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Cycling in northern Thailand and Lao PDR

Sabaidee from the remnants of Lao

Agelasto
2004-05-18 20:33:47

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I'm emailing from Vieng Chan (romanized as Vientiane), a major outpost during the French occupation of Indochina and the present day capital of the Lao People's Democratic Republic. Lao (everyone drops the 's') is one of those countries - like China, Viet Nam and eastern Europe - in transition from communism to who knows what (not just capitalism). But the transformation I note here is different, for I am visiting not Lao but Backpacker Lao, a mecca for the young (not so young in my case) and shiftless (for that I plead guilty) set.

It's hard to come up with the precise i-word to describe the backpacker influence here - influx, incursion, invasion, inundation, inculcation, infestation, incineration perhaps make the point. I am talking about the northern half of the country; not having visited the south, I can't access the extent of the blight there.

From Chiang Khong, Thailand, a motorized canoe took me and bike into Lao, across the Mekong River which functions as border. I had purchased a US $13 ticket from a Thai guesthouse for a two day ferry trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, where I would begin my Lao cycling. The same ticket sells for about $8 in Lao, but mandatory insurance ups the price to about $11. The Lao agents for the Thai guesthouse where I had purchased the ticket wanted me to pay them an additional $10 for bike transport. International convention seems to be that push bikes are surcharged at about 20% of passenger fare, $2.50 which the boat captain later wanted and which I paid directly to him. Cyclists on another ferry reported that they successfully refused paying this fee; I suspect I could have done likewise.

Aboard the ferry foreign passengers were treated to a pre-launch scam. An entrepreneur was selling accident insurance policies to foreigners who had bought their tickets in Thailand, where mandatory insurance is either ...