Pakbeng - What To Do If You’ve Missed Your Slow Boat?
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The town of Pakbeng sits at the midpoint of the famous Mekong slow boat river trip. The full river journey runs between the UNESCO World Heritage City of Luang Prabang and the Laotian/Thai border town of Huay Xai. Most travellers, and we really mean most, like 99% will arrive in Pakbeng in the early evening and then leave again before 10am the next day. The whole town is set up to deal with this overnight trade, but what if you stayed there a little longer? What if you missed your boat? We decided to slow ourselves down and have a full day in Pakbeng and this is what we got up to.
We had arrived in Pakbeng on board the luxury Shompoo cruises. We knew that the next leg of our journey would be on the normal, less luxurious slow boat but we needed some time to plan our Laotian itinerary. A quick scout of the town showed it had a wealth of cheap accommodation, so we decided to stay a full extra day in Pakbeng to plan our route and explore the town a little bit.
Accommodation in Pakbeng - Where to Stay?
There are dozens of guesthouses in the town. The whole town is set up to deal with the overnight travellers and there are many choices of where to sleep. When travellers get off the boat, there is a flurry of activity on the pier as guesthouses and hoteliers vie for the travellers custom.
The guesthouses of the town are simple and cheap. Usually a double or twin bed and a shared bathroom. As with many places in Laos, the online listings are much more expensive than simply just turning up and asking for the prices. Also worth bearing in mind, is that there are many more accommodation choices in town than appear online. We use Agoda, Booking.com, Expedia and Google to look at accommodation and none of them were showing half of what was on offer in Pakbeng.
Our cheap and cheerful room in Pakbeng!
We walked along the high street and eventually settled on a double fan room (shared bathroom) for 100,000 kip (£4.80 or $6.00) staying at the Thiphaphone Guesthouse. This was the cheapest we saw, but the difference was minor, most rooms were going for between 100,000 and 150,000 kip.
For upmarket choices there are two hotels to choose from: The Sanctuary and Le Grand. These two are much more luxurious than the guesthouses in the village themselves and have swimming pools and restuarants themselves. If you’ve booked ahead at one of these posher places they should arrange a tuk tuk transfer to and from the pier. If you’re planning to stay in the main town, transport is completely unnecessary unless you’ve really overpacked!
We were definitely an oddity walking around the town at mid morning. As we’ve mentioned, all travellers leave with the boats in the early morning, so we were the only travellers in town. All the guest houses were halfway through turning over their rooms, with their washing hanging out the windows to dry. The locals were looking at us with amused expressions which just said “ah, those two must have missed the boat”.
Things to Do in Pakbeng
Pakbeng is not a large town but it does have some interesting things to keep you occupied if you’ve missed your boat, or like us, just decided to slow down.
The Pakbeng Viewpoint
Just inside town, at the top of the pier, is a large sign detailing the sites and surrounding attractions of Pakbeng. Quickly piquing our interest was the ‘Pakbeng Viewpoint’. This didn’t appear on Google Maps, but as is frequently the case, did show on Maps.me. Follow the high street away from the pier, going past all the guesthouses and restaurants and you’ll eventually come to a signpost directing you to turn off the main road to the left.
Follow this dusty road as it winds past wooden houses and climbs a hill, passing the primary school until you reach a helipad. The views from here are great, but you're not at the viewpoint yet! Turn behind you and climb the steep set of stairs to reach the viewpoint itself. Perched on a hill between the main road and the town, the viewpoint looks directly over the Mekong and surrounding hills. The viewpoint is split into two platforms.
The left platform overlooks the Mekong as it flows downstream. The right viewing platform overlooks the town of Pakbeng and the green hills behind. The views are fantastic and well worth the short walk and sharp climb. The viewpoint area itself looks to be/has been in a state of renovation, there is a distinctly unfinished feel to it with lots of construction equipment left lying around. Still you didn’t come to look at the viewpoint, you came to look at the view and the view does not disappoint.
There is no kind of ticket barrier or entry fee, just walk up!
Tip: The route is well signposted from town except for the very final point of the helipad. The road winds on, but don’t take this. Look behind you for the concrete steps and climb up these.
Wat Khokkhormingmoungkhoun
On your way to or from the viewpoint, there is a Buddhist temple that's well worth a look.
Wat Khokkhormingmoungkhoun commands a beautiful view over the river.
As always remember to dress appropriately - unfortunately we were in shorts this day, so could only peer through the ornate Naga guarded gateway.
Pakbeng Museum
We passed by and attempted to visit this museum but unfortunately it appeared to be closed. We can’t tell if this is permanent or whether it just wasn’t our day.
From the notice board it looks as though it is a small museum giving history of the local area and the communities within it.
Mekong Elephant Park
Another thing we didn’t do! Those who know us, know that Ellie is an elephant nut, and as such is rightly very picky about visiting “elephant sanctuaries”. We didn’t have time to properly research this one, so wound up not going. From what we can see it does look legit, housing four rescued elephants with no riding and mostly offering observation tours, but we were unsure as there were some higher cost ‘interaction experiences’. If you know more, let us know in the comments!
Sanctuary Viewpoint
The Sanctuary hotel runs in partnership with the elephant park and is about a ten minute walk away from town up a hill. Its bar and restaurant have incredible views over the Mekong, especially at sunset. If you feel like treating yourself to an expensive beer ($3.50 - you know you’re in trouble when the prices are in dollars) and an amazing view, then this is a great place to do this.
Eating and Drinking in Pakbeng
There is no shortage of evening food options in Pakbeng. From the local Laotian dishes of laab and noodle soups, to the backpacker favourites of fried rice and noodles, there will be something for your palette.
For our lunch we had an enormous, but extremely tasty Pad Krapow, served with a side serving of delicate vegetable soup. For dinner, we went off piste and went to an Indian restaurant recommended by our guesthouse. It was hearty and tasty, but like most places in town the prices are a little high as the restaurants have to capitalise on the one off tourist trade.
For those on a budget, at the bottom of the hill (next to the pier) there are lots of vendors selling all manner of barbecued meats as well as street side sandwiches and pastries. These sandwich vendors will also appear early the next morning for you to stock up before your onward boat journey.
Tip: For those worried about a speedy departure the next day, sandwiches can be preordered at these stalls and picked up the next morning.
In terms of drinking, Google lists two bars in town. Unfortunately, both the Happy Bar and the Hive Bar were closed when we visited. Although it looks now as though the Happy Bar has reopened. The lack of bars seemed crazy as there was definitely a demand for a bar in this backpacker destination. All the restaurants, cafes and shops serve Beer Laos for takeaway or to drink in. The pizza bar on the main strip has a small bar at the front that was busy all night.
Leaving Pakbeng
Pakbeng Pier - Your entrance and exit point by river from the town
The vast majority of travellers, including us, will leave Pakbeng via boat either downstream to Luang Prabang or upstream to the Thailand border town of Huay Xai.
Both boats leave early in the morning, the Luang Prabang boat departs at 9.30am and the Huay Xai bound boat leaves at 8.30am. Tickets are purchased on the day on the boat itself and our advice is to get there early to secure a comfy seat. Tickets cost 150,000 kip (£7.20 or $9.00) to both Luang Prabang or Huay Xai.
For our experiences on two very different slow boats, check out our article here.
Where Else Can I Go From Pakbeng?
The boat isn’t the only way to leave Pakbeng. There are buses to the city of Muang Xai/Oudomxay/Oudomxai (what is it with Laos and having three different names for the same city?!) as well as other local destinations. The bus stop is outside of town so you will need to factor this into your journey time as it's slightly over half an hour's walk away according to Maps.me.
Pakbeng is a necessary stop along the amazing slow boat route on the Mekong river. Its entire business model is designed to capitalise on one night tourism, however if you find yourself here longer, maybe through illness, a mighty hangover or just missing the boat there is plenty to keep you occupied. You could easily just spend an afternoon sitting on the pier watching the Mekong flow by.
Thank you for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
*Prices correct at time of visiting - January 2023
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