boat trip from Pak Beng to Huay Xai and the unfriendly locals there. I did have to walk the 800 meters or so between the 2 immigration checkpoints but the rest was with rides. What an eerie feeling on this walk thru a deserted area where you can't see the other checkpoint part of the way. Why are they so far apart? Amazing all the Thai security on their side, including 2 thorough customs inspections on the minivan trip to Nan where we all had to get out and register while our bags were searched. The Thai border had about 5 different kinds of police, military and security personnel milling about. But what a gem of a place is Nan, probably the nicest Thai town I've seen although English is a rare commodity, even at the bus station (try the ticket seller at the Green Bus window). The bus trips from there to Bangkok and Chiang Mai are also shorter than from Chiang Khong (another reason to avoid the slow boat trip from Pak Beng to Huay Xai/Chiang Khong). SP Guest House in central Nan had very nice 400 baht rooms and fluent English speakers. I'm hoping others may try this same route so some day there will be enough demand to justify a regularly-scheduled transport service from Pak Beng to the border which is only about a 1.5 hour trip if the ferry crossing over the Mekong goes quickly. The problem now seems to be an expensive ferry crossing fee for vehicles so we need to create volume. They say the Chinese are about to begin construction of a new bridge at this ferry crossing. The village of Muang Ngeun (Ban Ngeun) seems quite nice and I saw a few guest houses there which makes me think I might try cycling the 50 km from Pak Beng to there some day on the newly paved road, stay overnight and head on to Hongsa the next day on a dirt road, then on to Tha Souang boat landing on another dirt road where I could catch the Mekong slow boat back to Pak Beng for a nice easy cycling loop. I'd like to do it soon while the area is undeveloped and before the new Mekong bridge and the Hongsa lignite power plants are on line. I'd appreciate guest house suggestions for Muang Ngeun and Hongsa. Pak Beng itself was worth an extra day stay to cycle outside of town on Hwy 2 but this was the third time I've had to scramble for accommodation with the slow boat from Luang Prabang arriving after dark and finding Thai tour groups taking many of the decent affordable rooms. But there always seems to be a supply of overpriced rooms and eager touts with flashlights to show them and help with your bags.

Reply to Thorntree thread by Captain Bob

Thanks for this report. Agree it's an intriguing area that will see a lot of "development" in the coming years.

What an eerie feeling on this walk thru a deserted area where you can't see the other checkpoint part of the way
Yes it's a weird nowhere spot. There always seems to be this kind of buffer zone on land borders around here, either a bridge or a river or this no-mans-land as you also have down at the Laos/Cambo border.

I'm hoping others may try this same route so some day there will be enough demand to justify a regularly scheduled transport service
A couple of Chiang Mai-based compaines have tried but failed to get enough business. Aya Tours for example was running an overnight minivan to Huay Kon, crossing the border at opening time, stopping off in Hongsa for a meal then on a slowboat to LP. It didn't sell enough to keep going though.

I'd appreciate guest house suggestions for Muang Ngeun and Hongsa
In Hongsa try Jumbo Guesthouse and say Hi to Monica. If you want to be as close as possible to the border theres one lonely guesthouse called Dao Savanh.