Laos Stories

All of my three years residency in Chiang Rai, Thailand, have been spent as a visa runner. It was the easiest option; get up one day every month, drive the eighty kilometres to Mae Sai, walk across the border, buy a few pirate CDs and DVDs, get another exemption stamp in the pass port and go home; doing the fortnight’s shopping at Big C on the way.

After one week in the south of Laos we left Don Khong with our big open pickup truck to Pakse to take there the VIP night bus to Vientiane.

For me it was more than 7 years ago that I was last in the country of the thousand elephants, the visa-runs to Vientiane not included. For one who has never been there first a small impression of this country that is land-locked by China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma.

When you walk towards the Mekong from central Vientiane at night you eventually cross Setthathirath Road, the last street before Fa Ngoum Road that runs along the river front. The river, the beautiful river, which the Lao claim that if you watch for long enough you will see the bodies of all your enemies drift by.