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Laos

Mar
2004-09-14 15:43:01

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Walking into Laos
At the Chinese side of the border the doctor at the Health office looks at the forms we have just filled in and he points at Raymonds forehead with a white pen. It measures 32 degrees, that must be the cold sweat drops. Well, whatever is wrong with Raymonds body temperature, it can not be SARS causing it, which will give you a fever. And so the doctor stamps the form and we can go off to the Laos side of the border crossing.

We cycle three kilometres through no-mans land across the jungle. At the office, that must be the Laos border, we fill in some forms again. The health form asks us for an address where we can be found in the next 14 days, I guess this is the SARS incubation time. We fill in ‘hotel Vientiane’ which likely exists in Vientiane. Just before we are ready to cross the official borderline, an officer in the watch tower on the left starts screaming at us. Because we can not understand Lao, one of his watching colleagues from the office helps us out. ‘You must walk’ he says. ‘Till where!?!’ is our reply. We get of our bicycles and start walking. Five meters further down the road there is a line drawn across the road. On the left side of the road, exactly at the edge of the line, is a hand-written sign saying ‘STOP’, but we can only read it after we have crossed the line since it is facing in the opposite direction. We look back at the watch tower and scream ‘cycle?!’. It’s clear now, from here we may continue.

The village chief

In Luang Nam Tha we and Josh, an American we met yesterday evening, join an organised two day Kayak safari over the Nam tha river (http://www.wildside-laos.com). The river flows through an ancient rain forest and forms one of the many national parks in Laos with several minority villages along the river. Halfway the first day we visit a village where the Lanten minority group lives. First things first, ...