Overland to Pak Mong/Nam Bac
Another scenic wonder brought to you by Laos

by Peter Kemp
Continued

Finally came a morning in January this year when Diethelm Travel sent a mini-van, driver and 25-year-old Vath (a very able English-speaking guide) to the Phou Vao in Luang Prabang. Traveling-companion John (55) and I (53) were picked up to traverse the most northern 112 kilometers of rebuilt Route 13. It turned out to be everything we expected, even more.

We took no guidebooks because this scenic wonder brought to us by Laos has not been written up yet. However, Vath informed us that Diethelm Travel has been averaging one or two trips per week to Pak Mong from Luang Prabang since the road opened last June.

"But how do tourists know they can make this trip?" I asked incredulously.

"They walk into our Luang Prabang office," said Vath, "see some scenic pictures on the wall, inquire where the unspoiled views are, and ask to be taken there. We've probably done it fifty times already. The excursion fee averages US$120 per mini-van, driver and guide."

We discovered not only were tourists being comfortably transported by Diethelm Travel, other tourists, especially backpacker-types, were jumping aboard local transportation. We passed them, and they passed us, going both directions--mostly European and Japanese, the former often coeds, the latter often collegiate males.

John and I knew how beautiful Indochina could be from time spent in a neighboring country three decades ago. But we have yet to reach our fill of natural Lao beauty. Thus we remained glued to the windows of the mini-van when we were not halting to take pictures and absorb the freshness and remoteness which Laos is famous for.

Two hours and 27.8 million Asian Development Bank (US) dollars later we arrived in Pak Mong, 13 North's junction with Chinese-built Route 1 from Muang Xai (Udomxai) to the west. Route 1 (you can see its concrete markers every kilometer) continues east from Pak Mong and connects with an unimproved road to Deo Tay Chang Pass (elevation 4,593 feet) on the Lao-Vietnamese border--Dien Bien Phu lies approximately 24 kilometers (15 miles) beyond. (By the way, there is a taxi stand in Pak Mong. It does a roaring east-west-south business with four full-time drivers. We saw no guesthouses, but there were several food stalls.)

The quarter-hour jaunt to Nam Bac to the immediate east was by hard-surface road but it was slower going--20 kilometers per hour instead of twice that speed (sometimes more) on 13 North. Nam Bac had guesthouses, roadhouses, tinkers, tailors and candle makers and many places to eat, plus a large market. One could make do there overnight easily.

Its first appearance, however, is deceptively small, its buildings being laid out on either side of narrow Route 1. What is not seen is the river (Bac) paralleling the road on the north. The space between the two overflows with coconut palms and mango trees, under which are one- and two-story frame houses sprinkled with some stone ones. (It was on the narrow, north-south dirt streets between such houses that we found the river, the bamboo bridge across it, and the completely overgrown--and therefore unusable--airstrip known as Lima Site 203. The airstrip was referred to a "Lima Site"--landing site--until the fall of the Royalist-Pathet Lao coalition government in 1975.)

John, I, Vath and our driver finished lunch by 1 o'clock. By the way, a good idea is to take some Western food from Luang Prabang if you prefer it, but the Vietnamese pho in Nam Bac was delicious, and there were an endless variety of locally grown vegetables thrown into the roadhouse salad. Beer, soft drinks and bottled water were available in ample supply. There is really no need worrying about becoming famished before beginning the drive back.

Vath's idea was to spend a greater amount of time taking photos on the return leg than done on the outward one. So we seldom stopped while headed northeast during the morning. However, skies can be unpredictable in this region, so it is best to take pictures whenever the light is adequate. For us there was unexpected light rain between Pak Mong and Nam Bac while we explored Lima Site 203 (elevation 1,148 feet) and ate lunch. At times the sun was hidden behind clouds during our estimated 2-hour return, which became more like 3 hours because there was so much breathtaking scenery to photograph as we returned to Luang Prabang.

From an anthropological point of view, the most interesting feature of making this trip was the unusual mixture of old and new settlements. Old ones are few, are well-shaded by statuesque trees, and have well-trodden paths down river banks where pencil-thin boats wait at moorings--inhabitants obviously prefer moving about by water. New villages are found perched on sides of roads because their inhabitants, having migrated from high elevations where there are no rivers, are dependent on roads for movement. These just-built houses are rather bright and shiny, their hand-woven wall mats, used to protect the occupants from natural elements, being so new.

As a rule Hmong houses sit on the ground but other minorities place houses on stilts. Being not a year old, few trees shade these humble dwellings. Old or new, villages are marked by freshly painted signs in Lao and English script. Smallish, secondhand pickups and flatbed trucks passed us whenever we stopped to snap pictures, proving the 21st century is not about to be curbed even in remote regions. Vehicular traffic between Luang Prabang and Pak Mong/Nam Bac dramatically shortens what used to take a whole day by boat in the rainy season, more than that in the dry.

Incidentally, we did not see one handicraft item to buy. Neither was film on sale. We suspect, however, that next year, which also happens to be "Visit Laos Year 1999," enterprising vendors will fill the vacuum. Therefore by all means travel this route while the last 112 kilometers of Route 13 North remains pristine--there are no gas stations, very few guard rails, almost no electric poles, not a telephone pole anywhere, and not one plastic bag trashes the landscape. In other words, it is pure Paul Bunyan country, the legendary figure who ruled between the winter of the blue snow and the spring that came up from China.