Laos
Back in February 1999 there wasn't an awful lot at this border crossing. There were half a dozen children carrying satchel type bags, hanging about, and they asked me if I wanted to change some money. I thought I'd risk it as I wasn't expecting to find currency exchanges in Laos, so handed over USD100 and they gave me great big wads of Kip which I managed to find room for in my pockets and bags. I'd arrived at the border in a minibus from Danang and most people seemed to be jumping on a bus, but it wasn't going where I wanted to go.
The North East of Thailand (Isaan) borders Laos and the two countries are separated by the Mekong River. As I could speak Thai and knew a bit of specific Isaan dialect I thought I would be a bit adventurous and anyway, had missed talking with the locals in their own language whilst in Cambodia and Vietnam.
Therefore, I approached a truck driver and it turned out he was going to Savannakhet which was where I wanted to go. We haggled over my fare; the driver initially wanted an extortionate USD100 but happily agreed on USD10, so I settled down in the front of the truck for the ten-hour journey, with the BBC world service on my radio.
I arrived in Savannakhet in the evening and found a nice little guest house for the night. In the morning I jumped on a bus for the seven-hour ride to the capital Vientienne. I arrived in the evening and found a little hotel and spent a couple of days visiting temples and frequenting little French styled coffee shops. After Vientienne I carried on with a four-hour bus journey to Vang Vieng.
In February 1999 this was a stunning little place. Situated on the Nam Song River, there were a handful of fairly basic guest houses and a few little eateries selling the usual banana pancakes, fruit shakes and beer etc. It was chilled out and it was bliss, with lazy days spent by the river with a few travellers and locals. It was a wrench to drag myself away from Vang Vieng, but I had always intended to head further north to Luang Prabang, so after four days I jumped on a bus for another four-hour journey.
Laos is very mountainous and as my very basic buses went up and down the narrow mountain roads I was amazed at the sight of the little wooden houses that the hill tribes built right on the edge of the drop. With a gust of wind or if they rolled out of bed the wrong way they would be gone!
I spent four days here visiting as many temples as possible, including The Golden Temple, Wat Xieng Thong and Wat Mai, and spent some relaxing time people watching, which was really interesting with all the hill tribes coming and going. In the end I had a real yearning to cut my stay in Luang Prabang and head back down the road to Vang Vieng, so that’s what I did. I'm so glad I decided to do that as I was able to spend quality time in a really beautiful place.
After another four days in Vang Vieng and having spent two weeks desperately trying to spend all the Lao Kip currency that the children at the Lao Bao border had given me, I admitted defeat and headed back to North Thailand.
I crossed the Friendship Bridge between Vientienne and Nong Khai and tried to pay the Thai taxi driver with Lao Kip. He laughed at that idea, so I had to give him Thai Baht instead. When I asked him what I should with the Kip he said to throw it away. It’s like monopoly money and only worth something in Laos. The people in Laos were really warm and friendly. I had a great time there and still have my leftover Kip somewhere.