Before I came on this trip I would have said, without hesitation, that my favourite place on earth was the centre of the Tibetan Plateau. A few months into my trip, I might have changed this to say Kham, now forms part of Sichuan Province in China. Still within what used to be called Greater Tibet, and still on the Tibetan Plateau. And yet, having visited Laos I am hard pushed not to change my mind and say Laos.
Laos has fantastic scenes of tropical beauty. Everywhere you look, especially but not exclusively outside the towns and cities there is beauty - flora, fauna, climate, geography, with the works of man a mere incidental footnote in the field of vision, if there at all. The people and the culture are gentle and pleasant, and make the visitor feel like honoured guests. And yet, I would not choose to live there, while I would live in Tibet in a heartbeat.
While Laos is not a place of contrasts, this visitor at least, was very conscious of the multiple contrasts he brought with him. The interior of Laos is incredibly remote. The town of Luang Prabang, where I was based is accessible by two means. One choice is Air Asia's journey by small, twin engined, prop driven, light plane once a day from Vientiene. Given that this flight is into an airport in the hills, which regularly have mist on them throughout the day, due to the high levels of humidity at this time of year; and given Air Asia's less than fantastic safety record, most people seem to choose the alternative. This is the overnight sleeper bus. Quite a good bus, though a little on the pricey side by the standards of transport in this part of the world. Having difficulty getting to Vientiene, more getting to Luang Prabang, all act as a filter on travellers that do make it this far. There are a (very) few backpackers, but mostly it is those with money - and sometimes lots of it - and mostly those on holiday rather than travelling for travelling sake. Like the family I travelled with on the sleeper bus. They were a Chinese American family, father, mother, son at university, and daughter just finished school and going onto university later this year. They were on a three week holiday, through Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Burma, This was obviously a high school graduation, or getting accepted at university reward, and must have cost a few bob, particularly given the up market hotels they were staying at. He said he was in semi-conductors. Later this turned out to mean, sole owner of a semi-conductor factory in southern California.
The effect of this on Luang Prabang is that there is some backpacker accomodation but in practice, it tends to be the low end of the accomodation there - which mainly consists of boutique hotels, starting at about $45 a night, and going up to $1250 a night. In this latter case, I fail miserably when trying to imagine what you get for you money, and how it can possibly ever be value for money. his in a town where there is a charity in town trying to help people to become literate in English, because that is the only way that they can get a job; and they cannot afford books or tuition. I was staying in such a boutique hotel, run by a French woman - but who had obviously been born in Laos, spent all her life there, but still regarded herself as French. She had one endearing quirk. In the morning she did not speak much English, but she did understand a moderate amount, and could speak some. However, as the day went on, her English abilities became less and less, so by mid evening she could not speak or understand English at all.
Moving on by boat, as I did, from Luang Prabang, again acts as a filter. The cost of a three day journey such as I made does tend to deter even the determined backpacker. I was fortunate in that, as I could see my trip coming to an end, I did have a little bit left in the budget. This trip gives travel on the Mekong during the day, interspersed with stops at tourist sites en-route. Overnight one stays at hotels set up specifically for this trade, on the banks of the Mekong. Staying in these hotels puts one firmly in the slightly Alice-in-Wonderland world of the rich - not the mega-rich. Both overnight establishments gave one the full French colonial experience - from the colonisers side of course. The accommodation was veranda-ed large airy rooms, complete with ceiling fan and mosquito nets. Drinks before dinner on the veranda. The ambiance of the hotels was such that if you dropped a napkin, three people would immediately come over; one to offer you a replacement; one to pick up the fallen item; and one to apologise on behalf of the establishment, for the napkin having the temerity to fall in the first place. They provided entertainment for their guests - in one there was a variety of native skills on offer - shooting the Laotian hill tribes crossbow, that is used in reality as a hunting weapon using poisoned bolts; planting rice; fishing; and panning for gold. The other had a tour of one of the local villages.
Both establishments were run by expatriates - both French. They both had the slightly chivvying and patronising attitude to their staff, who they obviously found a little dilatory in always doing what was required of them. All the elements that I expected to really hate. And yet, I enjoyed the experience; the hotels are doing a major job in involving local villages - the food in both places virtually all came from the local village; they are providing, often for the first time, access for hill tribes to a cash economy, and are forces for good in both conservation, and moving the Laotian economy forward somewhat. They are a real benefit to the locals. And yet - I'll be continuing this in a later posting.