Laos Highway up to the Border with China

Is that aj.D doing an interview in a hut in the middle of Laos? Why, yes. Let me tell you, it's hard to resist an invitation to go to the friendly and relaxed Laos when much of the transportation is paid for. A few weeks ago a friend and colleague ask me to go to Laos to help research the economic and social impact of the newly completed highway from China to the Mekong River across from Chiang Khong, Thailand. Other than to look pretty (ha ha), my job was to help with phrasing questions that would not scare people away from talking about sensitive topics. The others in our six person team had more essential roles and we had a Chinese and a Lao student who could help with language as well.

We started off the trip with a night in low key Chiang Rai, and went straight to the Night Bazaar, which I totally love. The next day we awoke to start our journey all the way to the Chinese border. Thanks to Pornsak getting us our own van we made it to Chiang Khong in no time through a scenic route I hadn't been on before. This was my second time to Chiang Khong, and I have to say I really enjoy being on the Mekong. The sign in the pic let us know we were at the GATE TO INDO - CHINA. From there we took a taxi boat across the mighty Mekong River to Hui Xai (or Bokeo).
Above is a view of the boats from the Thai side sporting the Thai flag, and below a view from the Lao side.
From Hui Xai Pornsak arranged a nice van to take us all the way up, stopping along the way to do interviews or explore things that were relevant to the research. It was really interesting to go on this kind of travel for me. It was great to talk to people about what was going on, and to see the Laos countryside, which is a riot of green--for the most part.
Unfortunately however, one of main impacts of the road was environmental. The construction of the highway was quite destructive to the surrounding area; mountains were blasted and basically all the trees near the highway were burned or cut down, as you can see from the picture. The Laos government basically gave the Chinese and Thai a free pass to do whatever they wanted. But the execution of the road reflects a flayed 'building'/'construction' mentality: build now, clean up later (if you clean up at all!). Sadly, in just a few months, the road is already deteriorating because of erosion and blasting. Who will fork out the money for the upkeep?

Clearly the road was not benefiting the Lao, at least not yet. And sadly most people along the road still have no power. Clearly the road was made to satisfy two immediate needs: for Thailand to get natural resources out of Loas, and for China to do the same, plus bring goods to sell to Thailand. In this regard, Laos is a mere truck stop. But they don't (or can't) charge very much tax for Thais and Chinese stopping in either. That said the road is more a potential for greater development, since there is basically no cars or trucks or anything else on the road! China especially is thinking big, way ahead into the future when trade might increase. Anyway, for now, the road is mainly enjoyed as a play ground for children and domestic animals. Let's see, among the animals we almost ran over were: ducks, chickens, a buffalo, cats, goats, and dogs (one poor thing got hit bad).
This is a picture from a Hui Xai market selling goods from China.

Finally, we made it to the three year old town of Boten on the Chinese border. We knew some of what to expect, but we were not prepared for what we found. Pressured by Chinese, the Laos government forcibly relocated all the villagers in Boten about 10 kilometers down the road to a 'New' Boten, leaving them with many unfulfilled promises of land to farm. We knew that Chinese investors with many connections had "bought" (leased for 99 years, renewable) several kilometers of land from a Lao official. From interviews we come to find out that the Lao official that sold it has disappeared off the face of planet, and the Chinese are basically running the show. There was not one Lao official, police or border guard anywhere. Ladies and gentleman, this place was quite strange. I would like to call it little Las Chigas. You know? like how Las Vegas first started, with one little casino that expanded. And with the same lack of regulation that Las Vegas began with. It's both illegal for Chinese and the Lao citizens to gamble, but hey! this place runs by it's own rules, obviously. We even saw several cars with Beijing license plates! It must be worth the trip if you get to gamble, eh? That, my friends, is a giant road trip.
The picture above gives a feel for the town: on the left is the huge casino, and the rest of the town is makeshift stores and food stalls. Below you can see the huge jail-like massage and brothel houses (the cream, orange, and white concrete buildings).
In little Las Chigas no one spoke anything but Chinese, all the shpokeepers were Chinese, and more, they took no currency but Chinese yuan. Yikes! All but one of us (thank goodness!) had yuan; we had baht, dollars, Lao kip, and euros ... all useless. Where the heck were we?! It seemed evident to us that in this strange and lawless place we see the workings of an unofficial colonialism that is emerging in parts of the Chinese border with Laos and Burma. (I may do a similar trip to Burma in the near future).

It goes without saying that there's not a whole lot to do in this town besides gambling, going for a 'massage' and other kinds of 'services.' And all of us have rarely been stared at so much: what the hell where we doing there if we didn't want any of these things, and further, why did we have to come this far out in the middle of nowhere to get it? We were out of there the next day.
One thing we did get to do was eat amazing and authentic Chinese food! Lucky for us, JN ordered some great fish and noodle dishes, Yunnanese style. It was the best Chinese food I have ever had, by far. So good! To pic shows the two fish dishes and noodles we had with some tasty and spicy dipping sauces. Yumm!

The trip was unconventional for a trip to Laos in my book (no temples!? no hiking or outdoors!? These things dominated my first trip to Laos with Silivren and Bjørnstjerne). Yet it turned out to be extremely fascinating, and it really helped me to understand the greater Mekong region better. The most fun was interviewing people, of course. We really got to know a little about the Lao way of live, and welcomed the general friendliness that Lao people are known for. Sabaidee!