At the end of a little more than two and a half weeks in Laos I come through with a contrasted vision of the country and quite a few unique moments - for good and for hair-raising! It has definitely been action-packed but also some surprisingly lull moments and looking back it is quite surprising to think that it all took place in little more than 20 days.
I had left off with me, still accompanied by Yael, leaving off on a long and crowded "slow boat" trip down the Mekong. The great majority of tourists crossing from Thailand into Laos doing this northern route make the trip on these lazy and colourful boats. You are pretty much squashed in quite tight and bench sizes are more adequate for Lao’s physic (about 1.55 m) than European ones. We were a little too late boarding initially - border difficulties of some members of our van - and ended up with no cushion on our narrow bench :( I suppose third class trains in Southern Europe were a little more comfortable at the time! But it is all part of the fun after all. The Mekong flow already at quite some width at this point, about 2,000 km from its source in the Himalayas, and definitely provides the best source of livelihood and communication for the few people that live around here - small village dwellers living off fishing and slash and burn farming.
Given the rugged terrain, poor communications and the fact that this particular border crossing has only been open for about ten years it is all pretty much back-packers zone, and not a very busy one at that. The boat trip to Luang Prabang, the main town in northern Laos, takes about 15 hours to do - downstream - and is split into a 2 day trip. Some brave souls catch the "speed boat" which is a flimsy wooden boat with cramped space for, at most, four or five passengers and a 1,200 cc motor which makes a deafening noise and which can go down the same way in about half the time. Accidents have been known to happen and life-jacket and helmet are highly recommended :)
We got into picturesque Luang Prabang in the middle of the afternoon and were very pleasantly surprised by this provincial enclave which used to be the home of the royal household of Laos when the country was a kingdom - until 1975 - and previously a rather tranquil outpost of French Indochina, the influence of which remains very much evident and gives a distinctly more "colonial feel to it than Thai cities ever had. The town is quite definitely a little gem with architectural displays - especially the temples and the Royal Palace - which have been recently granted World Heritage status by the UNESCO. The Heritage quarter, with its old colonial mansions, is also getting some major refurbishment and the whole place will definitely acquire a lot more cache in the years to come as its "secret" beauty is further revealed and discovered. Apart from the sightseeing there is also a thriving handicraft market - aimed mostly at the tourist segment - but still retaining the quaint charm of the individual posts with wares exhibited simply on a mat laid out on the ground. The major product is silk-ware and particularly scarves. Silverware is also quite important, all hand made of course, a relic of the town’s history as the national centre for craftsmanship which served the royal household and monasteries here. Even though the French presence here was short-lived and minimal - this being a flung out post with only a couple of hundred of Frenchmen and their families at the height of the colonial period (it was the Vietnamese civil servants which did most of the actual running of the administrative work) - the baguettes are still a common staple food and there is a particular French / European flavour to the layout and main buildings of the town.
After the successful motorbike trips in Thailand we were really hoping to be able to repeat the experience here in northern Lao. In fact the road infrastructure is much worse, public transport unreliable and extremely slow (9-10 hours to cover 300 km or so) making it an ideal country to cover autonomously in a dirt bike. The northern parts are also the least visited and most remote making them the most interesting of course. Unfortunately, no bikes were for hire at all in Luang Prabang. No dirt bikes, not even mopeds so we were really rather limited to public transport, which meant we visited little outside the town itself. After three days it was time to make our way south to the capital – Vientiane also on the banks of the Mekong. Public transport throughout the third world countries can be a little intimidating at times given the levels of comfort, and above all, security that one may be used to in western countries. At this point I have traveled a few kilometres in buses and had very few incidents to speak of. Laos is one of the poorest countries in the world and its buses and roads are only very slowly coming up to a "reasonable"standard – even in comparison to other poor countries. The fact that the north is a very mountainous area does not help either the quality of vehicles here – tough on motors going up and on breaks coming down – or in road building – plenty of narrow crossings and gullies into nothingness at present.
All would come together in the trip from Luang Prabang to Vientiane. Buses leave early in the morning, it takes about 8 hours usually to cover the 360 km, the road being impracticable at night, just too dangerous… We were on our way by about 8:00 in a 1980s bus a Hyundai (South Korean – a bit like 1960s Japan) loaded up to the brim (and then a bit more – of course) and winding through the hills and mountains that cover the region. Only eight or nine tourists, mostly at the back, the rest locals, which is usually a good enough sign. After a couple of hours and on a particularly steep hill the engine went CLANK and we stopped. All passengers off, for the necessary inspection of course. Litres of water poured into the over-heated engine, it was probably as thirsty as we were, but no sign of life. One German tourist – a bit of a mechanic / engineer apparently – stated tat a cylinder had busted and the motor was pretty much kaput. We wouldn’t be going any further with this one. You are pretty much stuck when something like this happens, but the driver somehow managed to get the message across to home base that we were down and after about an hour and a half of lying in the scorching sun and looking at the dead motor as if it might suddenly resucitate. It didn’t, of course. A "reserve-bus" came along but rather than arriving empty (our bus was full) as it should have it seemed that the driver had taken the liberty to pick up about ten other passengers on the way, nice chap. It meant that ten of us, unfortunately the least agile or observant – in this case including three tourists – would stay behind…
The "new" bus and driver were a little worse in terms of wear and tear. Not that this seemed to affect in anyway the speed at which we hurtled down the mountains, our driver seemingly on a mission to make up for lost time due to the breakdown. It is also the dry / burning season here in Laos, as it was in Thailand, but the fires here are pretty savage affairs, with what seem to be acres of jungle just going up in flames all around you. One hopes they are controlled, but you are never quite sure. A particularly fierce fire was roaring through the bottom of the valley which we could see from above. With our crazy driver and fire and smoke all around it all seemed a little like a modern take on Dante’s Inferno. At the back of the bus you get the rawest sensations, so we were really having fun with the driver’s sharp curve techniques. It became less amusing when the bus suddenly started to gather more speed than usual and we took first one corner with quite a swerve and then a much less controlled one (not that the first was very controlled!) A storage door at the side of the bus flew open with quite some violence and a number of passengers got to their feet shouting at the driver to slow down. It became clear he couldn’t. The smell of burning rubber blew into the passenger compartment and we could only see further sharp, tight, down-hill curves ahead of us. It did not look pretty, and for a few seconds – which always lengthen almost eternally when the adrenalin is pumping – I began to wonder if we would actually make it in one piece.
Painfully the bus seemed to gradually slow down and by the time it had managed to get onto the curve-side to make use of the rougher ground to decelerate quite a few of the passengers at the front were getting ready to get off as quickly as possible. It eventually crawled to a halt, we all gave a sigh of relief and thanked our lucky star nothing had happened. Off the bus – once again – to inspect the damage and reason for the break failure. Faulty air-compressor and burnt out hand break was the verdict – our German companion providing the technical details on this one as well. We plodded along to the next village. No real towns between L.P. and the capital, with half-repaired breaks – apparently something had been done during the stop – and a great urge by our German contingent, and quite a few of the others to abandon ship. They were lucky enough to get a ride in a couple of tourist minibuses that just happened to stop at the same place as us. But available space was very limited and for the rest of us the hearty laughs of the driver and slaps on the back together with a few cries of "No Problem, no problem!!" were as much insurance as we were going to get against any other mechanical or human failure. Thankfully we had by this point passed the rugged terrain and followed into a stretch of road that required less breaking power – but our heightened tension did not really diminish until we got into Vientiane, after a 12 hour trip. One to remember!
After the over-intense trip down to Vientiane I really did need a couple of days "relaxing tie" and got them in the capital of Laos. Amazingly hot on the day following arrival I had little option but to head for the nearest A/C café for a cool drink and an escape from the heat. In any event there is not really all that much to see in Vientiane –certainly less than in Luang Prabang. It is definitely the only city in Laos and the ex-pat community has a certain presence – essentially working on aid development projects I suppose. Some eccentricities in town, such as the Asiatic-like "Arc du Triomph" built following the template of the Parisian one plus some modern, grandiose looking Wats (temples) but all pretty much done in a day and a half or so.
In any case it was a welcome urban stop in what is a largely an agricultural country. The north has definitely remained a largely untouched area and is still of very difficult access, a dirt bike would probably have been the best way to visit it, but the logistics were just too complicated. At the same time, the difficulty that the tourists encounters in moving around means that the great majority of the country is largely untouched by "global tourism" even places like Luang Prabang keeps its charm and has achieved a great combination of comfort, historical sites and openness without losing its own character in the process. This might change if the trickle of tourists becomes a flood but it will probably not happen for a few years yet.
I was surprised at the indirect influence of Thai culture here – but once you learn that the Lao language is quite close to Thai – a little like Dutch and German apparently – all those Thai soap operas they seem to be watching wherever you look become less of an enigma. The country, like Cambodia, is caught between two very large neighbors – Thailand and Vietnam – and for centuries was effectively a vassal state of the Thais or simply a buffer state between the two Southeast Asian powers. The collapse of Communism worldwide and the gradual opening of Vietnam has probably left little choice to Laos but to follow suit itself, but it continues to be a predominantly agricultural and egalitarian society.
In any case it has been a very interesting first 10 days in Laos and I am looking forward to seeing more of the "lowlands" and the country to the south.
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