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Published: March 3rd 2007
To get from Nan to the border town of Chiang Khong required one bus journey to Chiang Kham, which was extremely crowded with the aisle completely full as well as the seats, then another to Chiang Khong. I had absolutely no idea what the procedure would be there, so I asked the tuk tuk driver to take me to the jetty from which boats departed for Houayxai in Laos. He asked if I had a visa then, when I said no, took me to a travel company. They said they could arrange a 30 day visa in 1 hour for the same price I'd pay at the border, but in the meantime I could use their free Internet and drink their free coffee. This sounded acceptable so I filled in the form, handed over THB 1,700, my passport and 1 passport photo, then 1 hour later everything was done.
After a short ride to the jetty, waltz through Thai departures, and purchasing of a ticket across the Mekong, I was chugging to Laos with a consignment of Pringles crisps. Laos immigration was a formality, and then I was standing on the main street of Houayxai, in a country with 6
tones in its spoken language rather than the paltry 5 in Thailand, where all prices seem to be quoted in Laos kip as well as Thai baht and US dollars, and where driving is on the opposite side of the road to Thailand (which must have caught many a traveller unawares).
My knowledge of Laos before reading the RG was purely quiz machine facts, such as the capital being Vientiane. I hadn't known it had the dubious distinction of being the most bombed country per head of population in history. This had occurred during the Vietnam War, when the Ho Chi Minh Trail through eastern Laos was a major link between North and South Vietnam, and hence of strategic significance to both the US and Viet Minh. The US averaged 177 bombing runs per day over the region during that period.
Once the US had lost interest in the area, a communist takeover was inevitable, leading to the Lao People's Revolutionary Party gaining control in 1975 and staying in power ever since. There are still guerrilla fighters active in the country attempting to overthrow the government.
Houayxai itself is simply a border town and most travellers only
stay long enough here to get a boat south or cross into Thailand. I saw a fair few tour groups wandering around, which started to give me a bad feeling. My intended route was the standard one, a 2 day slow boat journey southeast to Louang Phabang on the Mekong, described variously in the RG as "one of Asia's grand adventures" and "one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences". I bought a ticket for tomorrow's departure, and tried to imagine what it would be like floating leisurely down one of the world's great rivers.
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Wat Chom Khao Manilat
