So, here I am traveling to Laos, a country that I just picked up a guide book for a few days before leaving Thailand. I was lucky to find out that the borders opened up between Laos and Thailand a few days before I left for Laos. Did I have plan....not really, but thought that I might travel for Laos for a week and than Cambodia for a week before hitting up Malaysia...Again, I found out the beauty of not planning every detail out before you leave for a trip!
It started with a 6-hour bus journey from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong (border town in Thailand with Laos). The landscape was mixed with trees, mountains, rice fields that shined so green with the sunlight, and tiny villages. The tiny villages (100 people) usually had a few homes, a general store, 1-2 food stands, and maybe a temple. The larger villages (1,000 people) had more homes, a couple stores and food stands, several temples, and a school or two. Most of the roads and villages were clean with very few animals or trash on them....a nice change from some of the other countries visited on this trip! I made it safely to Chiang Khong, got my Thailand exit stamp by customs, and took a slow, long boat across the Mekong River to Huay Xai, Laos. A quick 30 US Dollars and a completed VISA application, I was issued a 30-day VISA for traveling in Laos. I found it amazing that only 30 years ago did the US lose a secret war with Laos from 1961 to 1975, which would result in Laos becoming a Communist Nation and they were issuing VISAs at the border to American citizens.
"Unlike the war in Vietnam, the secret war in Laos remained in the hands of the CIA and avoided direct deployment of U.S. troops. This lack of American casualties tended to hide its massive scale. After the war's end, the New York Times observed that "some 350,000 men, women and children have been killed, it is estimated, and a tenth of the population of three million uprooted." Between 1965 and 1973, more than two million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos -- far more than the U.S. had dropped on both Japan and Germany during World War II." I will share more of this information when I write about my visit to the War and Former President Kaystone Phomvihane Memorial and Museum in Vientiene (the country's capital).
Huay Xai is a small border town that is completely different than its Thai bordertown of Chaing Khong in terms of infrastructure, cleanliness, and technology. It was an amazing contrast and woke me up to the struggles of a third world country and the impacts of a war on a country's progress! I stayed at a simple guest house paying by a combination of Laos Kip (10000 Kip = 1 Dollar), Thai Bhat, and US Dollar. The Laos economic system is quite unstable and the reason right now for three currencies to be used in the country. It makes for fun buying things at the market!
On the 26th, I departed Huay Xai by what the locals refer to as a "deadly boat," but I found it to be one of the more pleasant journeys of my trip. Eight passengers (3 westerners and 5 locals), one boat operator, and lots of luggage are crammed into this long, flat, speed boat that is fueled by some type of red liquid. The luggage is up front, passengers in the middle, and the operator in the back with a simple control of an outboard motor. Now, as we are crammed into spot, the operator hands to you a helmet with shield and a life vest and basically smirks at the westerners, like "sure you will be able to handle this!" Apparently, the speed of the boat mixed with the many whirlpools and debris in the Mekong River cause the occassional crash of these boats......and YOU PAY FOR THIS!!! Once we were all in the boat, it took off at lighting speed moving so smoothly on the water, which made me want to hook up a rope and start wakeboarding on the glassy river water. The trip lasted about 6 hours with short mechanical breakdown in the middle of the river due to engine overheating. The scenery on the Mekong River is breathtaking and gets better as you get closer to Luang Prabang, where limestone cliffs align the river banks. I was lucky on this trip, as I was up front and could extend my legs on the luggage and over the boat and than just relax and observe all the debris that the operated continued to avoid. In the end, we all made it to Luang Prabang safely and were going to be shown why this city was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
More to come about my love for Laos!
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