I packed up my bag and set off to the riverside passport control to make the crossing into Laos. The building was that small I missed it until a friendly local pointed it out. 2 minutes later I had been stamped out of Thailand. I followed the same local and watched her buy a ferry ticket. Hah hah – thats what I do. I gave over my 40B and almost immediately was engulfed in what seemed like thousands of full Tesco shopping bags. Just to clarify, a brand new Tesco Lotus superstore has just opened on the outskirts of Chiang Khong. It must be one of the biggest in Northern Thailand. In fact I had spent the previous afternoon having a sneaky look round and buying (and eating) a full tub of Philadelphia. (You can’t get cheese normally in Thailand). I had been impressed at the variety of goods on sale –as well as normal supermarket stuff, they had an opticians, an electronics store, a travel agents, lots of cafes inc a KFC and a good selection of Florence and Fred clothing. If I had known sooner I would have restocked my limited travel clothing.You might think that a small town is a strange place for the region’s largest hypermarket – but they get so much custom from Laos. Many Laotian’s from the surrounding areas make the trip across the river to stock up on essentials. Laos is still one of the poorest countries in the world and has to import nearly everything. Most of the stock in Tesco is not available anywhere in Laos. Which is why I now found myself stood in a sea of supermarket carrier bags. I had arrived riverside at the same time as a Laos family doing what appeared like their yearly shop. Disposable nappies were the main contents of the bags.
(This is not my photo but you should get the general idea) Now I said earlier I bought a ferry ticket – not strictly true. The ferry is a longtail boat, which in reality is a long canoe. I could not find a path through the shopping to climb into the boat. Remember I am weighted down with backpack so climbing and clambouring is not that easy, but eventually I topple onto a seat. 5 minutes later and we have crossed the river. I very sensibly wait for the shopping to be unloaded and then I practically fall out of the boat. Embarrassingly I am caught by a little old lady. Stumbling up the vertical river bank I make it to Laos customs. $35 dollars later and I am in Laos. The town here is called Huay Xai and it is chalk and cheese when compared to its Thai counterpart of Chiang Khong. The poverty difference is astute. The prices are double with limited stock in the shops. I found a guesthouse and went to explore. After 15 minutes I gave up – the weather was unbearably hot – it was reading 37 degrees. A local lady said the heat had just started – it wasn’t like this yesterday. I blame the start of this heatwave for my lack of balance in the boat! When it had cooled enough to go outside, everywhere had shut. By 8pm nothing was open, not even the bar! I caught the first bus out of town the following morning.
The minivan was scheduled to leave at half 10 – we set off at 10. The rest of S.E. Asia runs very late, maybe Laos is going to be the exception. I was headed north to the town of Luang Namtha. The drive took us through some steep winding mountain roads, but as a survivor of the Pai road, my stomach can cope with alot more twists and turns than it could. The views helped the passing of time – they were spectacular. Unfortunately public transport doesn’t go in for photo stops. It was a short journey, only 4 ½ hours. The bus station however was located 11km out of town – helpful. For the first time this trip, a driver tried to really rip me off. A songthaew driver quoted 80,000kip for the journey into town. Thats $10 and more than the price of the minivan journey. There was another westerner in the minivan, an English lad who had just started travelling. He was about to cough up – mind you he had no concept of the currency exchange, he had no idea how much he had paid for the original journey – in fact he did not even know the name of the Lao currency! (For the record the currency is Kip and there is approx 8000 to the US $ and 12,500k to the £). I was not happy with the driver and he could tell – I was doing my teacher face. I walked into the bus station and asked an employee the correct price – it was 10,000k. The lad and I got dropped off in town and I left him to try and find a guest house. I had been recommended a place and headed straight for Zuela. I was lucky – I got the last room. In fact the room wasn’t in the guesthouse but above the restaurant next door. When I saw the room I thought I was in heaven. It was so large and so clean. I even had a desk. All the guesthouses charge the same price in town – around $10 per night. Laos is not going to be as cheap as Thailand. It didn’t take me long to walk up and down the main street and quickly come to the conclusion that the place is empty. Luang Namtha is the centre for trekking and kayaking in the national park. There were loads of trekking companies on the main street but none of them had anybody signed up for any treks. I later ran into the English lad who told me he had not been able to find any trek to join – there are downsides to travelling solo in low season. Speaking to a German girl later, she had told me how much she had enjoyed the kayaking but she was travelling with 3 friends and 4 people seem to be the smallest group the treks / kayakers will take. English lad went off sulking claiming he would rent a bike for a day then he was leaving. There was a small night market in town where I became acquainted with Lao food. The Lao people really like their meat. If it moves, they will generally eat it.
The national dish is laap which is a spicy meat salad. Various kinds of sausages are also popular as are meat stews and broths. As I walked around the stalls it became painstakingly obvious that I could not eat a single thing. Luckily there was a great western restaurant which made amazing risotto. A couple of nights later and I found a little place that had mushroom laap on the menu. The lady manager told me she had developed it for veggie customers over the years. Laap consists of the mushroom/meat marinated in shallots and spring onions, chilli with alot of fresh mint and coriander. Doesn’t sound that great but it was mighty tasty. It is serves with sticky rice which is served in bamboo containers as in the above picture – that’s my mushroom laap. Sticky rice is eaten with the hands, you break off a small amount, roll up into a little ball and dunk in any sauce you have on your plate. It is all done with one hand. I must admit I am developing quite a liking for sticky rice. As I couldn’t get into the nearby jungle to do any trekking, I decided to rent a bicycle and explore the surroundings. Laos is certainly beautiful, especially at the moment as the paddy fields are lush and green. However it appears the Lao people are not a great fan of roads, preferring instead gravel paths with large loose chippings that are very difficult to cycle over. Neither do they like things done to scale. There was a signpost informing me that a certain guesthouse was 30metres away – it was 5 strides away. I had been given a crude map when I rented the bike and naively I thought that the two streets indicated as being next to each other in the same town would indeed be next to each other. Turns out there was a 12km gap (yes 12km – or 8 miles) between the two streets! The bike ride I planned out for a leisurely 15km turned out to be closer to 30km. I was rather exhausted when I returned, especially as the mid afternoon sun had been relentless. I did see some local boys playing in the river, they were wearing masks but I could not make out what they were searching for on the riverbed. I also came across two water buffalo rutting in a field. Never seen fighting water buffalo before. I had missed a dirt track turn off and found myself on the main highway – the road that leads directly to the Chinese border. I had expected this road to be busy especially with freight lorries but I was the only vehicle on the road. My knees were not impressed that I had avoided this beautiful tarmac road in favour of the off-road terrain. If only I had known there would be no traffic! My poor knees could not cope with another day of cycling so I left Luang Namtha to head south, to the famed city of Luang Prabang.
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