Laos gets more press

From the NY Times Travel Section...

Luther and I will have our very own report of floating through rural Laos in a couple weeks. We are flying to Phongsaly, hiring a boat and floating down the Nam Ou river for a couple days to Luang Prabang.

The Mysterious Mekong Starts to Reveal Itself

By JOSHUA KURLANTZICK

STEVE VAN BEEK, a 40-year veteran of expeditions in Asia, thought there were few places in the region he hadn't seen. But last year he found one. Running a kayaking trip down a tributary of the Mekong River in Laos, he says, he "walked through a cave straight out of Indiana Jones." Then, at the upper end of the cave, Mr. Van Beek and his clients exited into a valley and came upon an amazing sight - a series of ruined temples and homes, remains of a sizable ancient town.
"There was clearly a large civilization there," Mr. Van Beek said. But when he asked local residents about the site, he said, no one knew a thing about what had happened to the people who lived there.

This longtime river explorer isn't the only person making discoveries along Southeast Asia's main river and its largely uncharted tributaries. For years, tourists have gone to quaint cities along the Mekong, like Luang Prabang in Laos. But except for a short stretch north of Luang Prabang, traveling the river itself, which runs from China through Myanmar (formerly Burma) Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, was almost unheard of, and much of the 2,610-mile-long Mekong, home to some 1,200 species of fish, remained unknown.

Authorities in China and other countries made traveling the Mekong difficult by making visa formalities relatively complex, and few operators possessed the knowledge to navigate the river, which can quickly change from flat, chocolate stretches to whitewater, including the powerful Khone Falls in Cambodia.

In recent years, that has changed. China has allowed travel on the Mekong, and Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam also have made river touring easier. Several boutique travel operators have started running boat trips on the Mekong and its tributaries. International interest in river trips appears to be growing. A report by the Passenger Shipping Association showed that globally, river cruise bookings rose over 20 percent last year.

But there's another reason to boat these once-remote sections of the Mekong now: they might not be around forever. China has already built two dams on the upper part of the river and is considering building more and blasting out parts of the riverbed to make it more navigable, all of which could potentially harm the Mekong.

Like many Mekong boutique tour operators, Mr. Van Beek, who leads inflatable kayak trips, seeks out both scenery and culture. In the south of Laos, Mr. Van Beek paddles through Si Phan Don, a kind of inland delta - a stunning region of steep limestone gorges, rivulets and some 4,000 small islands in the churning river, where freshwater dolphins play on the banks.
In northern Laos, the river is more desolate, and travelers can go for hours without seeing anyone along the river's edge. The few villages seem to welcome Americans, even though residents have fashioned boats from old bombs dropped by American planes during the Vietnam War. In northern Laos, Mr. Van Beek teaches visitors about the daily routines of riverside communities - in the future, he plans to bring an anthropologist along to explain the ethnic groups.

Travelers are even invited to sacred rites. "We got into one village and they were burying a coffin in a traditional ritual," Mr. Van Beek said in a recent interview. "They're killing the pig and the blood is spurting everywhere - and you realize you're not watching this on Discovery Channel."

Nick Ascot, who runs a small tour company called North by Northeast that focuses on rural Laos and Thailand, also highlights disappearing cultures. Mr. Ascot's clients, who travel in traditional riverboats along a stretch of the Mekong in Laos, meet villagers and learn about traditional local rituals and skills.

"We emphasize areas of culture we feel are being either sacrificed or trod upon," Mr. Ascot said, adding that his clients "want to learn about and be in the culture."

For travelers who don't want to paddle, several cruise operators now offer trips on the Mekong. Pandaw Cruises operates replicas of colonial-era teak steamers, with diesel engines, on seven- and nine-night trips between Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and Siem Reap, Cambodia, the port closest to Angkor Wat, turning off the Mekong onto the Tonle River and Tonle Sap, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia.

These cruises ply a section of the Mekong that is more populated than that in Laos. Markets, houses and lavishly carved Khmer shrines dot the banks. Hordes of fishermen set enormous rattan traps, some as large as a house.

Pandaw combines the splendor of ocean cruising, including sizable staterooms, with the informality of trips like Mr. Ascot's, to create a blend it calls "expedition-style cruising." "Many of our travelers like to wander through the Cambodian towns," said Josef Schneckenreither, Pandaw's general manager. "But if they don't want to, they can stay on the boat and sip their gin and tonics all night."

Pandaw is on to a trend. Other travel operators, like the Asian Oasis Collection of East West Siam Ltd., have organized similarly lush trips. Asian Oasis also operates a teakwood cruise ship, complete with air-conditioned staterooms, French- and English-speaking guides, and a classy French restaurant, on Laos voyages to Si Phan Don and Wat Phou, a thousand-year-old temple whose carvings are tangled with thick jungle vines.

Farther south, several companies run two- and three-day trips through the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, a maze of small backwaters and canals. Among the area's highlights: At dawn, merchants paddle through picturesque floating markets in their long, wooden boats. Unlike in Thailand, where the few remaining floating bazaars are just tourist affairs, the delta has real working markets, seething with cargo ships and merchants haggling over jackfruit, lychees, sugar cane, and hundreds of other goods.

In perhaps the most ambitious Mekong cruise attempt, Impulse Tourism, an operator based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, is organizing an expedition starting in November in Jinghong, a small city in the Yunnan province in China. Traveling in inflatable boats about 25 feet long with rigid hulls, Impulse will go all the way to the Mekong Delta and back (going around Khone Falls on land), more than half the length of the river.

The landscape on the upper part of the Mekong is among the wildest, says Armin Schoch, head of Impulse, with serious white water and rock fields, and many gorgelike stretches. There are few villages along the river on the Chinese section, and local residents still use the river to transport wild game, like barking deer, a strange animal that resembles a cross between a deer and a dog.

Because of loosening travel restrictions, independent-minded tourists can even dispense with Mekong guides altogether and use local cargo boats or speedboats. Between Jinghong and the Chinese-Thai border, several cargo companies take on passengers. In Laos, cargo boats and speedboats travel frequently between Houayxay, in the north, and Luang Prabang.
In Cambodia, local cargo boats and speedboats travel between the capital, Phnom Penh, and the upriver city of Kratie. Boats also run between Phnom Penh and Tonle Sap. In Vietnam, local boats travel the river in the Mekong Delta.

The fast-boat option can be extremely dangerous, though. Some vertebrae-rattling speedboats travel over 40 miles an hour and take on too many passengers, putting them at constant risk of tipping. And as this reporter has found, their captains seem to enjoy playing chicken with the river's many boulder fields. Still, during high season, boat piers in towns like Jinghong can be packed with young foreigners bargaining with local captains for seats.

Some of these visitors probably go to the boat piers because they fear the river's pristine areas won't be around long. Conservationists argue that the Mekong dams, and other investment from China, could decimate the river, changing sediment and fish stocks and forcing local people to abandon fishing, taking their traditional cultures with them.

Already, observers see the damage of development, overfishing and other changes. Fishermen in several areas of the region complain of declining fish stocks, and unique Mekong species like Siamese crocodiles and giant catfish, which can grow to 600 pounds, are increasingly rare.
Sleepy towns in northern Thailand have been transformed into business hubs, and in Yunnan, the Chinese province abutting Southeast Asia, visitors swarm to ethnic minority theme parks, zoolike places where people from the Dai ethnic minority try to entertain gawking tourists from elsewhere in China.

Still, the Mekong has foiled commercialism in the past, and it may do so again, leaving the river to tourists. In the late 19th century, French colonialists thought they could harness the Mekong as a trade waterway, and even constructed a rail link in southern Laos, to move goods from train to boat.

But the white water, reefs and boulders ruined the colonists' hopes of cashing in, and many early explorers died on Mekong expeditions. Today, visitors can still see that old railway, near Si Phan Don. All that remains of the colonial powers' ambition is an old railroad engine, its body covered in rust.

If You Go
The ideal time to travel the Mekong is in early dry season, November to January, before the waters run low. This is also the coolest time of the year in Southeast Asia, though as a result air fare can be more expensive.

Visas are required to enter China and Vietnam, and while they can be obtained on arrival in some parts of Laos and Cambodia, it's best to do so beforehand if you plan to travel there by boat. Visas are not required for American tourists to Thailand. For more information, see the State Department's Web site, travel.state.gov.

Tour Operators
Pandaw Cruises, a British company, (44-20) 7252-6555, http://www.pandaw.com/, offers seven- and nine-night Mekong River cruises. Prices starts at $1,270 a person, double occupancy, at $1.84 to the pound.

Impulse Tourism in Chiang Mai, Thailand, (66-53) 351 475, plans a trip down the Mekong from Jinghong, China, to Vietnam's delta region, departing on Nov. 1. For details, including rates, call, (66-53) 351-475 or send an e-mail message to Armin Schoch at aschoch@loxinfo.co.th.
Steve Van Beek plans kayak trips in Laos, Vietnam and Thailand through April (rates were to be set last week). More information: http://www.stevevanbeek.com/ or from (66-2) 653-9712.
The Asian Oasis Collection of East West Siam Ltd. of Bangkok, (66-2) 651-9101, includes a two-day Mekong cruise in northern Laos, and three days to Wat Phou in southern Laos. For information, see http://www.mekongcruises.com/ or www.asian-oasis.com.

North by Northeast, (66-42) 513-572, http://www.thaitourism.com/, has trips on and near the Mekong in Laos that stress getting close to local culture. Rates for the Mekong trip start at $572 a person.

Haiwei Trails, a China-based travel company, (86-887) 828-9239, http://www.haiweitrails.com/, leads a four-wheel-drive trip to remote areas of Yunnan province near the Mekong. A 13-day trip near the Mekong starts at $2,102, at 1.84 to the British pound.

Delta Adventure Tours in Ho Chi Minh City, (84-8) 920-2112 and http://www.deltaadventuretours.com/, offers trips to the delta for one to three days; $10 to $30 each.
Local Boats

It can be difficult to reserve local cargo boats, ferries and speedboats; often, you just have to go to the local pier and bargain directly with the captain. The Thailand and Southeast Asia forums online at thorntree.lonelyplanet.com often contain updated information on local boats on the Mekong, from recent visitors. In some places - like Jinghong; Houayxay, Laos; Phnom Penh; and Ho Chi Minh City - many local guesthouses and hotels can arrange boat passage one or two days in advance.

If you are going to travel on cargo boats, speedboats or local ferries, negotiate the price in advance and have it written down. Also, take your own food and water, sun block, a raincoat and a tarp to protect your belongings - you'll be sitting out on the deck, and many boats don't have storage space for luggage.