Overlooking Laos
View(s):With natural beauty and an authenticity sometimes missing from its more famous neighbours, Lara Thomas finds unexpected facets
to explore
Attraction is difficult to pinpoint. You can jot down a list of the characteristics you look for in a person and no sooner fall for someone who doesn’t tick half of your boxes. When it comes to countries, I’m shallow: being connected to oceans is necessary to spark my interest. Surrounded by Myanmar, China, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia, Laos did not feature on my hierarchy of must-see destinations. In this way, the country was an underdog for me, somehow circumnavigating my criteria, calling into question the list it failed to fulfil.
The Mekong river
Talk of Laos first reached me a few years ago in India. It was just a whisper that I easily drowned in my desire to swim in as much salt water as possible. It was only in January of this year, in the hill country of Sri Lanka that I began to listen. Exhausted from a long hike, I ate coconut pancakes while taking in a story about a country I had planned to circle but not enter. Unable to shake my longing for large bodies of water, it was the idea of a journey along the mighty Mekong River that finally hooked me.
A few weeks later I found myself on a boat, travelling on the flowing border between Thailand and Laos, making my way, ever so slowly, to Luang Prabang. The two-day voyage offers the rare opportunity to watch life as you pass by: children jump from the banks into the murky water that feeds them, fishermen cast out nets in a battle that will last a lifetime and villagers welcome home the day’s catch. In the twilight of our second day I made my way to the back deck where I broke and reformed a tight-knit ring of travellers from different corners of the world. We sipped Beerlaos as a rich light stroked the Mekong. The ebb and flow of conversation was comfortable in a way that is not often felt among strangers and though long and slow, when the captain adjusted our direction to ride the current home, we all felt a certain sadness that the trip had to end in its golden moment.
In daylight, the streets of Luang Prabang are vibrant with blenders reducing fruit and condensed milk into shakes, ladies enticing hung-over passers-by with avocado and chicken baguettes, the scent of coffee drifting into purple bougainvilleas that grow above cafes and ice-creams waved like white flags against the suffocating heat. Forty minutes from the town, the milky turquoise water of Kuang Si Falls cascades from a jungle bed, stepping and falling down the slope of the land. Waiting their turn, young tourists swing from a rope, letting go into a rock pool so beautiful it looks fake. Swimmers giggle as greedy fish steal dead skin from their rough feet.
Buddhist monks on the streets of Luang Prabang
The real wonders of Luang Prabang coincide with the rise and fall of the sun. Announcing the soft morning, processions of saffron monks thread the streets, collecting offerings of sticky rice while amateur photographers turn dim light bright. Later, as the day draws to a close, the streets dilate in the dusk like the exaggerated pupils of many of its guests, opening into a mosaic market with trinket treasures and generous buffets. Up close the scene is one to behold, but its full glory can only be seen above the flickering lights from the height of its epicentre, Mount Phousi.
Further south, like a young adult trying to recover from his rebellious adolescence, Vang Vieng has yet to shake its party reputation. Floating down the Nam Song River on tractor tyre tubes, intoxicated by buckets of alcohol and drugs, many a gap year met its fatal end. Stalls sell luminous vests and tiny shorts, stamped with labels reading “In the Tubing, Vang Vieng,” to backpackers who, unperturbed by the grammatical error, adorn their uniforms, desperately trying to blend in.
This bright army attempts, but fails, to resuscitate a party long since put to bed by officials. In equal numbers are travellers that are drawn to it for a different sort of experience. Willing to overlook its infamous past, it is these latter adventurers that find what they seek. The river, once renowned for claiming lives, reveals its gentle nature as kayakers paddle beneath limestone peaks in search of hidden caves. Cyclists peddle to the Blue Lagoon: its clarity and vivid colour mocking its understated name. Sober eyes have come full circle, once again admiring the natural beauty that brought foreigners to Vang Vieng in the first place.
In search of an authenticity that some feel has been stripped from its neighbours, Laos is finally receiving the attention it deserves. So much so that backpackers in search of unchartered land are already looking elsewhere to satisfy their wild hearts. “Undiscovered” land is always thrilling, but places are popular for a reason. Those reasons are obvious and plentiful in Laos. It would be a shame to miss such a country simply because it does not meet some restricted version of adventure or some limiting geographical feature. For me at least, Laos, and the water trapped within the folds of its land, challenged my narrow criteria of countries that warrant exploration.
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