Come Visit Laos. We Can Let You in Now.

1999 has been dubbed "Visit Laos Year" but as far as I can tell the only thing that the Laotians have done to promote tourism is to hang signs that say "Visit Laos 1999, Year of the Tourist." But at least the Communist government will let you into the country now.

When I told my friends in Seattle my vacation destination, they looked incredulous and asked, "Why Laos?" Indeed, it is not the first place one thinks of when traveling to Southeast Asia. Were it not for a college chum, Lesley, who has been teaching there for two years I would not have gone. That Laos has not seen as much tourism as its neighbors is both its best and worst attribute.

Most Lao are curious about and tolerant of foreigners. I had the good fortune of being invited to a Lao wedding where I was a guest of honor, by virtue of the bride being Lesley's guard's sister. Upon entering the reception I was offered a shot of Lao Lao (rice whiskey) by the bride and groom. I knew it would be considered rude to refuse, but did not know that I was expected to drink the shot and replace the glass on the tray. So I took the glass and left the bride standing with an empty tray and nothing to offer the other arriving guests. I was seated right up at the head table with the family and was expected to do everything first, under the scrutiny of everyone else. Politeness and honest embarrassment seem to go along way toward smoothing faux pas, and most blunders are graciously forgiven.

If you are desperate for Euro-company, there is an international running and drinking club popular among the expatriates. I attended one of their events, a "hash". This one consisted of maybe thirty expat runners. I don't know how far we ran, but we were at it for nearly an hour. It was very hot, very dusty and fairly miserable. I ran as much of it as I could, because if I were to get too far behind, I'd lose the pack and be completely lost. We jogged along little winding dirt roads lined with shabby shacks, passed children calling "sabbai dii", and disappeared into a beautiful sunset surmounting the ricefields.

A big white person can expect to pay a little more than a local Lao, and some bartering is required, but most Lao will not gouge a tourist. The Asian economic crisis hit Laos hard. The kip is devalued daily, and has gone from 2,000 kip to more than 6,000 kip per US dollar in two years. The largest bill is 2,000, and although there are a few 5,000 bills floating around, the latter merely confuse the locals who are obviously not used to seeing them. Not many places accept credit cards and nobody wants your travelers' checks. So be prepared to carry a big wad of cash.

Everything is cheap in Laos. A room at a guest house can run anywhere from 3,000 to 25,000 kip. A four-hour bus ride from Vientiane to Vang Vieng is just 4,000 kip. A four-course meal runs about 12,000 kip, while a bowl of soup is 3,000 kip. I unwittingly "got high" on a bowl of noodle soup which had been seasoned with marijuana. That is the extent of my firsthand knowledge of dope in Laos, although I heard it is cheap. Textiles are also cheap and plentiful, as well as beautiful.

Vientiane- The Laotian capital city is dry and dusty in February, and seems perennially under construction. There is a nice promenade in the center of town which follows the Mekong River. At this time of year the dry riverbed is planted with rice and the actual river is far off in the distance. There are many, many temples, called "wats." Some are old, some are new, and some are more interesting than others. Wat Si Saket is the oldest and most interesting in Vientiane. The outer square is lined with Buddha statues, with yet more thousands of little Buddhas tucked into the walls. In the center temple there are fading, crumbling murals of rivers and elephants, and of course the Buddha altar.

I recommend flying to any destination that is more than a ten-hour bus ride. It could be worth the price, depending on how much you value your life. Lesley and I flew from Vientiane to Pakse. After much pushing and shoving thru the airport we found our way to seats on an airplane. We touched down in Pakse on a rather short dirt runway at a rather high rate of speed. The pilot applied the brakes quite hard a couple of times in order to slow the plane. We passengers lurched forward in our seats, with the backs of the seats flopping against our backsides. I looked out the window and saw a man and young child scurrying out of harm's way. What they were doing on the runway is anybody's guess.

We got off the plane and stood around, trying to guess where to get our luggage, get passports stamped, and figure out how to get to the bus terminal. We met some nice American tourists who were on a package tour (thru SODE Tour) to the southern islands, Si Phan Don, which were also our ultimate destination. We briefly considered signing on with them for their three-day cruise until we learned that it cost $400, whereas the trip was only $3 by public transport. In retrospect the tour might have been the better choice, since SODE Tour seemed to be the only game in town. We decided that we would first go to Tadlo Resort and then head south from there.

There are buses for long journeys, trucks with benches for medium journeys, and little trucks ("tuk tuks") for shorter rides. What looked like a short side-trip on the map turned out to be the bus ride from hell. That is why I say that flying is worth the price. I am not sure that it is any safer on the road (or what passes as a road) than it is in the air. A tuk tuk driver delivered us to a bustling dirt parking lot full of shouting men grabbing at our luggage. We shouted "Tadlo" and followed the loudest man also shouting "Tadlo". He led us to a rattletrap bus, put our luggage up top with the produce and animals, and directed us into the bus. While we waited for the bus to fill, vendors came around selling everything from water to fried bats. After sitting in the hot and dusty parking lot for an hour and a half, the bus finally clattered away. It may well have been the longest three hours of my life. There were people pressing against me from all directions, a chicken pecking at my toes, and squealing pigs tied to the back bumper. My greatest fear was that I would have to go to the bathroom before the ordeal was over. Thankfully, I didn't.

Tadlo Resort- The Guesthouse is US$5.00, and the bungalows overlooking the waterfall are US$35.00; as is typical in Laos there is nothing in between. The best thing to do here is enjoy the falls, a relaxing meal, and an elephant ride. There are two elephants, which can carry two people each. There were only a handful of tourists here, and Lesley and I were the only ones going for a ride that day. The elephant carried us across rivers, past the Taat Lo waterfalls, and through a village. The women were out working in the fields and tending to children. Their dress code is much more relaxed at home than in town. One woman hurried into her hut to cover her bare breasts as we rode into the village. The children, like all Lao children, shouted "sabbai-dii" as we rode by. The children find white- skinned people fascinating and frightening. They warm to your smile, tentatively touch your skin, and then hide their faces or run away. An elephant doesn't get very far in two hours. He just lumbers along. We chatted minimally with the elephant handler, who in a flirtatious moment ate a beautiful iridescent bug.

We hoped to get all the way from Tadlo to Si Phan Don in one day. We made our way to the road in time for the 8 am bus, but weren't able to get a ride until a truck came by at 10 am. It appeared full, but with a little pushing and shoving, room was made for us. More people got on along the way and a few even got off. People kept pressing us to make more room, not realizing that American hips take up more room that Lao hips. A child that we hoped didn't have TB coughed behind us the entire way.

We were eventually delivered to the riverfront, where we found a boat to Champasak. We sat and waited for more than an hour, worried about when we might have to go to the bathroom next, until the boat was ready to depart. But then the boatman had to attach a new propeller and then tinker with the engine that wouldn't start. After that it was a rather pleasant journey down the river. We arrived in Champasak at 4:30 pm and realized we wouldn't get any further that day. We also learned that Si Phan Don is much farther than we thought and we wouldn't get there in the time that we had.

Champasak- Wat Phu is the thing to do in Champasak. It has an especially ancient, mysterious, sacred aura, complete with crumbling Hindu ruins, Buddha statuary, and a crocodile carved from rock that was presumably used for human sacrifices. The wat is set into the mountainside, and we climbed very steep and narrow treacherous steps to reach it.

Vang Vieng- Traveling in the North is much easier than it is in the South. Buses depart all day long from two of Vientiane's main markets. For those with plenty of time, Vang Vieng is just the first stop on the way to Luang Probang. In contrast to traveling in the south, where we were often the only tourists, half of the passengers on the bus to Vang Vieng were Anglo. It is an easy four-hour ride, and once there you will find plenty of clean and cheap guest houses. I stayed at a lovely French colonial, the Dokkhoun Guest house.

The hillside caves are Vang Vieng's main attraction. I walked out to see them during the hottest part of the day with a German fellow who had been on the bus. He was repeating a trip that was thwarted in the 70's by machine gun fire. He brought a knife for protection, which made me nervous until he gave me pepper spray to carry. We didn't see too many other people during our three-hour walk. We followed signs which would say "beautiful caves, swimming hole, etc., only 1.5 km further." We began to understand that they meant 1.5km to the next sign! So after 10 km we gave up.

The closest and largest of the caves, Taam Jang, is actually quite easy to get to if you stick to the road. But it is vastly more interesting if you cut across the rice fields, ford streams, and climb fences. We came across a group of Lao having their afternoon Lao Lao, which they graciously and humorously offered to share with us. Remember, it is impolite to refuse. Taam Jang is a cave like any other cave, with stalactites and stalagmites. It was used as a defense bunker against the marauding Chinese in the early 9th century, and boasts a lovely swimming hole fed by a natural spring.

All in all, Laos is terribly interesting, and one of the few under-touristed places left in the world. I wouldn't make it my only Southeast Asian destination, but would certainly include a visit there for contrast to Thailand, Cambodia or Vietnam.

Marcia Tapp travels and rows, rows in her travels, and travels sometimes to row. For this trip, she left the rowing to someone else and dressed up nicely.