9 hours ago
1
October 18, 2025 — 5:00am
I grew up on the Murray River near Albury when the riverbed was still deep enough for the paddle steamer Cumberoona to ply the waters. We used to swim the “loop”, a float from the bridge on the NSW and Victoria border, around a big bend past century-old gum trees and riverside picnickers. Some days the current would be too strong, and we’d miss the sandy beach to instead be carried on past the Cumberoona and its waving deckhands to a lower, reedier part of the river bank where the mud would get between our toes as we clambered out.
It strikes me that these childhood experiences might be the underlying inspiration for my love of river cruising. Thus far, my cruise history has been short but telling – all river cruising and nothing at sea: a five-day Moselle cruise through France and Germany; a three-day cruise from Bangkok along Thailand’s Chao Phraya River, a Mekong cruise crossing from Vietnam into Cambodia. And now, like I can’t get enough of Asia’s third-longest river, this six-day Mekong journey through Laos, from the magical UNESCO World Heritage city of Luang Prabang to Pak Lay, near the capital of Vientiane.
There’s another reason these memories are surfacing. Those loops around the Murray were mostly led by my mother, who – never wanting to get her hair wet, had mastered the art of floating with her toes poking out of the water, her arms doing circle work to keep afloat. Knowing that cruising skews more to her septuagenarian demographic than to my own, I reasoned it would be beneficial to get her along.
“If the cruise is as luxurious as the Mekong is long, I’ll come,” she says.
And here we are in Luang Prabang.
Our first day is land-based, exploring this charmingly charismatic city. We put walking shoes on and stalk the streets, exploring the romantic old town with its mix of traditional gable-roofed Thai-style houses, two-storey French colonial abodes and Buddhist temples. We zigzag along the central souvenir market and go off-itinerary to dine at Gaspard, an exquisite French restaurant in a delightful wooden house. In the evening, we walk along the riverbank promenade, the fairy lights twinkling in the banyan trees, the tinny tunes playing in the waterside beer gardens.
On day two we rise early, excited to board the boat. Launched in late 2024 by Mekong Kingdoms, the RV Boheme is a small 50-metre vessel with three lovely wide-girthed decks and 13 luxury cabins. Squint your eyes and it has the look of a characterful old river boat with timber slats and a wooden deck; get up close and you’ll see it’s a contemporary craft built with luxurious accommodation for 26 guests who are supported by 20 wonderfully attentive staff.
Mum and I have premier view suites on the main deck, which is in the middle. Unlike the slightly bigger cabins on the deck below, ours sit elevated well above the waterline, ensuring a continuous cinematic reel of the Mekong’s boat-busy waters and riverbank goings-on.
The suites are spacious at 26 square metres, with floor-to-ceiling glass doors that can remain closed if the air-con is on (mum’s choice) or open, concertina style, for a cool patio breeze as the Boheme motors along (my choice).
Like quality hotel rooms, we have queen beds with impeccably laundered linen and plump pillows, plus a squeaky clean, slimline ensuite. In between, there’s a homely kitchenette with a coffee machine, mini-bar and daily rotation of sweet treats.
This space allows for a little morning ritual whereby mum comes to my cabin for a cuppa before breakfast. We sit alfresco at the two-person table, or she relaxes on the cushioned window seat, teacup-to-lip, her eyes settling on fishermen navigating their narrow longboats through the morning mist.
The Boheme’s daily itineraries have an easy symmetry to them, suited to travellers who appreciate an equal mix of leg stretching and relaxation. For mum and daughter quality time, it’s the perfect combination.
We explore the river upstream of Luang Prabang on the Boheme’s tender boat, a brightly painted refurbished rice barge fitted with comfortable cushioned seats. At Ban Xang Khong paper-making village, owner Vaomanee Duangdala (whose Ock Pop Tock textile shop we’d coincidentally visited the day before), shows us how to make saa paper from mulberry trees.
At Pak Ou, we climb from the waterside to a yawning limestone cave, its interior crowded with candles and an estimated 4000 miniature Buddha statues carved from bone, bronze, stone and wood.
The first stop on our downstream journey exploring the Lower Mekong is Ban Chan Neua village, where we alight across the gangway for a short walk to Lao Pottery House where owner Keo Lamphet’s ceramic classes for tourists double as creative outlets for local teenagers.
Back onboard, our mild exertions are recuperatively rewarded. I notice nobody uses the gym on the main deck, but the foredeck with full-length bean bags gets a workout. A massage is included, so we book in at the small spa, mum for a pampering Swiss-style massage, me for a pummelling Thai one.
At meal times, a gong summons everyone to the upper deck where walls of windows afford river views from every seat. It’s an inviting space that morphs from casual breakfast buffets into a la carte lunches and more formal dinners, complete with white tablecloths, glassware and four-course a la carte menus featuring excellent French and Laotian specialties.
Two of the daily excursions are further afield and require mini bus transfers. Mum comes to Kuang Si Falls where the tiered limestone water holes are lolly blue and spill into each other like something out of a fantasy film, but, due to the heat, she happily opts out of our visit to the Elephant Conservation Centre, near the village of Xayaboury. This 530-hectare property on Nam Tien Lake is home to 18 rescued Laos elephants, including Mae Khampheng who I’m delighted to see spraying water over her four-year-old daughter Mae Champa.
I’m back onboard in time to join mum for another of our daily rituals – an afternoon in the alfresco lounge on the upper deck. With beverage in hand, we snaffle a couple of recliners and sit back to let the riverbank scenery do the work for us.
Unlike the Mekong of Vietnam and Cambodia, this Laotian leg is strikingly hemmed by razor-backed mountain ranges with peaks that jostle with clouds and cuttings of blue sky. Where the steep inclines meet the foothills, farmhouses share the terrain with patches of jungle and land razed for rubber plantations.
We pass herds of water buffalo knee-deep in mud, wooden stilt houses hanging over the water’s edge, and lovingly tendered shoreline vegetable gardens, their rows of bushy coriander, carrot and leafy greens surrounded by makeshift wood paling fences.
There’s plenty of opportunity to get a closer look too. One afternoon, the Boheme berths near the grassy front yard of a local house in the tranquil village of Ban Thadeua. Our arrival sends scrawny chickens into a panic and the deck hands scrambling to tether the Boheme between two coconut trees. There’s little reaction from the Laotian nanna on the front porch, but the local kids see it as an excitable opportunity to show-off by star-jumping from the gunnels of their family fishing boat.
I try to remember if we ever jumped off the Cumberoona into the Murray. We certainly jumped out of the gum trees.
On the afternoon of day five, we navigate the formidable Xayaboury Dam, an 820-metre-long and 32-metre-high hydroelectric behemoth that started operating in 2019. Our passage through two locks sees the Boheme sinking between gargantuan concrete walls that seem to squeeze in on us on both sides.
Beyond the dam, the character of the river changes again, its broad banks as wide as a football field, its shallow silty bottom swirling and gurgling with unseen dangers that put the cockpit crew on alert. Soon we’ll be in Pak Lay.
On our final evening, over dinner, mum tells me this has been her best holiday ever. “It has been a dream,” she says. “No cooking, no cleaning, no worrying about anyone else. Just watching the scenery pass me by”.
A bit like that Murray River loop of my childhood.
The details
Cruise + stay
The five-night all-inclusive Boheme trip starts from $US3400 ($5174) a person based on two adults sharing a deluxe suite. See mekongkingdoms.com
Rooms at Avani+ in central Luang Prabang cost from $309, including breakfast. See avanihotels.com
Fly
Choose to depart either from Vientiane (upstream) or Luang Prabang (downstream). Thai Airways flies from Melbourne and Sydney to both Luang Prabang and Vientiane via Bangkok. See thaiairways.com
The writer travelled as a guest of Mekong Kingdoms.
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