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Published: June 17th 2009
A little friend!!
United by wheels who care he's just got one...Slurping up my bowl of ersi (rice noodles with spicy minced meat pronounced "er-suh"), the thoughts of a burger crossed my mind. It had been a long while since I'd had one. The last I had was from a little road side stall In Luang Prabhang with a board claiming to have "the best burgers in Laos". It wasn't the best I'd tasted but it wasn't a bad deal for the 15000 kip it costed. Then in struck me, was there a McDonald's in Laos? Turning to my well travelled friend I posted my doubt. Nick wondered for a bit and decided he hadn't crossed any, not even a KFC. "For that matter, I haven't seen one in Vietnam either", he added. "Guess it goes to show which the real communist countries are...". Murmuring a hmm! we closed the matter.
China has it's outsized share of McDonald's and KFC's. Any mid sized urban town reflects their shiny glitzy boards in one street corner or another. Since we entered China we've refreshed our memories of brands and chains that dominate the world. I've been dreaming of Laos.
For all my complaints of over priced bad food and the lack of
Khuangsi Quartz
Lost the best pictures but theses pools are enchantingly beautiful. it, Laos was what brought out the real travellers in us. After a night of scrounging left over sticky rice from villagers who hadn't much themselves and trying to swallow guilt and the rice with cold clammy slimy tinned sardines, we decided it was time to stop moaning about our forgotten stove and cook over camp fire. We bought a little aluminium pot in Luang Prabhang and thence commenced many rapturous meals cooked over slow smoky camp fires. I'm not much for Larousse gastronomique-esque cuisine but I can be quite a whiz at improvisation and dishing out much relish-able food. Samples of our camp site menu included rice with potatoes and mustard leaves simmered in medium spicy coconut milk sauce, rice pulao with beans and carrots with tamarind sauce, potatoes and beans broth with onion fried rice and so on. I even went to the point of making dal when we found some lentils at a local market.
Our first meal was when we took a break from Luang Prabhang to visit Kuang Si waterfalls. Though sceptical about the dozens of tuk-tuks ferrying day tripping bag packers there almost every hour, pictures made me overcome my prejudice and visit
The hills are alive...
...with the crackle of fire the place all the same. We went late afternoon on our bicycles timing ourselves to enter the park once the crowds start thinning out. The waterfalls are beautiful. Dozens of fairy pools gush over limestone rocks. As to be expected there was a crowd of bikini and short clad young tourists frolicking in the largest of the pools but higher up the pools lay still almost phosphorescent blue with the effect of sun, water and limestone. At 35 km from LP through beautiful countryside, Kuang Si is a perfect trip on bicycle. We camped on the banks of the Mekong watching the hills around us glow red and smoky as it was time for the yearly clearing of land for cultivation. People still rely heavily on jhum/shifting cultivation in Laos and no concrete moves seem to have been made to educate people to switch to a more efficient means.
We took the next day nice and slow as well and decided to visit Pak Ou on our way towards the Chinese border. Another beach camp that night on the banks of the Nam Ou. With food to cook we had the liberty of camping wherever we wanted. From Luang
Prabahg we chose a route that takes a left from the main highway towards Pakmong where the road divides towards Oudomxai and Nong Khiaw. We decided on the wilder and lesser travelled road that leads through Phaxeng onto Viang Kham and Nong Khiaw. Though tough and really steep in parts (we made only 38 km first day) , the road had virtually no traffic and stuck mainly to the ridge making it one beautiful ride.
From Nong Khiew we took a boat till Hatsa after a one night stop at Muang Khoua on the way. From here it was 20 km uphill climb to Phongsali. So far the most hellish ride has been the 110km betwen Ban Yo and Pak Nam Noi. A treacherous road with nothing but ankle deep pockets of soft fine dust and millions of chunky rocks (See www.muddyruts.blogspot.com). There was to be no more camping for us till we left Oudomxi on our way to the Boten border.
We crossed a beautiful valley passed through the village of Na Thon and followed the promise of a spring and found another beautiful camping spot, marred only by the presence of the village club some distance
below us. The night's meal was accompanied by cheap lao techno blared out of huge distorted speakers and whoops of folks drunk on warm Beer Lao (which when chilled is a very good beer). Nevertheless, it was a memorable night. After our skirmish with the Chinese guards at Boten and on our way back we camped here again and were welcomed by fellow bathers at the spring who remembered us.
So what happened at Boten. Truth is we don't really know. The lesson learnt was to be very careful and excessively polite while dealing with officious border guards. We arrived one hour before gate shut time, scrufy, dusty and unkempt. And we were a trite too causal. It was the eve of the Dalai Lama's 60th anniversary of exile to India and here I was an Indian with a French (post Sarkozy's defiance of the Olympics) and given our slightly battered appearance and also the presence of a book with a Buddhist Monk on the cover (Ian Buruma's God's Dust, nothing to do with China) in our possession I guess we were courting disaster. They denied us entry after keeping us for 1 hour. It was useless to argue
Shrimp Hunting on the Nam Phak
Favourite activity of the young boys. A small catapult like bow, a sharp tipped arrow, a diving mask and a bag to collect catch is all that's needed. as they gave no reasons for our refusal. We camped in the Free Zone between the borders and went back the next morning but it was clearly a pointless case. That's how we found ourselves leaving our bikes for the first time after storing them at the tourism office in town and making our way back to Luang Prabhang to get our Vietnamese visas. We later found out from cyclists we crossed on our way back to Oudomxi crossed without much problem though they were detained over an hour. We guessed they acted tough at first and then simply didn't allow us to cross because of ego issues. Also I did lose my temper at one point and came close to raising my voice. I said they had no right to deny us entry with no reason and they retorted they could. So, they did. I'll confess I wasn't really tactful.
Once back we pedalled back through the same route we'd taken towards Muang Khua. We took it easy again to camp on the banks of the Nam Phak this time. From Muang Khua one needs to cross the river to join the dusty trail that leads to Tay
Ban Namnga
Think the village is called same as river that flows through. Biggest one after Mong Khua Tran, the Laos-Vietnam border that was opened just last year i.e October 2008. Though rough and dusty this road takes one through what still can be considered pristine as villages are far and few in between. In contrast to many places where bamboo is the main visible green cover, there was a lot of thick jungle especially closer to the border.
Namnga was the biggest village this way complete with guest houses and restaurants. It was here I confronted the first real presence the terrible history of war this little country has been through. So far passing through tiny hamlets, rough dusty roads and languid towns there was very little to remind us of the Pathet Lao wars. It was a little disconcerting to meet a mine disposal team in the middle of the village. Chatting to the men I was surprised to learn there were many private mine and bomb disposal companies who undertook tasks on contract basis. This seems to have become a rather lucrative business as the company is usually hired by private companies seeking to sweep areas for commercial projects. The members of the Phoenix Company Limited were having a dispute with the Japanese company
Phoenix Clearance Ltd.
First UXO clearance crew we meet. who had hired them to clear an area for a hydroelectricity project. As it turned out they had swept and area slightly over the area agreed on as they found UXO's there too but the Japanese refused to cover the cost for that. I'm not too sure how they settled the issue but the meeting did leave us feeling a little reflective.
Leaving the village behind we came across our best camp site so far. Hidden from the road and a hard scramble through thick undergrowth we landed on our own private beach on the Nam Noua. The green river was a perfect place for a swim before we settled down to watch the water ripple in the light of dusk and watch fireflies slowly emerge from their day's rest. For our last night in Laos, we couldn't have asked for a better gift from this little country of many rivers and dusty rustic hills.
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baruk feddabonn
non-member comment
laotian bushmeat
no poultry/livestock? and leafy greens provide a good deal of protein too! i'm beginning to wonder if we (all) have 'cultural addictions', and defend the choices we make saying we didn't have any other choice. meat, cars, computers, clothes...