Laos, the refuge of the last dreamers, the last lovers, the last troubadours

I managed to get a 15 days off-contract break before heading to Mexico. 5 days dedicated to the tons of paperwork lying ahead and 10 days for one last killer trip in Asia before I leave Malaysia for good. Tough call really! I wanted to deepen my experience of Vietnam and visit the Northern part of the country but it didn’t plan ahead of time and it was too short notice to get the visa. Same for China. I dreamed about a rough trip in Eastern Indonesia (Sulawesi, Ambon, Papua) but I guess I didn’t have the guts to hit such remote and off-the-beaten-path place with so little planning. I thought about a nice trekking/rock climbing adventure in lovely Borneo but my partner stood me up at the very last minute for this trip (any comment on that, Ben?? ;-) Since I was 18 I knew I would do a once-in-a-life trek in Nepal, but July is just not the right season for it. I thought about Mongolia for a while but the airfare from KL was just a rip off. So what’s left? There is this little quiet country I’ve been told about, that is pretty nice and mysterious. It only recently opened to tourism and is still not a widely popular destination. A quite isolated country, stuck between Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, China and Vietnam, with no sea access, only two international airports, and very few border crossings: Laos. It may sound like it was a last minute potluck backup plan. But I don’t regret a single second I spent in Laos. I didn’t really know what to expect, but I will never forget this trip.

Quick background info: Laos gained independence from France protectorate in 1949 and a long civil war took place. The communists (Pathet Lao) eventually came to power 25 years later. (As a result), the country is still ranked as one of the poorest nations in the world. The country’s main ethnicity is the Lao: The Lao belong to the Tai linguistic group who began migrating southward from China in the first millennium AD. They constitute most of the “lowland” population and drive the culture and the economy of the country. In the isolated mountainous areas live the hilltribes people, mainly Hmong and Khmer. When I visited them it immediately reminded me of my visit to the Karen people in Chiang Mai area, Northern Thailand.

My first glance at Laos actually started in Kuala Lumpur airport where I hooked-up with an Australian voluntary worker based in Vientiane for deforestation prevention programs. He told me how nature is preserved in Laos due to the very poor economy. And I was later able to confirm what he said: as much as I love Asia for hosting some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, I have to admit that uncontrolled development and tourism industry has sometime spoiled the best gems. But not (yet) in Laos. The capital’s airport has only two runways. The capital is incredibly calm and sleepy for an Asian capital. There is no highway and it is really pleasant to walk the streets. I especially enjoyed walking along the Mekong banks, facing Thailand. The river conveys some sort of magical spirit. At sunset, the crowd gathers along the banks on stilts terraces above the river. I loved seating there, enjoying some stall food, cheap Lao beer, delicious fried Mekong weed with sesame seeds while watching the fishermen or the travelers cruise the Mekong. History is still present with many colonial buildings still intact. Laid-back and authentic are the two first words that come in mind to describe Vientiane. If an opportunity pops-up, I could definitely live for some time in there.

I then headed towards Luang Prabang, the cultural capital of the country. The city is notable as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Now, you may wonder why! I’ve seen several Unesco sites, and every time I immediately knew why, whether it was a natural wonder like Yellowstone national park in the USA, or a historical site like Borodubur in Indonesia. But in Luang Prabang, it takes time to realize what’s the point, since what the Unesco wanted to reward was not a monument in particular but the atmosphere of the town! It took a few days to realize how peaceful and truly lagging in the past that place is! I enjoyed riding a bicycle to the countryside (even got stuck with a broken chain in the middle of nowhere 40 km away from Luang Prabang, but peasants where kind enough to help me out)… In 1909, Marthe Bassene, wife of a French resident doctor was a visionary and wrote “Oh what a delightful paradise of idleness, this country protects by the fierce barrier of the stream, against progress and ambition, for which is has no need! Will Luang Prabang be, in our century of exact sciences, of quick profits, of victory by money, the refuge of the last dreamers, the last lovers, the last troubadours?”

Throughout the whole country, Bouddhism (Theravada style, the only instance in the world) is at the heart of the culture of the Laotians. But it is particularly present in Luang Prabang, gratified with plenty of temples, including the oldest one in the country. It is spreading an inner peace and after few days it definitely started to build up on me!

I finally left Luang Prabang and make a quick overnight stop in Vang Vien to rent a motorbike: I hesitated a lot before doing it, but finally made it: I rod all the way from Vang Vien to Phonsavan to discover the valley of the Jars, and much more. This hell of a ride with the crappiest Chinese-made motorcycle took me through the mountains in one of the least developed countries. I stopped over in hilltribe villages where time stands still since the last centuries.

While in Phongsavan, I had the chance to get to learn a rather little known fact about Laos: the country was massively bombed during WW2. Massive aerial bombardment by the United States followed as it attempted to eliminate North Vietnamese bases in Laos in order to disrupt supply lines on the Trường Sơn Trail. Between 1971 and 1973 the USAAF dropped more ordnance on Laos than was dropped worldwide during the war of 1939-1945. In total more than two million tons of bombs were dropped (almost half a ton per head of population at the time), destroying the country's limited infrastructure and restricting much of its population to living in caves. This was called the “secret war” because Laos was neutral in WW2 and it was illegal for Kennedy and then Nixon to bomb the country. As a result, the lands and rice paddies are filled with unexploded ordnance, mainly bomblets from cluster bombs. The horrors of mine fields in neighboring Cambodia are rather widely publicized and various NGO are raising funds to improve the situation. Unfortunately, being more isolated, Laos doesn’t benefit from as much international support, although the unexploded ordnance takes a terrible toll on the population (and especially on the childs). Now it is important to mention here that the USA faces its responsibility and supports UXO removal programs in Laos with 2.5 millions USD/year. Thanks to this and the local efforts, a significant portion of the soil has been cleared from bomblets, but the threat is still there and will still be for a long time. The photo on the right displays a crater dug by one of those bombs.

One thing that contributed to make that trip so unique for me is that I traveled alone. Most of the time I travel with Marie and I really enjoy it. Sometime I head out somewhere with a group of friends for an extended weekend and end up having lots of fun. But this time I was alone, and it felt really different, like good different. I’m stating the obvious for whomever has been traveling alone once, but travelling all by myself made me closer to people. I really got more opportunities to get to know people, whether for a casual small talk with a spring rolls seller at the marker or for long discussions on a food stall/bar along the Mekong (have I mentioned that the second religion in Laos after Buddhism is the national brewed Lao Beer, which cost less than a dollar a liter)?

Well, everything comes to an end, and I finally had to get back to Kuala Lumpur and get ready for a new chapter of my life in Mexico.