Enter Laos

 

We crossed the Thai boarder into Laos on the 24th of January, 2014. Before crossing we naturally looked on the internet for visa requirements and general information about how to traverse into Laos, leaving from Chiang Mai in Thailand. All of the blogs and articles we consulted suggested that the crossing would be by ferry over the Mekong. Much to our surprise we did not make a ferry crossing into a new country. Instead the bus dropped us off at the edge of a new bridge, the Fourth Thai-Laos Friendship Bridge, which opened in December 2013… We therefore made a very unromantic boarder transition into the 6th country on our Asian tour, via bridge.

 

This bridge came to symbolize an aspect of Laos that we encountered again and again: Laos is a rapidly developing country with much new infrastructure, both positive and negative, and often in ways that one would not expect.

 

We stayed the first night in the city of Houayxay, enjoying a fire roasted chicken with a lovely couple from Montreal.

 

Laos was the second country we visited with no plan before entering and the first country we travelled through without a proper guide book. Over the course of this first evening we learned that the majority of foreign travelers catch the Mekong boat from Houayxay and make the two day journey down the great river to Luang Prabang. The next morning we naturally chose to do the opposite and took the local bus north toward Luang Nam Tha.

 

We had heard horror stories from other travelers about the roads and buses in Laos, especially the local ones. Before boarding we checked the bus’ body (a rusted out carcass) and kicked the tires (worn down to mere threads), but reassured ourselves that at least the maker of the vehicle was still in business (Honda). As it turned out, despite driving in an ancient clunker, the road was new and we reached Luang Nam Tha within 6 hours.

 

Luang Nam Tha did little to seduce us. It was full of guest houses advertising village treks and kayaking tours and seemed to be overrun with westerners. At the bus station we learned that a truck to Muong Sing, still further north, would soon be departing. We boarded this vehicle and set off into the heart of the notorious golden triangle, where the Doctor America had set up his hospital during the 1960’s. We were instantly rewarded with an ancient road more suitable for a donkey than a bus, and village woman dressed in their tradition wear who came along for the ride.

 

Muong Sing

 

We stayed a full five nights in the Muong Sing area. The town itself is not much to look at, consisting of a market, a smattering of over-priced yet empty guest houses and a new and a very good (by Laos standards) road running east to west and frequented by hulking lorries packed with sugarcane destined for China.

 

Our first full day consisted of a bicycle tour around the valley through small villages each with its own ethnic group and extensive banana and sugarcane plantations, teaming with masked villagers. While on the road we were twice offered to smoke opium by some of the local boys, which we politely declined. We later learned that the sugarcane was destined for China to be processed into sugar and ethanol, and that wearing masks was a recent addition to the local attire. As it turns out the Chinese buyers had not informed the Laotians that the pesticides used on sugarcane could be dangerous for their health, until after several years and many unwanted health issues.

 

In sum, we had descended into another region undergoing a burst of economic development, only cut-off from its home country by a snaking and potholed road, to be included in China’s economic boom. We soon witnessed other consequences of this development as we observed “protected” primary forest being torn down by local villagers to make way for new sugarcane plantations (more on that later).

 

Our next three days in the region consisted on a combined jungle and village trek with a German couple and a guy named Pepe from Costa Rica. The jungle part of the trek was quite fun, with a romp through a densely vegetated primary forest with our two Hmon guides. We slept the first night on a bed made of banana leaves in the middle of the jungle and complimented our meal with fruits collected in the forest.

 

The next morning we made our way up to the top of the mountain to a small village populated by an Akha animist tribe. Unfortunately we did not take many photos of the village or the villagers because they still believe that photos capture a person’s soul. At one point we took a group photo of all of us. The village children had gathered around the camera to see what we were up to. When I tried to turn the camera to them so they could see the photo, many of the children became afraid and ran away from me!

 

Staying in the village was an experience all to itself. First, there were no toilettes to be found, and one must go in the nearby jungle. Bekki had a bit of trouble with this as a pig, eagerly waiting to gobble up her excrements, would not leave her in peace long enough to go. Second, the village was full of chickens, pigs, cows and dogs roaming about on their own, with no fences or supervision. They simply amble freely throughout the day, sleeping under the houses at night. Finally, we unfortunately witnessed villagers cutting down the primary forest around the village to make way for sugarcane. I am personally not opposed to economic development, however they employ slash and burn technics and on top of that sugarcane depletes the soil within three years, leaving only dust and erosion behind.

 

For those of you planning on visiting the area of Muong Sing, both Bekki and I highly recommend it. It is still a wild land, generally disconnected from the rest of the world. However, the strong Chinese influence leaves one to wonder about the future sustainability of the region. It is also a great area to buy handmade textiles directly from village women and experience firsthand a multitude of ethnic groups (we saw Yao, Lao, Chinese, Hmon and Akha peoples in the course of a few days).

 

 

The road to the far north

 

Travelling anywhere in Laos is an ordeal. After leaving Muong Sing we caught a bus to Oudom Xay, where we had to stay a night. The next morning we took another bus and made the windy nine hour drive to Phongsaly in the far north of the country. Although the trekking in this region is supposed to be fabulous, we arrived on Chinese New Year’s, and had to content ourselves with various do it yourself activities (visiting 400 year old tea plantations, and making a 10 kilometer quest for the infamous green Lao Lao, the local rice wine). The region itself is stunning, and has some of the highest peaks in Laos, yet it is very hard to do anything when the entire population is on holiday.

 

The bright side is that we met other travelers in the same situation as us who joined us for the next leg of our journey, including Mia (Quebec), Benoit and Rebekka (Germany) and Steven (England).

 

 

The Nam Ou

 

After two days in Phongsaly, we hopped on a river boat and cast off down Nam Ou River. The Nam Ou is exceptional. In a space of some 25 kilometers, the river descends 1000 meters in altitude. It is a combination of depth with occasional rapids and banks lined by continuous jungle interspersed with the sporadic villages with naked children playing in the water, and troupes of water buffalo lazing about on the banks.

 

We were very fortunate to have made the trip from Phongsaly to Muang Khua. About three hours down the river from Hat Sa, our boat pulled to a stop, all passengers disembarked and boarded a truck for a half-hour ride further south, where we boarded a new boat and chugged along for an additional two hours to our destination.

 

Thanks to Chinese investment, a series of 7 dams are planned along this water course. The first is between Luang Prabang and Muang Khua. Boat traffic between these towns has already been halted, and travelers must now take a bus. The second dam is a work in progress, and interrupted our voyage about one hour north Muang Khua. Soon, it may not even be possible to take a boat at all.

 

One member of our group spoke with an environmental consultant who made an assessment of the impact of these dams. Basically, the consultant is opposed to the entire project, as the dams will destroy the way of life along the Nam Ou, add little in the way of economic development for the locals, disrupt one of the most convenient forms of transportation in the country (I did mention that the roads in Laos are often terrible), and have serious environmental consequences. Naturally, the dams will be built, to benefit of their Chinese backers and the pockets of corrupt local authorities.

 

We stayed one night in Muang Khua. The next morning our group again boarded a boat and made the next leg of our journey through the most spectacular section of the Nam Ou to Muong Ngoi.

 

 

 

Muang Ngoi

 

Once a haven for the weary traveler, Moung Ngoi remains today a refuge for those seeking a piece of paradise among the vegetation of South East Asia’s most mountainous country. Gone are the days of opium smoking backpackers. Today the town is still accessible by boat and offers a hefty number of bungalows to let upon the river. A new road now links Muong Noi with the rest of Laos, however buses and tourists are not yet shipped in.

 

We stayed two nights in a bungalow overlooking the Nam Ou, taking advantage of the warm afternoons to lay in the sun and bath in the river. The town itself did not capture our interest for very long, so we set out with Mia on the third day for a small village called Hoy Seem about an hour and a half by foot east of Muong Ngoi. Here we met up with the two German friends we had first met in Phongsaly and settled in to stay some nights in Mr. Kamphu’s guest house, where a room cost about $1.20 per night.

 

Mr Kamphu liked his Lao Lao, the local swill. Dinners were served with generous shots of this potent drink along with Mr Kamphu’s assertion that rice wine helps you to “walk well, work well, sleep well”.

 

We had heard that there was a Hmon village on top of the mountain not too far from Hoy Seem. Generally, most people can only get there with a guide, but we decided to follow Mr Khamphu’s directions and go it ourselves. For those of you who are interested, here is how you get there: “You go walking out of the village and go left at the river. You go walking walking to the rice paddies. You go walking walking. You go left. You go walking walking walking to the river. You go walking walking up the river. You go left. You go walking walking through the jungle. You go left at the bamboo forest. You go walking walking walking walking up, always up to the village”.

 

4 hours, 5 river crossings, multiple wrong turns and 10 bamboo forests later we arrived in this Hmon village, which was so deforested, windy and dusty that it felt as if we were on the moon. When we came back to Muong Ngoi a day later, people expressed their surprise that we had made it there ourselves.

 

To sum up, what we appreciated about Muong Ngoi and the area around it was the possibility to do things yourself, without a guide.

 

End Part 1