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Laos
Dates Traveled: November-December 2002
Journey to Muang Sing
Leaving Chiang Mai I caught a van for the 5-hour trip to the border town of Chiang Khong, crossed the Mekong River on a long-tail boat, and arrived in Huay Xai, Laos. The following day I started heading northeast by truck, the standard mode of transportation in Laos. Basically it’s two benches in the back of a small Toyota pickup, with a canopy overhead. As you’d expect, they pack people in beyond tight, so the driver can get the most money for the trip over the bumpy roads. The first day was 7 1/2 hours to the town of Luang Nam Tha, followed the next day by the 2-hour trip to Muang Sing. As if the lack of space isn’t bad enough, the Lao seem to be uneasy travelers - often leaning over the edge of the pickup, or out bus windows, to paint the side of the vehicle with their most recent meal. The chain reaction that this invariably sets off had 6 of the 17 people crammed in the back of this particular truck getting sick. And you thought it was all fun and games.
Muang Sing
Muang Sing is a remote village near the Chinese border. At one time it was the largest opium market in the golden triangle, though now it is a standard market, which attracts people from the various tribes of the region. One tribe are the Yao, who’s women wear dark headdresses and a red, fuzzy ‘boa’ draped around the neckline of their dress. There are several tribes of Akha, most of whom wear distinctive hats - either a cylindrical one, or one with many coins and other silver doo-dads attached. The women usually wear short skirts as opposed to the long longyi preferred by other tribes, and there are some that paint their cheeks very rosy. There were also various Thai (Tai) tribes represented, as well as many rural Chinese from across the border. It was a fascinating place to simply sit and watch the people in their colorful, traditional outfits going about their life.
Hill-Tribe Trek
I joined up with a French couple, another American, and a guide for a 2-day hike to various hill tribe villages. The villages were comprised of bamboo/wood homes set on ’stilts’ with thatch roofs. It definitely wasn’t Kansas anymore - women were typically topless, kids were dirty, and the men were in the homes smoking opium freely - and offering it to us ‘falangs’. After all, this is the infamous golden triangle. Often the women do most of the work in the fields while the men stay home and smoke. In the Akha village where we spent the night, I was simply wandering about when I was motioned over by a topless Akha woman in her distinctive hat - one of her children in a blanket sling on her back, and other children gathered around. She wanted to show me the live bat she was holding by the wings…as you do. The bat was continually biting her as she attempted to tie a string around it. Once she’d succeeded, she gave it to one of her kids, who ran off twirling the bat overhead. I’ve approached Fischer-Price with the idea.
The village contained a lot of kids, pigs, dogs, and chickens running around, producing a cacophony of sounds. Many of the older kids and their parents were cutting bamboo into short, narrow strips for roof thatching, as the government told the village they have to move this year, so everybody needs to construct a new home.
I wasn’t impressed with our guide for this adventure. We were walking the trail when he turned towards us, terror in his eyes. He pointed to the elephant tracks on the trail and said we had to turn back. I argued, saying I didn’t think the tracks were from that day. We went back and forth, until I finally offered to lead, to which he grudgingly agreed. Must say, there were a couple places on that tight trail where I was hoping I was right about the tracks, otherwise we’d become toe-jam. We also had a shortage of food because he thought it was too heavy to carry. When we’d stopped for lunch, he’d hired a local to carry the food to the village where we’d spend the night. The food never arrived. Dinner and breakfast were therefore light, but it did lead to an interesting lunch the following day. He and I were walking together when we entered the village, and some ducks waddled across our path. He asked if I liked duck, and I said, “Sure.” Took awhile to pluck it clean, but we had fresh duck for lunch.
The trek and the market at Muang Sing were great for seeing traditional life of some of the hill tribes, but it was time to move south.
Luang Prabang
Back-tracked the 2 hours to Luang Nam Tha, spent the night, and then took the 12 hour bus to Luang Prabang - a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The laid back town with French influence and the lazy Mekong River flowing by was a great place to relax for a few days, visiting temples, museums, and waterfalls.
Plain of Jars
An 8 hour bus journey next deposited me in the town of Phonsavan, and the next day several of us went outside of town to visit the Plain of Jars. The jars in question are stone, estimated to be 2000 years old, and are up to 2.5 meters in height - some complete with stone lids. Nobody is quite sure of their original use - vessels for the fermentation of wine, rice storage, or tombs. We also observed several large craters, as this area was heavily bombed during the war. In fact, during the ’secret’ war in Laos, there was enough ordnance dropped in country for the equivalent of 17 tons per square mile. More was dropped in Laos than in Germany during WWII. In Phonsavan most guesthouses had ’souvenirs’ from the field - mines, rockets, bomb casings, and other items. Some bomb casings were put to use as stilts for rice barns, fence posts, animal troughs, and planters. However, those ’souvenirs’ can come at a large cost - unexploded ordnance claims several lives every year.
Vang Vieng
Another 7 hours by bus took me to the lazy town of Vang Vieng. The karst topography and an easy-flowing river down which one could ride inner tubes made this an easy place to lose track of time - as was obvious by the number of westerners there. At times the town seemed like a more scenic Khao San Road - western food, drinks, and banana/chocolate pancakes sold from roadside vendors.
Vientiane
Another 3 1/2 hour bus trip deposited me in the extremely mellow capital of Vientiane. I spent a few days there, wandering to the various stupas, lazing by the Mekong River, and checking out Patuxai (the victory monument) - a concrete monstrosity patterned after the Arc de Triomphe and built using US purchased cement…cement intended for the construction of a new airport.
Journey to Champasak
Another bus journey - this one of 12 1/2 hours, dumped me in the transit town of Pakse. I spent one night there, then hopped a heavily laden truck - market goods and people, for a one-hour trip. As people were loading into the back of the truck, there were a few occasions where somebody would briefly sit next to me, move away, hold their nose, and mutter something about the ‘falang’ (foreigner) - to which everybody laughed. What they didn’t realize, but I did since I’d been 1 1/2 hours early for the truck and saw everybody else load, was that there were two live pigs in bags under our seats. They had already crapped all over the bags when they were loaded, so it wasn’t any better 2 hours later. However, I was more than happy to let these people go back to their village and talk about the stinky falang in return for a bit of extra room!
Anyway, in Champasak I rented a bike to go visit the temple ruins about 5 miles outside of town. They were in a nice hillside setting, and quite interesting.
Don Khong
From Champasak it was a ferry crossing of the Mekong, a 2 hour bus trip, and another ferry crossing to the island of Don Khong. It was quite busy, as they were holding their annual festival, so we got to see boat races, carnival-type rides/games, and a lot of people drunk on lao-lao - the local fire-water. We also noticed something I’d seen throughout Laos - kids with toy guns. They seemed everywhere, and they’d quite often point them at us and pretend to shoot us. A bit disturbing.
Don Khon
A 1 hour ride in a small boat took me to another of the ‘4000 islands’, that of Don Khon, and my stress-free home for a few days. There are no cars or electricity, so it was very relaxing. I did a few hikes, wandered out to the local waterfalls, and joined others in a long-tail boat across the border into Cambodian waters to observe the rare fresh-water dolphins. However, I spent most of my time in the hammock on my front porch perched above the Mekong. Not a bad location for $1/night. On the topic of money, Laos is a country where the largest denomination note is worth the equivalent of…$0.47, which means you’d need a brick of kip to pay if things were expensive. Luckily they aren’t.
Long Return to Thailand
I backtracked to Pakse, spent the night, and then had a marathon 27 hour truck/border crossing/truck/truck/wait at train station/train to Bangkok. Shouldn’t have been that long, but 11 hour train trip actually took 19. We sat at a station in the middle of the night for 8 hours, without ever being told what was happening. Makes a guy wish he’d opted for the sleeper instead of being cheap and simply getting a seat!
Laos Is…
My final thoughts on Laos - it’s a country of friendly, helpful people; it’s hill tribe people in colorful outfits; great hiking opportunities; opium; kids with toy guns; truck transport; and locals puking out of any transport. It’s the integral Mekong River, and relaxing in one of many places geared towards it - Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and the 4000 islands. A beautiful country.
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