Along the Mekong from Laos to Cambodia 1: ”Alas, again at the Mekong!”

A splendid trip, but where is the meat to meet?

By Suzy Size

I was not sure whether or not I could get a visa on arrival at the Cambodian border coming from the great Mekong waterfalls in Laos. So I went from Nong Khai over the 1994 opened Friendship bridge to Vientiane. I have never seen as many people at this border crossing before. It took half an hour to pass Thai Immigration alone. I took a Tuk Tuk from the border to the Cambodian Embassy in Vientiane. If you apply for a visa in the morning it will be ready after 4 pm. I had a nice lunch with my friend Chris who had traveled the Mekong down from the Golden Triangle via Luang Prabang. I did that leg about 12 years ago so no need to repeat that this time around. After lunch we went to Bor Pen Nyang (never mind or mai pen rai in Lao) bar and restaurant for some more beers. If you have to go to boring Vientiane visit that really nice roof top open air bar with fantastic view over the Mekong. It is easy to find, just go to the Pink Pages on Sticky Rice Gay Asia based Gay Guide World and click through to their Website where they have a map on their “Contact us” section. Or, if you were a boy scout years back, just follow the river up stream from center town (fountain), you will find the place just besides the Inter Hotel. And, if I had been looking for meat, there it was. At least two waiters were of our kind and seemed to be interested in making more than eye contacts or conversation. But my friend Chris is straight and I had no time for fleshly things.

””Alas, again at the Mekong!” A famous Swiss writer wrote that first sentence in an article he wrote about his visit in Nong Khai almost twenty years ago. For years I have amused myself about that rather silly and pretentious exclamation that would become like a red thread in this Mekong tale. Whenever we reached the Mekong again I would bore poor Chris with an enthusiastic: ”Alas, again at the Mekong!” This happened when we reached Mukdahan next day. The brother of my boy friend drove us there via Udon Thani, Ban Chiang World Heritage Site (they have pottery there 5600 years old when we still were living on trees) and Sakhon Nakhon. In Mukdahan they built the second Tailand based bridge over the Mekong which opened only in January of this year (2007). It is an important link in the so called West East corridor which will one day connect Thailand through Laos right to port City Danang in Vietnam by road. The road on the Thai side is under construction but little happens right now on the Lao side. The bridge in Mukdahan is still very underused. There are buses about every hour that connect Mukdahan with its counterpart Savannakhet. And the Laos Visa is available on arrival for 35 $ (bring one foto).

Alas, again at the Mekong!” I had to say it again when we entered Savannakhet which is located on the banks of said river which is about 4500 kilometers long. We staid at the – surprise, surprise – Mekong Guest House which has a loud Karaoke bar (the hotel rooms are quiet) where girls can be picked up. Savannakhet is a nice little colonial city, but obviously still very poor. Many drunks hang around the banks of the Mekong drinking delicious Lao beer (try the dark beer). The restaurants near the river are infested by flies. A pretty kathoey (lady boy) works in one of them. The square around the catholic church reminds one of small cities in the South of France. We had a good dinner at one of the restaurants and then a beer at an open air Karaoke near the church.

The cute head waiter there spoke English quite well. Most certainly I could have picked him up. He had been in Bangkok before and had on that occasion danced at DJ Station which is after all the best known gay disco in Bangkok. But I was not in a sex mood and went to bed quite early. After all we were to take a bus ride to Pakxe early next morning.

It was a hell of a ride. The front windshield was broken and the lower ranking ever giggling assistant bus driver constantly attached more tape along the rifts during the trip. The ride was very inexpensive but not comfortable at all, an ethnic ride if you like, back to basics. No toilet and no air con on that bus, one could feel young again. It loaded new passengers all along the 220 kilometers drive which was not the problem. The problem was the age of the bus. Whenever the driver stopped to add a new passenger to the load he could not shift gears. First and second gears went relatively easy, but the third gear took always several attempts, producing very suspicious noises. If I had been in the position of that poor driver I would have given up my job long ago. But after about seven hours we reached Pakxe and I could bore Chris again with: ”Alas, again at the Mekong!”

Read more about the trip of Suzy Size down the Mekong through Laos and Cambodia and back to Pattaya, next week exclusively on Sticky Rice Gay Asia World Guide. Our heroine will take a boat trip next week from Pakxe to the mighty Mekong waterfalls.