Laos: Bribes and bumpy roads

Editor's note: Vail resident Luc Pols is on a 10-week adventure in Southeast Asia, where he plans to raft the fabled Mekong River through Laos and Cambodia into Vietnam and on to the China Sea. Each week, he'll file a report of his travels and send them back to us along with photos of the journey.

Vientiane, LAOS - Vientiane, the capital of Laos, still has some French remnants, such as streets named "Rue" and "Boulevard," but at the same time the French must be really ticked off when they come to visit their forme colonies of Laos and Cambodia. Virtually no one speaks French anymore, so they must speak English if they want to be understood - and you know how the French like doing that. However, even more annoying to them is that the de facto currency in these old colonies is the U.S. dollar. They don't accept Euros, will take the local currency (sometimes you have to pay a premium!), but prefer and quote prices in dollars. You buy gas, the pump shows the amount in U.S. dollars etc. and it must drive the French absolutely up the wall.

Vientiane is OK, but nothing too exciting, and we start looking for a boat. Now, however, we cannot even charter one and we are stuck ... what to do? In the end we (have to) give in and book on the night bus to Pakse, close to the Cambodian border. Once there, Peter and I rent mopeds and and venture out into the countryside to see some outstanding waterfalls - about 30 and 90 km, respectively away - and even though I fall off the motorbike once, blow the front tire in a big hole in the road (no sign) and almost have a fatal encounter with a stubborn pig on the road, it is a great day with marvelous scenery and quaint villages.

We also visit the oldest temple in Laos near Champasak: Wat Phu. Our ferry accross the Mekong river consists of two small boats tied together with a couple of planks on top for us and the mopeds: not your most river-worthy mode of crossing, but we make it, even though Peter almost goes swimming in the Mekong, moped and all. This, however, is a story you can ask him about when you see him in Vail.

From Pakse we take a bus (yes, I know, still no boat) close to the border and a boat to Don Khong, an island in the Mekong. We spend two nights here (without Internet), before going into Cambodia. Just before the crossing we visit the magnificent Khon Phagheng waterfalls. These are only about 50 feet high, but over a 1 km wide, where the water cascades down with an incredible force. Absolutely great!

Now the boder crossing, which is a new one to me. After we come to the Laos border and are checked out of Laos (after paying a $1 bribe for "cancel stamp in passport"), we go back into Laos for about 15 km and then come to the "no man's land" zone between the two countries. Since it belongs to neither, nobody maintains the "road." It consists of a sand trail, barely wide enough for one car, with potholes that will swallow a Volkswagen. Bumped, bruised, shaken (but not stirred) and thoroughly confused (once again, kidnapping comes into our minds), a half-hour after leaving the Laos border we arrive at the Cambodian one. Here the bribes are slightly more substantial. Even though the visa clearly states $20, they demand $21 for, you guessed it, "put stamp in passport." Then the police or border patrol needs to check the visa just entere, and since there are two of them, their bribe is $2.

Our car then takes us to Stung Treng, about 20 km into Cambodia, where we take the ferry accross the Mekong into the town. We will stay the night and are determined to find a boat to get back on the river."