Mekong Expeditions

Are you wanting to come to Laos but don’t know where to start? Like which guidebooks are best? Which towns and world heritage sites are out-and-out perfect for visiting? Which hotels have super locations and are user friendly? Maybe do something so unusual that it isn’t on the beaten track yet? And so on and so forth? I thought so. Why? Because Mekong Express browsers have been asking these questions ever since the website went online two years ago. However, there’s a difference between now and then. Instead of the occasional inquiry, the requests for help these days arrive around the clock.

Mekong Express has made it look easy to arrange travel itineraries in Laos. However, that isn’t the case, at least not from afar. Your messages and requests flow in. Then we have to resort to manual labor. Lots of it because investment in human resources in Laos, landlocked and closed to the world as it has been, is only beginning. Still, using what I call the "Lao system," there are ways to get on with things and move around nicely, comfortably. I’ve been living here almost eight years. Part of the charm of Laos is its old-fashioned way of doing business. Which is another way of saying that personal relationships are everything. At Mekong Explorations we’ve got connections everywhere.

In the main, the ubiquitous package tour is the way the Lao present Laos. Yet I’ve always detected a contradiction because the Lao themselves, despite appearances to the contrary, possess an independent streak. On the other hand, independent travelers drive nearly all of us people here from developed countries crazy. They soon discover that their freshly-minted guidebooks have left too much important stuff out. But this shouldn’t be a hurdle: I came to Asia when I was 20; there were no guidebooks then. As I see it, guidebooks have become unnecessary crutches. Besides, if everybody is doing that, do you want to do it too? (OK, maybe read them before you come but don’t put them in your bag.)

Speedboats are making waves on the Mekong. Accommodating 30+ people, boats have been built with junked airliner seats! However, you’re kidding yourself if you think this is the way to see the real Laos. The real Laos is slow. Is watching the rice grow. Is listening to the drip, drip, drip of monsoon rain trickling off coconut palms. Like wine, Laos isn’t there to be consumed in a hurry. It’s more like a treasure chest, or maybe even an antique music box, found in a distant relative’s attic. So distant that you forgot you were related!

What I suggest, for openers, is that you explore Mekong river towns. If you have time, from the border with China all the way to the Mekong Delta (this you could do over several vacations). Or boat along one of the remote tributaries of the Mekong, like from Stung Treng in Cambodia to the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Or, overland from Luang Prabang, drive parallel to the Nam Ou to Nam Bac, and then cross the mountain pass to Dien Bien Phu. For really dicey stuff, see the Ho Chi Minh Trail, especially on mountain ridges where it remains 100% canopied, and the CIA landing strips built throughout Laos during the Secret War. You can even stand at the base of far-off Phou Pha Thi, location of Lima Site 85, famous for being overrun by PAVN, crippling the ultra-secret United States TACAN installation on top. (Or hire a helicopter and walk on the almost 6,000-foot summit.)

Simply put, there’s an enormous amount of stuff to do but it’s only the easy, pre-packaged tour whatchamacallits that’s in the guidebooks. If you want to see the Laos that the Lao cherish because it’s theirs, contact me. Be original. Let me show you the Laos of legends that’s out there, and do it the way I call "Laos without guidebooks." Which gets us back to those relationships I was harking about in the beginning.