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Bernie Rosenbloom takes some new roads and fascinating detours in age-old Laos, which is rife with exotica, flora galore and tribal outposts

TRAVELLAOS

TRAILBLAZING IN LAOS

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Picturesque view of the Nam Song River in

Vang Vieng

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TRAVELLAOS

You have to come to Savannakhet. We’re putting the finishing touches on the Historic Trail. You’ll love it.” This was a directive from one

New Yorker to another, and it came from Steven Schipani, who was the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) front man for developing sustainable tourism attractions and activities in Laos.

Specifically, he was following the ADB’s sprawling Southeast Asian road network and spreading tourism benefits to poor communities along the way. My trip on the Savannakhet Historic Trail initiated me into the realm of tourism routes crisscrossing some of Laos’ most remote areas. The roads are good and getting better, and the best part is that many attractions are but a short walk from your car.

Before Steven was done with me, I’d tackle the Tea Caravan Trail running

through northwest Laos from Thailand to China, and the Lao extension of the Mekong Discovery Trail in Champasak Province. During these excursions, I’d purchase handicrafts, sleep in a community lodge, and hire local guides and transport, all of which puts money into the pockets of needy villagers.

These hospitable locals – Laos is one of the friendliest countries on earth and the people are not yet jaded by mass tourism – also serves as custodians for the attractions, ensuring that money goes into village funds to build schools, buy food and medicine, and drill water wells.

FOLLOWING HISTORYThe Savannakhet Historic Trail mostly follows Lao Route 9, linking the road from Khon Kaen in northeast Thailand to Vietnam’s Quang Tri Province and the Imperial City of Hue. To make the navigating easier, Savannakhet’s Tourism

Department sliced it into a handful of do-it-yourself or guided circuits. Upping the convenience ante, the province’s Eco-guide Unit offers several tours led by local guides, who delve deeper into the area’s nature, history, and culture.

A stroll through sleepy Savannakhet town is like stepping into a French colonial time capsule of gigantic proportions. St. Theresa’s Church, built in the 1920s, stands over Talat Yen Market surrounded by colonial-era shop houses. Side streets reveal the art deco Lao Chaleun Theatre and the 16th-century Wat Xaiyaphoum Temple. For me, the highlight is the Dinosaur Museum, a collection of bones, fossils and meteorites.

Topping the list for Savannakhet’s outskirts is That Ing Hang Stupa. Archaeologists credit a monarch from the Mon Empire with constructing the original monument to Buddha 1,500

French colonial architecture in

Savannakhet

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years ago. The tour also takes in the Dong Natad Protected Area, Nong Lom and Phonsim Turtle Lakes, Phuthai and Katang ethnic villages, in addition to the 16th-century ruins of Kao City.

I spent two days trekking through Dong Natad and slept in a Phonsim village home, which hosted a dinner of local fish and forest vegetables along with a baci ceremony to wish me a safe trip. On the one-day Champone Circuit, I ambled among hundreds of monkeys in a sacred forest, sampled local foods at Soui Lake while watching storks, and pondered a collection of 4,000 palm-leaf books written in Pali, Khmer and Lao at the 200-year-old Hotay Pidok Library.

Time ran out, but I vowed to return to

check out ancient Khmer sites and weaving villages in the province’s south, and the bombed-out Tad Hai Bridge and War Museum along the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail from the Vietnam War.

TEA CARAVAN TRAILSteven has a penchant for handicrafts, and it’s contagious. My journey along the Tea Caravan Trail netted a dried gourd used as a drinking vessel, rattan stools, a cotton jacket hand-woven by Lanten women, a pair of bamboo purses, Akha hats, a jar of jungle honey, and a bottle of Bokeo wine.

I only had three days to traverse the 180-km paved Route 3 that cuts travel time between the Chiang Rai-Houei Xay

border checkpoint on the Mekong in Bokeo Province and Luang Namtha Town to under four hours, but the route’s attractions can keep travellers busy for a week or more.

With a day at either end, I still managed to inspect the “10 Highlights in the Northwest Mountains” in about 10 hours. My first stop, the 100-year-old French colonial Fort Carnot, stands atop a hill in Houei Xay. The eastern rampart’s barracks and main gate remain intact, as do the corner bastions, with tunnels to watchtowers.

From here, a 15-km drive landed me at Nam Chang Village, where Lanten women create paper by grinding bamboo with sako leaves to a pulp, boiling it into

Clockwise: St Teresa Catholic church in Savannakhet; locals lanting seeds on the bank of the Mekong river in Savannakhet;Phou Noy Women winnowing rice in Ban Nam Boun Village

During these excursions, I’d purchase handicrafts, sleep in a community lodge, and hire local guides and transport, all of which puts money into the pockets of needy villagers

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TRAVELLAOS

Town, the Nam Ha Visitor Centre at the Khmu Kwaen community of Ban Chaleunsouk offers home stays and opens the door to many of Luang Namtha’s treks, village visits, rafting expeditions, and camping trips.

Just outside of town, the Tai Kalom village of Vieng Neua features a traditional community centre and organises baci ceremonies, dance and music performances, as well as cooking classes. The final Tea Caravan Trail highlight, the Nam Dee Waterfall situated northeast of town, gushes into a pair of pools after a five-minute walk from a Lanten community selling handsome handicrafts.

Mekong Discovery TrailA few years ago I followed the Mekong Discovery Trail in Cambodia to the Lao border at Champasak Province. Steven told me I should have kept going, so last year I did.

The southernmost stretch of Lao Route 13 offers easy access to loads of attractions. Starting near the border, I stopped at Khone Pha Pheng, Southeast Asia’s largest waterfall by volume, and watched the Mekong rush over a 15 meter-high, boulder-

a paste, spreading it on cloth screens, and sun-drying it on racks. Next up was the Don Chai Visitor Centre and the trail’s halfway mark, where Tai Lue sell handicrafts such as coasters, placemats, and tablecloths along with the gourd bottle and purses I bought.

The road then begins a steep 20-km climb to Nam Phae, the Tea Caravan Trail’s highest point at 2,094 metres with a southwest vista overlooking the precipitous wilderness leading to the Golden Triangle. After another 35 km, Vieng Phouka Town welcomes travellers to the 18-hectare Bor Kung Nature Park. A trail leads to Shrimp Stream’s freshwater fish, crabs and prawns. Near to there the Stewpot Spring spawns Sai

Stream, perfect for a refreshing dip. The park is currently developing a museum, market and campground.

Just outside of town and hidden in a hilltop forest sits Vat Mahaphot Temple inside the ruins of a city dating to the 13th century; it’s dotted with earthen mounds once used as kilns to produce bronze for drums.

About 10 minutes later sits Nam Eng Cave, among the longest mapped labyrinths in northern Laos. The lighting system exposes a subterranean system with limestone columns serving as geological gateways to chambers of stalactites, stalagmites, and stone-rimmed wet pools with cave pearls. As Route 3 closes in on Luang Namtha

Wat Phu which means “temple on the

mountain” in Lao language is one of the oldest archaeological

sites in Laos

Tad Yeaung Waterfall on the Bolaven Plateau

The road then begins a steep 20-km climb to Nam Phae, the Tea Caravan Trail’s highest point at 2,094 metres with a southwest vista overlooking the precipitous wilderness leading to the Golden Triangle

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Wat Sainyamungkhun in Savannakhet,

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TRAVELLAOS

filled fault line, which obstructed France’s 1903 attempt to navigate the river. However, that did not stop them, or me, from continuing to the 4,000 Islands that began punctuating the Mekong some five kilometres upstream. A ferry ride to Don Khone Island led to a 100-year-old abandoned French locomotive, railway tracks, and bridge.

During my island-hopping expedition, I stopped at the thundering Li Phi Waterfalls, a series of rock-lined channels emptying into a sea of mist. Afterwards, I continued to Hang Khon Pier to inspect a 19th-century Japanese steam engine, with a three-storey pier and pulley system to haul ferries. From here, a boat ride puttered into calm waters

to observe rare Irrawaddy dolphins.Further north, the UNESCO World

Heritage Site of the pre-Angkor Vat Phou temple complex’s terraces, staircases, giant manmade ponds, and pillared Nandi Hall greeted me, as did the 5th-century walled city of Shresthapura’s water systems and marked road to Angkor.

Rather than overnight in the nearby town of Champasak, I stayed on Don Daeng Island, a retreat with shaded bicycle paths, where I pedalled to an ancient stupa and bedded down in a community lodge.

Once again time flew by, and it was time to head to the provincial capital, Pakse. The Bolaven Plateau’s towering waterfalls and elephant ride up Phou Asa Mountain would

Tourists relaxing on the banks of Nam Song River winding past the Karstic Mountains

Plain of Jars is believed to be a manmade phenomenon

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have to wait. So would the country’s Northern Heritage Route. Though I had already visited Luang Prabang and the Plain of Jars, Viengxay’s “Hidden City” in northeast Houaphanh Province has eluded me. The Lao revolutionary movement used this cave network as their headquarters and to shelter over 20,000 people during the Indochina War, and an 18-stop guided audio tour tells the tale of the “Birthplace of the Lao PDR”.

I bumped into Steven a while ago. The ADB had promoted him to their Philippine headquarters, but his heart and home remain in Laos. I asked him what roads were next on the agenda. “Keep your eye on Salavan province just north of Champasak,” he said. “You’ll experience a side of Laos few have ever seen.” Immediately I packed my bags. For more information, visit www.ecotourismlaos.com and the visitor information section at www.stdplaos.com/web-based.

SMOOTH AS SILKTHAI operates daily flights to Vientiane. For more information, please visit www.thaiairways.com

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