How Laos’ Vientiane and Luang Prabang offer a travel experience out of time, for now
Life moves slower in Laos, but the pace is quickening and the ‘land of a million elephants’ is increasingly in the clutches of nearby China
Colourful rectangular wooden boats carrying tourists chug along at a leisurely pace across the Mekong River.
The atmosphere is idyllic, disturbed only by the monotonous throbbing of the boats’ engines. Hills rise gently on both sides of the mighty river, water buffaloes grazing on the banks. A fisherman in a longboat casts his net, while the heat of the day slowly descends on Laos from the pale blue sky.
The cosy vessels are dubbed “slow boats” and the contrast to the speedboats that whizz along the canals in neighbouring Thailand could hardly be starker.
The name embodies the Laotian attitude to life: in Southeast Asia’s only landlocked country, taking it easy is a top priority.
“The wise do not hurry and those in a hurry are rarely wise,” says our tour guide, Kham Dee, citing an old Laotian proverb as he slowly steers the boat in the direction of the Pak Ou Caves, a famous cave temple containing nearly 6,000 Buddha statues.
