Laos is one of the most unknown countries in Asia. This is not without reason. On the one hand, Laos was almost hermetically closed off from the outside until 1989. On the other hand, Laos covers an area of 237000 square kilometers (as big as the United Kingdom) but has only 4.6 Million inhabitants (less then Scotland). The fact that Laos has no coastline may be another reason for it's less developed economy - there is not much more than mountains (the highest is about 2800 m or 9200 Ft.). Furthermore, there is a lack of wide plains. Probably because of this topography, the rural character and the traditional life of the more then 70 different tribes has been maintained. The geopolitical situation is quite unfavorable. The country is situated between the more dominating countries of China and Thailand, so its sphere of influence rarely passed the border. But there was always a strong interrelation with its neighbour Thailand.

Clockwise the neighbouring countries are China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. The border with China is rather short, but there was always a big impact from the Chinese province Yunnan. Despite this fact, Laos' culture and architecture seems to be a class of it's own. In my eyes, the Chinese influence seemed to be smaller on Laos than on Korea and Japan. One shouldn't fail to mention the river Mekong. The Mekong is about 4500 km long (the Danube has only 2860 km) and is very important for Southeast Asia. Its source is in middle China (where it's called Lan Cang), it crosses Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and as a border river and is therefore used for smuggling. Then it finally flows into the South Chinese Sea in Vietnam. In Laos I noticed especially that this river is still a traffic route of enormous importance. But, because of the monsoon climate, the water level is highly alternating.

Communism sponsored by pharmaceutical companies

Laos was a part of French Indochina until 1953, excluding five years of Japanese occupation during World War II. After declaring independence, a monarchy was established, but there was still a strong influence coming from France. Already at this time, a communist underground movement called Pathet Lao grew stronger. This was the time when the war in Vietnam started. For strategic reasons, the North Vietnamese army built up a supply road called Hoh Chi Minh-Path through East Laos.

Thus, American military operations were not just limited to Vietnam. Many air strikes hit East Laos, but they were so secret that, according to rumors, even the pilots had to wear civil clothes. All in all, more than 500 kg of bombs per capita were dropped over the country. Towns like Phonsavan (Xieng Khuang) were "accidentally" erased over night.

In 1975, the People's Republic was declared. Since then, Laos is a socialist country just like its neighbour Vietnam. However, due to its mountainous topography, there was a lack of infrastructure and therefore it was quite hard for every government to control the country. That is why there were and still are partisan activities. Like in other socialist countries, there is a trend to open the country and that trend started with the beginning of the nineties. Therefore, restrictions for tourists have been permanently shrinking since 1991 - for the time being only for backpackers, since the infrastructure has not developed very well.

Weather during the rainy season can be nice as well

Laos has a tropical, summer monsoon climate. The latitude is the same as Hawaii, Mexico, Mali, Sudan, South Arabia and India. There is an annual precipitation average of 1250 mm to 3750 mm, which is quite much. Most of the rain comes during May and September. There are actually only three seasons. The first one is the season of the Southwest monsoon, which lasts from May until September or November with an abundance of rain. The tropical temperatures exceed 30º C (86º F) during the day and do not sink very often below 25º C (77º F) during the night. The next season is a dry period from November until March with moderate temperatures (which can be lower than 10º C (50º F) in the mountains), followed by another dry season with the highest temperatures of the year, in which 38º C (100º F) seems to be quite normal.

When I was moving northwards from Bangkok, the air was getting considerably hotter and more humid - that was in September. The air in towns like Vientiane and Luang Prabang, all situated in lowlands, was almost unbearably hot and humid. Despite the fact that this was the rainy season, it was quite dry - except some short showers. It is much more comfortable in the mountains with temperatures around 25º C (77º F) and lower humidity. Due to the climatic conditions, most of the tourists come to Laos in January and February, therefore in September it is rather easy to find places to stay and eat since there are not many people traveling the country.

More than half of the inhabitants belong to the Lao peoples. But there are much more: Thai, Hmong, Mien, Ho, Mon Khmer and some minor tribes. One of the main differences between these tribes is the altitude of their living space. Therefore one will find lots of small villages built on the top of the mountains. Many of those so-called hill tribes can be found in China, Cambodia and Northern Thailand as well.

The majority of the Lao originally settled in Mekong River's lowlands, which cross the whole country. All in all, there are about 70 different tribes in Laos, all of them with their own language or dialect, traditional clothing, religion and the plants they grow. Since most of the Lao live in lowland regions, most of their crop consists of wet rice.

As a part of the famous Golden Triangle, some tribes in Laos produce Opium. Although I did not know what an opium den looks like, I saw some of them in Laos. According to a traveler, who looked kind of disorientated when I met him in Laos, a ready-to-smoke opium pipe costs less then 10 pence (18 cent) in such a den - half the price of a beer! Even Marijuana is sold like a vegetable at some markets in Laos. It is unnecessary to say that at least opium means danger. Some travelers I met did not look well anymore, they seemed to be addicted for a longer period and a few of them had no longer an idea of what they were doing. Another traveler told me, that he comes to Laos once every two years to enjoy all the drugs he can get his hands on. At home, he is a normal employee, who takes no drugs at all. Anyway, it definitely becomes dangerous if one of those travelers forgets to empty all of his pockets in which he stored drugs before he re-enters Thailand or China. These countries even impose capital punishment on carrying drugs, according to the amount. In my eyes, the beauty of the country and the spirit of freedom are already good drugs, and if that's not enough, one can drink the amazingly tasty Beer Lao, the best thing one can do on hot and humid tropical nights.

(Off-topic) I wonder what the result will look like...

There are plenty of cultural assets around Laos, although lots of them were destroyed during the occupation and the Vietnam War. Undoubtedly some of the most impressive highlights are the Pha That Luang or "Great Stupa" in the capital Vientiane, and various, mostly well kept historical monuments in former kingdom's capital Luang Prabang.

Official language is Vientiane-Lao, a member of the Thai-language-group. Therefore, Thai and Lao can roughly understand each other. People who are interested in learning Lao will have a hard time. Especially the pronunciation with its 6 tones (Low, Mid, High, Rising, High and Low Falling) is hard to learn and more difficult then Peking-Chinese. All in all, there are 30 consonants and 28 (!) vowels and diphthong variations. Lao characters do look a little bit like Thai characters (as in the upper left corner of the flag above), the difference between both character systems is like the difference between Latin and Cyrillic characters. Furthermore, the writing system is fairly complex, since vowels can be written before, above, behind or around consonants - depending on the tone, the vowel or the consonant. Another problem is the transliteration into Latin letters.

Laos was part of French Indochina, hence the transliteration system is highly modeled on the French way of pronunciation. This is the reason why almost all visitors except Lao or French native speakers mispronounce Lao names. To give an example, the capital is mostly written "Vientiane", but to write it in English, something like "Wieng Chan" would be a better transliteration; as another example "Luang Prabang" is pronounced "Luang Phabang". Another problem is the transliteration of the different tones. However, some older Lao still speak French, but English is foreign language Number One, they even seem to teach English in small village schools. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to find someone who speaks English well.

Visa for Laos

It is possible to enter Laos from almost every bordering country, but not every checkpoint is open for foreigners. Once I met an English traveler in Thailand, and she told me, that she left Laos at a small checkpoint (which means, that the visa loses its validity), but she could not find an entrance point on the Thai side. This means, she entered Thailand illegally, although she left Laos legally. That is why she did not get her passport stamped, which means, that she will get into trouble when she wants to leave the country. Hence, she went to the next police station to explain her situation and to get her passport stamped. Due to some communication problems, it took her several hours to clear this up. Finally, they wrote two sides by hand in her passport for their colleagues at the airport as they told her. I do not know if she could really leave the country with such an entry easily.

Thus, it might save trouble if you check the status of border points before using them. Almost everyone needs an entrance visa for Laos, but it is not necessary to get this at home. (Actually, in some countries it is not even possible to get the visa at the embassy, or it takes around two months). If you enter Laos from Thailand, you can buy it at almost all travel agencies along the borderline and in major cities like in Bangkok's famous Khao San Rd. It takes them one 'till three days to issue the visa, the fee is around € 35, depending on your nationality and the travel agency. A rumour says that it's even possible to get the visa for € 40 at the checkpoint itself, but I met a traveler who was sent away. The tourist visa is valid for 15 days, and it should be possible to extend the duration of stay at local authorities, but the fee is not fixed so you might need to bargain at some places.

Laos is one of the 30 poorest countries in the world (the 1993 GNP was US$ 280 per capita). This means, getting seriously ill in Laos is not a good idea. To avoid this, it might be useful to carry some basic things with you - like Band-Aids, medicine for diarrhoea (like Immodium) etc. Depending on the duration of your stay, you should even think about taking some more things like rehydration mixture, butterfly closures, antibiotics etc. with you. Especially diarrhoea is very common and therefore very popular in conversations between travellers. It surely depends on the constitution of the stomach whether one gets ill or not, but everyone should definitely avoid drinking water that is not bottled. Fresh vegetables and fruits as well as ice cream (although I haven't seen any ice cream in Laos) may cause diarrhoea. These basic rules are universal for tropical regions anyway - at least I never had a problem with diarrhoea on my tours.

Lao 50 Kip Bill

Lao currency is the so-called Kip. In 1998, 1 £ was about 6,000 Kip (1 US$ = 4,000 Kip; 1 Thai Baht = 90 Kip), but inflation is high and rates are changing rapidly. Changing money is no problem at all and almost everywhere possible, but not outside the country. Changing back might be a problem and is not possible without an exchange receipt. The exchange rate at Lao origin banks seemed to be the best to me. It's also possible to change money on the black market, but the rate is not much better than the official - finally there is as everywhere a good chance to get ripped off, so at least in Laos it doesn't pay to change money on the black market. Every currency of importance can be changed at banks, but Thailand Baht is the best since it is well used in hotels and as transportation fees.

Some places exclusively demand Baht as payment. It is not recommended to change large amounts. Once I changed 10,000 Yen (65 £ / 100 US$) and therefore I got a middle-seized plastic bag full of money bundles (all in all more then 400 notes) so I puzzled about how to hide this money in my money belt. Logically, there are no coins. Notes come in 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 Kip.

In this chapter, I would like to give some hints and impressions about traveling in Laos. Until now, I've been there only once, so the following is limited on the places I've really been to.

Coming from Tokyo, I went to Bangkok after doing some travel in Singapore and Malaysia. From Bangkok, I took the train to a small town called Nong Khai in the very North East of Thailand. The ride takes about 11 hrs and the fare is 210 Baht (4 £ / 7 USD) for a 3^rd class ticket (for more details see the chapter on Thailand).
After a long train ride, there is nothing better then a good accommodation. Nong Khai is rather small, so lodging options are limited. Still, the Mutmee's Guest House is very good value. They charge 210 Baht for a double room, which makes it not the cheapest but still a good choice.
Since Mutmee's is facing the Mekong, it's possible to see Laos, which is on the other side of the river. Staff at Mutmee's provide a useful leaflet with helpful information not just on Nong Khai and nearby Statue Park, but also on various destinations in Laos. It's free of charge and really good service. Except for the Statue Park there's not much to see in and around Nong Khai - it's just useful as a gateway to Laos. Although the Mekong is one of the biggest rivers in East Asia, only two bridges cross the river. One is in China, the second one is near Nong Khai and is called "Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge".

The Friendship Bridge is just 2 km West of Nong Khai, so it's possible to walk there. Another option in the heat of the day is the TukTuk. As everywhere else it's necessary to haggle about the price first. Fare shouldn't be more then Baht 25 (€ 0.75). Unfortunately it's not allowed to cross the bridge on foot. Instead one must jump on one of the shuttle busses. The fixed price is Baht 20. The bus goes to the Thai checkpoint, which is only 50 m away, crossing the rather long bridge and stops at the Lao checkpoint.
The Lao checkpoint is rather new and doesn't give a hint at all that one is in another country now. Entry procedures are simple, given that there's a visa. Vientiane, biggest city of Laos and the capital, is around 25 km away.

The market halls and the bus station

There should be regular busses from the border to the capital, but it isn't easy to find the bus stop and there's no timetable or something else. Alternatively bigger TukTuks (there are no small TukTuks around the border) will gladly take you to the city. To share the TukTuk with other travellers is the cheapest way to go - fare per person should be around 150 Baht. It's fun to watch the road to the capital - every sort of vehicle can be seen - Russian trucks, all kinds of busses, donkey carts, old American cars. If it's got more then two wheels, you will see it there. Arriving in Vietiane, it's not easy to believe that this a capital. Population of Vientiane area is an estimated 0.5 m, but the town itself only has around 130,000 inhabitants. However, even this number is hard to believe.

Streets are dusty and the air is opressive, but it's a quiet and nice town. Especially when arriving from noisy and bustling Thailand, it's quite a surprise to feel the relaxed atmosphere of provincial Vientiane. Exceptions of course are the market and the adjacent bus terminal.

All sights of Vientiane are within walking distance, but renting a bicycle is not a bad idea. However, it's better to check the fine for a stolen bicycle. Even Vientiane's main roads are dusty and provincial. Centre of town is the so called Fountain Circle - a lovely square surrounded by a couple of hotels, restaurants and banks.

The magnificent Pha That Luang

The main attraction without a doubt is the Pha That Luang, also known as the Great Stupa. Little wonder that this pyramidal golden monument became the national symbol. and replaced hammer and sickle. The main building is from 1566 and was surrounded by four bigger Wat's (temples) - only two of them are left. The whole structure has been restored recently. The Stupa in front of the blue sky looks like a golden rocket ready to lift off. All in all a it's a great and impressive monument. Pha That Luang is the only attraction outside the city centre - it's about 4 km away from the Fountain Circle. Halfway, the Patuxai, a small triumphal arch, can be found. Many governmental buildings and embassies concentrate in the stretch between the Great Stupa and Patuxai. Other interesting sights include the Black Stupa, the vibrant market and the riverside. It's fun to stroll along the Mekong river around sundown and to eat out in one of the countless open air restaurants - almost all of them can be found in pile dwellings. During the rainy season the Mekong grows big and dirty and makes the pile dwellings a useful invention.
Another popular meeting point at night is the beer garden around the Fountain Circle. Needless to say that there are more foreigners than locals at nighttime. Next to the square is the so called Scandinavian Bakery. A sophisticated place with air conditioning, bread, coffee and a TV offering the latest BBC news. The latter drew my attention. There are other westernized, rather expensive café's and restaurants in Vientiane.

One of the main streets in Vientiane

However, as a traveller it's a better idea to stick to the local cuisine. It's easy to find local food stalls and basic restaurants offering Lao, Chinese and Vietnamese food. It's quite a mix of different styles, with dishes involving noodles being overwhelming. Lao style sausages, various kinds of vegetable etc. are commonly used. Most of these food stalls are very cheap. Definitely worth a try are the (originally Vietnamese) raw spring rolls with peanut sauce.

It looks like there are all types of accomodation available in the capital. Still, the cheapest hostels in town are considerably more expensive than in other places. Among backpackers, the very cheap MC&I-Guest House seems to be the favourite place, and so it fills up quickly. But there are similar places. One of them is the Phantavong next to the MC&I. It's possible to pay in USD, Baht and Kip. In 1998, a double was 200 Baht (around € 4.5), but the rooms are very dirty and sticky - it's a real fleepit (we had a room without a window and almost no light - probably not a bad idea to have no light). I doubt it that it's possible to find a better place for the same price in Vientiane, since I've heard the same thing about the MC&I. Comparing these places with similar places in Thailand (for the same price!), one will be disappointed.

The river and karst region at Vang Vieng

Someone in Tokyo recommended me to go to Vang Vieng North of Vientiane. And this is what we did. The one and only road there is the Route 13, connecting Vientiane and Luang Prabang. Three busses a day start from the central bus terminal in the capital, with the last one leaving around 1 p.m. Vang Vieng is 170 km away, but the trip only takes 4 hrs. Since this is the only road to the North, many locals use the bus as well, so it's better to show up much earlier at the bus station. The bus ticket is 2,000 Kip (€ 0.5) only. Alternatively, shared taxis and mini-busses (sort of a pick-up with roof) take the same route, but they are much more expensive. It's easy to get in contact with the locals on the bus, and a chat with them and the marvellous landscape let time fly.
Vang Vieng is nothing more than a small market spot, and there is nothing interesting to see in the "centre". The main attraction is the landscape. Around the town, cone-shaped karst mountains with numerous caves can be found. There's a small river meandering trough the valley.

Main square of Vang Vieng

Fishermen in their wooden boats will gladly take strangers to the other side of the river for a few Kip - just make sure the boat is leakproof (advice from someone who didn't check it). It's fun to use the boats and amazing to see how skillful the men are. There's a small market square and a few hotels nearby (* in 1998, only two or three hotels could be found, but according to travellers having been there recently, hotels etc. have mushroomed). One of the hotels was so new - it didn't even have a name. The rooms were incredibly clean and it was almost European standard. Still, a double was only Kip 12,000 (€ 3). At the market, it's possible to grab a noodle soup or other goodies for a handful of Kip. Even two or three restaurants and some opium dens exist. By the way - a bottle of Beer Lao (which is excellent!) is twice the price of a ready-to-smoke opium pipe (hands off! stick to the beer, it's much better).
From Vang Vieng we headed North again, all the way along Route 13 to the ancient city of kings, Luang Prabang.

One of the infamous truckbusses

How to catch a bus? Just go to the main road and wait. Unfortunately there's no timetable or something. However, traffic is not limited to three busses a day. There are other strange vehicles running North - among them colourful Russian trucks being rearranged and used as busses. They don't have windows, so it's even better than taking regular busses. Unfortunately, our truck bus was broken after half an hour. The driver didn't hesitate and dismantled the entire gearbox. And reassembled it. All in all, it took around two hours. But it worked and so we could continue. According to the 1996 edition of the Lonely Planet, at that time the one and only guidebook on Laos, the street North of Vang Vieng is not paved and way too dangerous because of occasional rebel ambushes. But other travellers confirmed that it's safe - at least there's regular traffic even at daytime, which is a good sign. The road was already completely paved and indeed it appeared to be safe.
The whole trip incl. the impressive car repair took around 8 hours. I wasn't scared of rebels or someone else, but of all the obviously new landslides covering the street completely here and there. Still the trip is very interesting - the street goes up to 2,000 meters and offers a great view over the entire area. Since there are no windows, it's fun to put out the legs and enjoy the fresh air. Especially in the rainy season, the mix of shade and sunshine, clouds and mountains can be gorgeous. Providing it's not raining, the truck bus seems to be the perfect way to travel. The fare for the 260 km trip is Kip 11,000 (€ 3) - at first, I thought that this would be another "special price" for foreigners, but I saw a local paying the same amount. Truck busses are private and therefore a bit more expensive than regular busses.

View over the city centre and the Mekong

Luang Prabang is the capital of Luang Prabang province. Here one will meet the Mekong again. In the first Lao kingdom, established in 1353, Luang Prabang was the capital and residence of all Lao kings. In the 16th century, the capital moved to Vientiane, but except for two centuries, Luang Prabang and the surroundings remained a weak but independent kingdom. The last king had been dethroned and captured by the Pathet Lao. He probably died in the 80ies. The city is situated on a small peninsula and only has 15,000 inhabitants. Right in the middle of town, the big hill Phu Si rises. On the top, small monasteries being still in use overlook the town. It's possible to walk around the monasteries and enjoy the grat view. To name all interesting sights in Luang Prabang would take ages - the city is full of temples, stupas, monasteries, palaces and so on. Almost every third citizen seems to be a monk - walking around in large groups with umbrellas. One of the main attraction is the king's residence. A large palace with a museum and a few other buildings, all in a perfect state. The entire city centre has been confirmed as a Cultural World Heritage by the UNESCO in 1995.

One of the buildings in the palace area

One year before, Luang Prabang has been declared as being the "best preserved city in South East Asia". Which is easy to believe. Besides culture and history, Luang Prabang also offers interesting markets, lots of nature and culinary pleasures. Nearby some interesting waterfalls and the caves of Pak Ou, only to be reached by boat, can be found.
There's no lack of accomodation in town. One option is the hotel Vira Desa near the riverside. It's pretty small and new, has nice rooms and a double is Kip 10,000 (around € 2.5) only. Unfortunately, an entire ant population thought the same way and started to populate our room at night. They were small and didn't bite, but it was a challenge to get rid of them and clean the luggage. Of course we also had to throw away all of the food. Shower and toilets are outside and offer a great view into the magnificient world of lizards. Dozens of them run around and make lots of noise (personally, I like them a lot and don't care at all). To flee the ants, I decided to move to Hotel Rama, where a double only costs Kip 8,000 (€ 2). It is bigger, older and a bit dirtier than Vira Desa, but it's not ant infested. The road in front of the hotel is a kind of main street with some café's offering the deep-brown, almost viscous Lao coffee staining the teeth immediately. Thank god for this coffee! One of the best I ever had on my travels. While sipping the coffee, one can watch old Russian propeller aircrafts flying along the street to the airport.

The hidden caves of Pak Ou

There's no street to the West - instead, the Mekong is used as the main road connecting China, Myanmar and the Northwest of Laos. The border to Thailand in the West is some 300 km away. There are two types of boats carrying passengers - the speed boat and the slow boat. The slow boat is more like a wooden freighter. It's quite noisy, dark and dirty inside with the diesel engine in the middle. 150 km on the slow boat costs Kip 7,200 (€ 1.80). Halfway to the border city of Huay Xai is the small town Pak Beng, but the slow boat stops at many small villages along the Mekong. The landing stage in Luang Prabang is near the centre, the boat starts at around 9 in the morning. As far as we knew, the trip to Pak Beng would take around 10 hrs, so it would be possible to stay overnight there before going on to the border. The speed boat quay is far away from the centre, because the powerful boats are extremely noisy.
We went for the slow boat, which was full of locals and a few more travellers, counting less then 20 passengers. It was hot and sticky inside, and so the atmosphere was'nt the best one. First adventure was to reach the boat - only a long plank, the width was less then 10 inches, connected the boat with the landing stage. The boat left around one hour too late and stopped 200 meters later. There, an overloaded truck was waiting on the street above the river.

Slowboat: The small box on the left is the toilet!

Now, they started to unload the truck, which took almost two hours, so we couldn't leave before noon. The boat went upstream and started to fight the extraordinarely strong current - it was monsoon time. Additionally, it had to zigzag all the way to Pak Beng to avoid the current and a crash with driftwood and speed boats. However, this was a good chance to watch the jungle and some of the small villages. Sometimes the boat stopped, and soon all children of the village run to the water waving and shouting "Falang! Falang!!" (which means foreigner). Around 6 p.m. it was slowly getting dark. The boat stopped at another village and the crew started to hand out some candles. Then, they disappeared. What's going on here!? Everyone was confused. After a while, some Lao passengers confirmed what we'd feared. We would stay overnight and continue next morning. The reason is simple - there's no light aboard.

Falang, Falang!!! (At the river Mekong)

We couldn't find out the name of the village - probably it's only something like "Our little village" or so. It consists of around 10 large pile dwellings - typical farmhouses. There is no electricity, no water, no toilets and of course no shop, but all sorts of animals. The only connection to the world outside is the river. Together with other travellers I decided, that sleeping on the boat should be the last option due to the lack of space. Hence we tried to talk to the villagers and somehow managed to arrange a night in the pile dwellings. We were only four or five travellers, and so everyone slept in another house. The farmhouse consisted only of one long, dimly lit room. On the other side of the room was a small fireplace. A very old woman sat next to the fire place. In the corner and almost invisible, an old man, probably her husband, enjoyed his opium pipe. A young girl shared the room with them. The old man sat there apathetically and didn't say a single word. The old woman explained suggested that there will be something to eat.
Yes, food. We didn't expect to stay overnight in the middle of nowhere, and so we hadn't had much food - thanks to the ants of Luang Prabang. She prepared an instant noodle soup imported from China and available everywhere in Laos. The young girl tried to talk to us - she knew some words and phrases in English. We used our guidebook and tried to say a few words in Lao. She asked us for paper and a pen, because she's going to school and both things are difficult to get around here. For sure. After the meal the old woman started to calculate - she wrote down the price for the night and the noodle soup. We had no idea what is what. The final result was Kip 12,000 (€ 3) for the two of us. Not much, and so we didn't argue, but definitely a good deal of money for the family.

The village without a name

This of course leads to the conclusion that the villagers quite often accomodate travellers and know that they would pay the price without haggling. Which is okay - €1.5 per person is by all means not too expensive and the genuine atmosphere is simply too interesting. Around 8 p.m. they showed us where to sleep - two mattresses in the darkest corner of the room - but that was too early. And so we wanted to go out again, which was not easy to explain to the old woman. Obviously we weren't the only one who couldn't sleep - the other travellers gathered in the middle of the quiet village, too. There were no toilets and of course no light. Looking for a toilet, it wasn't easy to avoid ending up between dozens of squeaking pigs. Later at night, we managed to sleep hoping that someone would wake us before the boat leaves.
There was no reason to worry about waking up in time. Somewhere in the large room must have been a rooster, naturally starting to crow with incredible volume before sunset. Our rooster seemed to be the fittest - he started the concert, and soon all other roosters joined in. This took more than thirty minutes and even would have woken up the dead. Everyone proceeded drowsily to the boat. The early morning fog and fresh air were a good start of another great day. The boat started at around half past six. Two, maybe three more hours and than we would arrive in Pak Beng. This is what we thought, but at the end it took almost five hours. 24 hours for 150 km - this is what I call a slow boat! It was already noon, and so we went for a lunch in one of the few, completely ant infested restaurants in Pak Beng. What if it takes another 24 hours to go to Huey Xai at the border!? A mixture of curiosity and lack of time let us go for the speed boat to reach the border city on the same day.

The Mekong near Pak Beng

Pak Beng is one of the places where every foreigner needs to register with the police upon arrival. There wasn't much to see in Pak Beng, and so we could finish entry and exit procedures at the same time. If someone wants to travel by speed boat, the driver must be with the passenger at the registration. There, one has to pay the speed boat driver and both will be registered on a special form. Not too bad, since this creates a certain feeling of safety. The speed boats are very small - maybe 20 feet long, with seven seats including the one for the driver. Maybe the word pilot fits more. The width is not much more than four feet with two passengers sitting next to each other. This means that there's not much space. Since the seat is below the water surface, it's only a few inches between the water and the passengers heads. The powerful diesel engines in the back accelerate within seconds up to 60, 70 km per hour. In the past, some accidents killed a few passengers, which is why helmets and life jackets are compulsary. The engine is extremely noisy - it's possible to hear the boats a few minutes before they are within sight.

One of the noisy and fast speed boats

The boats sound like a swarm of hornets. And they are quite expensive. The 150 km trip costs around 400 Baht (€ 12.5) per person, one way of course. Some travellers only take the speed boat to get around quickly. Other travellers argue, that the boat doesn't fit here, it's too noisy and not good for the environment. Which is certainly true. However, how could travellers dare to judge on this subject. It's the one and only way for locals to safe more then 20 hrs time when travelling 150 km. To open minded travellers, I can only recommend to try both - the speed boat and the slow boat. The old Siam and developing Laos. To be fair, it's necessary to mention that the speed boat might be scare some people, which is understandable. The boat is gliding in, or better above, the water surface, and because it's only a few inches to the water, the speed seems to be much higher than 70 km/h. The speed boat stops quite often, too. But it's only around 2 hours for the 150 km to Huey Xai. In the middle of nowhere, the pilot suddenly stopped. An old hunter, smoking a bamboo pipe, was standing there waiting. In front of his feet was a fresh goat antilope.
After some haggling, the pilot bought the antilope for Baht 400. The six passengers, the pilot and the bleeding antilope below my seat continued. Somewhere at the Thai side of the river, the boat stopped again. Another man was called, and the pilot started to haggle again. And sold the antilope for Baht 1,300. That's what I call a good deal. There were more speed boats around, and sometimes they even start a race. And this is the moment when some people might be scared - when getting into the wake of another speed boat, the boat sometimes takes off. This might take up to two seconds!

Small temple in Huay Xai

The border town of Huay Xai is rather small and not of much interest. Because of the noise level, speed boats do not go to the city centre but stop a few kilometers before the town. From there, TukTuks take the traveller to the centre. Except for the temple Wat Jawm on the top of a hill there's not much to see. A small bording and trading post. There are a couple of souvenir shops, but prices are much higher than in the middle of the country. On the other side of the river, the small city Chiang Khong marks the Thai border. There are regular ferries to the other side, although I've heard about plans to built another bridge over the Mekong. One of the few hotels in Huey Xai is the Manilath with nice and clean rooms and a restaurant downstairs. It's only a few meters away from the landing stage of the ferry. The price for a double is Kip 16,000 (€ 4), which is relatively expensive for Laos. The restaurant is quite okay. The fare for the ferry is Baht 20.

Laos is a great place and not yet overrun. In 1998, we only met a handful of other travellers, but it was the rainy season. I assume that in the dry season, around the end of the year, there will be many more travellers. Except for the speed boats, Laos is a calm and relaxed place. Culture and nature can be experienced extensively. The infrastructure has been improved, but still causes problems when travelling around. However, these problems are not too serious and even might help to experience things not being mentioned in any guidebook.