Earthquake in Chiang Khong: Shaky-shaky wakey-wakey!

Earthquake in Chiang Khong: Shaky-shaky wakey-wakey!

Not to give the story away, but this post is about my experience of the 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Chiang Khong in 2019.

One thing you should know about me: I am incredibly accident-prone. Stupid stuff always happens to me. Maybe I’m drawn to it, maybe it’s drawn to me, or maybe it’s just a coincidence.

So I was pretty proud of myself for making it to my second week of backpacking through Southeast Asia without too many difficulties!

All was going well. 

I hadn’t fallen from a scooter; got alcohol poisoning; been pickpocketed or scammed (that I know of); got sunburn; been tricked by a ladyboy; or any of the other stereotypes that my family and friends had warned me about before I left. 

I had successfully made it through the first few steps of the “Banana-Pancake Trail.” From Bangkok to Chiang Mai, from Chiang Mai to Pai and I was on my way to the Laotian border where I would be catching the slow boat to Luang Prabang for the next two days. Whoop whoop!

After getting the dreaded last pick of the minibus seats, I spent the next 3 hours at the very back of a packed minibus getting crushed by everyone else’s bags. 

It wasn’t the best. 

However, it was made even worse when the convoy of minibusses pulled in at the side of the road, told us all to get out, and shouted at us in Thai. Strangely enough, nobody understood a word they were saying, despite the increasing volume of their voices.

For some reason, swapping minibusses (leaving our bags in the other vehicle) seemed to make them stop shouting. So after almost an hour of waiting around, I hesitantly hopped on the new bus and we were on our way again.

To this day, I still have no clue what that debacle was about. Maybe the drivers just fancied switching up their passengers?

I was just glad to be reunited with my belongings when we arrived at our rather dodgy-looking hostel in the distinctly empty town of Chiang Khong. 

Luckily there was a 7-Eleven. We grabbed some beers and played cards into the night. I set my alarm and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up early. 

But this wasn’t because of my alarm… 

Instead, I felt a gentle rocking motion and a distant rumble. Dazed and tired, I rolled over and went back to sleep. 

A short while later, I was once again rudely awoken. Like the previous occasion, there was some noise and a bit of a wobble – only it was stronger this time. 

I figured that the noise and rocking must’ve been the building site next door to the hostel starting their work before the heat of the day. Nobody else in my dorm room stirred so I went back to sleep again. 

Then at 6:50am a much stronger, more prolonged shake occurred. 

I sat bolt upright! Put my feet on the floor and looked across the room. 

My friend across the room had done exactly the same. We just stared at each other. Looking across at our American friend in the middle who remained blissfully unaware and fast asleep as the building we were in groaned and wobbed. 

The only way I could describe it was like a really atmospheric, slow-motion sensation as the building slowly began shuddering and grumbling. Meanwhile, my mind was running at double speed wondering what was going on! 

“Is the building going to fall down?”

“Is this the end?”

“What if this is all in my head?”

“Isn’t it really awful that seemingly serious situations give me the urge to laugh?” I asked myself.

The 6.1 magnitude earthquake lasted for around a minute (though felt like longer) increasing in power and speed before starting to dissipate.

I’m not sure how I looked, but I imagine it to be pretty similar to that of my friend, Jake. Who sat with a look of both perplexion and fear (with a little dreariness thrown in too)!

There was no chance I could go to sleep after that!

But what is the best thing to do after an earthquake? Is it likely to happen again? Is it safe to shower? What happens if I strip down to shower and then the building starts to collapse?

I had the quickest shower of my life, got dressed, and went upstairs expecting to see lots of people talking about the tremor that we’d just experienced. 

But nope. Not a soul in sight!

I sipped on my coffee, overlooking the Mekong River, and waited for everyone else to gradually materialise from the beds so we could talk about what in the hell just happened! 

One by one, people came upstairs. To my surprise only around three-quarters of people felt it. Every single one of them was utterly shocked that the other 25% didn’t wake up! 

Surprise surprise, it was all the heavy drinkers from the night before and earthquake-prone Americans that slept through the ordeal. 

Many of them seemed to think that the rest of us were making it up! That is until we showed them the Google page showing that the three largest earthquakes of the year had just hit Thailand. 

Anyway, we got on the boat that morning. Earthquakes appeared to be the only topic of conversation.

I heard plenty about tsunamis on the Mekong and the boat surfing to Luang Prabang down a huge wave. As badass as that would’ve been, the slow boat still took the full 8 hours to reach our next stop (still thoroughly enjoyable though)! 

As we arrived in the small town of Pakbeng in Laos, it was pretty much dark. And it was clear to see (or not so clear) that they were still experiencing some of the effects of the earthquake: a town-wide power cut. 

As a group of people primarily in their twenties, it was a nightmare. What on earth are people to do without WiFi for an eight-hour boat ride AND THEN a night in a small town?! 

Don’t you worry, we found plenty to do. 

I had quite possibly the first candlelit dinner of my life and then explored the “shops”.

Turns out you can get a bottle of really, really awful rum for less than £2! And thankfully the rum caused us more damage than the three largest earthquakes of the year in Thailand did. 

But let’s just say, the second day on the slow boat was a bit rougher than the first!

Before you go

Thank you for reading my story on surviving the earthquake in Chiang Khong, Thailand. If guides, itineraries and travel content like this interest you, head over to my blog page to find out more.

If you are new to Matt’s Next Steps, check out the About Me page to find out a bit more about who I am, my travel adventures, and why I wanted to become a travel writer.

Please comment below and let me know your thoughts and experiences, or if there is anything else you want information on.

Happy travelling!