...Laos...

I approached the border crossing Mohan Port (China) / Boten (Laos) coming from the Chinese side.

It almost felt like China was waving me goodbye; a six-lane wide highway style road with lovely greenery planted down the middle and separating the cycle lane from the main traffic. Lots of Chinese flags everywhere, council workers out in force with their brooms, sweeping the edges of the road. Six lanes of road, and hardly any traffic!

Exiting China was as efficient as entering. Park your bike here, queue up with all other foot passengers, get stamped out, come back and pick up your bike – the Chinese machinery is working, it’s efficient, precise and friendly...

..Boten - a fallen City?..

It’s about 1 km to the border checkpoint in Boten. It is on a wide road, going downhill. It feels different, a bit strange.. At first, it looks like a new, modern looking city with high rise buildings in the distance opens up in front of me. Getting closer, I can see lots of those building are actually not finished and it does not look like anyone is working on them.

..Old fashioned border procedures..

I enter the immigrations / customs building – it is like stepping back in time for at least 30 or 40 years compared to how it is on the China side one kilometre up the road.

Everything looks tired, almost depressing – I see ‘officials’ working on their desks which look like something out of an old movie set. I hardly can see any computers, but quite a bit of paper laying around.

Yes, it is like stepping back in time – but it still does work and within 30 minutes, I am out the other side of the building with the permission to stay in Laos for 15 days!

In the early 2000’s, Boten was a gamblers heaven, mostly used by rich Chinese nationals. However, in 2011, China’s government requested Laos to shut down the casino, fearing there was money laundering going on. Laos did not refuse to what ‘big brother and state sponsor’ China asked them to do, and the casino got closed down and the city’s boom stopped.

In 2021, the highspeed railway between Kunming (China) and Ventiane (Laos) started operating, which brought a new lifeline to the city. But recovery is slow…

The next morning, I cycled out of town on an empty, very wide road. It looked promising but it did not last for long.

The developers of the ‘superhighway’ leading out of town must have forgotten that 10 km down the road, the valley becomes narrow and the winding road with the steep sides are prone to landslides…

In short, Boten looked to me somewhat extraordinary, a real mix of rich and poor, a city which can’t really say is it going up or downwards, a city built with foreign money and a promise of a bright future and now, it is ‘stuck’ between the developed China and the narrow valley and the only thing which is still ‘flowing freely’ is the stream down the valley…

And here I was, 10 kilometres into Laos and there was no other choice than going through foot deep paddles. It was the same misery for everybody; big trucks, 4x4s, scooter drivers and me, the only cyclist around…

Luckily, those 5 kilometers right at the beginning of cycling through Laos were the worst and it got better from there..

..Beautiful Laos..

Laos scenery and flora are rich and colourful and kept me entertained! And at times, it was exhausting too, to cycle the hills of northern Laos, but gosh it was beautiful!

I have found Laotians to be different to the Chinese. The Chinese I have met on route appeared in general to be a bit reserved. Farming people along the road would not necessarily returning my waving at them when cycling passed. No, often it looked to me like they were there for one sole other reason – to work… However, in restaurants or at markets, there was usually somebody who wanted to chat and those interactions always felt genuine and friendly.

In Laos it is different, everyone has a smile for you, they wave and often they stop in their tracks to watch you going pass or to exchange a few words!

..Countryside living..

Laos is still one of the poorest countries in the world and it can be seen by travelling through it. People, mostly farmers, are living a simple life. A small wooden hut, some chickens, a few pigs, and a good number of kids running around the hut is a common sight in the countryside.

And there are the small scooters or motorbikes. Everyone appears to have one. They are the main means of transport for most Laotians. A family of four will fit on one small scooter easily. I don’t know what the license laws are in Laos but it looked the youngest scooter riders on the main roads where merely 10 years old – just as when I was a kid, with the difference we had to do it on the back streets and out of sight of our parents. It put a smile to my face…  

Due to the millions of unexploded cluster bombs (affectionately called ‘bombies’) from the time of the Vietnam War, development in the countryside is only progressing at a slow pace and accidents are still happening regularly.

But there is still more to Laos! All the temples, big and small, shiny, and almost derelict with monks offering to include people in their prayers. The French architecture from the old colonial times is still visible and quite common in larger towns. The colourful night markets which focus less on souvenirs but more on day-to-day items for locals and tourists – mostly fake and cheap.

There are also the caves and waterfalls, the mighty Mekong River which is the habitat of over a thousand species of fish, and paddy fields wherever there is a bombie-free wet patch of land.

..Delicious Laotian Food..

And the food…. sticky rice. Yummy! The people of Laos eat the most sticky rice in the world. Over 150 kg per person per year – not even the Irish can beat this with their potato consumption…

Rice is in everything and everywhere; breakfast, lunch, dinner – often in form of rice noodles; Lao Lao, the local ‘whiskey’ which has nothing to do with whiskey but is a schnaps distilled from steamed and fermented rice. And of course, there is Beerlao – the one and only major beer brand in Laos who produces a version with added single estate rice… why not? It was not the worst rice I ever had…  

Laos also produces a considerable amount of tea which is mostly exported to China and there is also a coffee growing industry which produces robusta and arabica beans with a high caffeine content. However, what I would call a ‘proper coffee’ is not yet widely appreciated by the local people in Laos who mainly use instant coffee or Nescafe 3-in-1 sachets.  

..Elephants..

And finally, there are the elephants!

Unfortunately, there are less than 1000 elephants left in Laos. The number has been drastically decimated over the past few decades, due to deforestation and poaching.

I went to an elephant sanctuary near Luang Prabang, where the animals live ‘wild’ in the tropical forest. However, they all have a Mahout, a personal caretaker, who trains and domesticates his animal. They put a lot of effort in keeping the animals in their natural environment, making sure the elephants look after themselves as much as possible. At the same time, they provide the best possible protection for the animals to keep them safe.

They also make sure the animals are healthy and provide medical assistance when needed and of course, they are encouraging reproduction of the animals. They have not had much luck in the past few years though as the only male elephant who is meant to have ‘some fun’ with all the females has his eyes firmly set on one female, and she’s too old to reproduce...

Unfortunately, during the pandemic, they still lost one animal due to poaching.

I did not know I had such a ‘soft spot’ for elephants! It was an amazing experience to feed them some bananas (elephants eat & drink about 10% of their body weight daily…), to ride through the tropical forest and finishing off with a cooling bath in the Mekong River!  

Laos, you gave me another amazing experience on my travels and dear Laotians, I have enjoyed your friendliness, your smiles, your food and the wide berth you gave me when overtaking – regardless of being 10 or 70 years old…